Bethany’s Mille-Feuille Nabe

Serves: 1-3…if you’re hungry enough

Last quarter, I tried napa cabbage for the first time (I know, I know), and I immediately fell in love (on sale for 0.99/lb @ jewel). It’s nothing crazy; it’s really just a specific combo of ingredients for hot pot, but it’s nutritious, balanced, and so warming. I’m gonna be honest, I’m not completely sure where to get thinly sliced meat in Evanston, but I heard you can just ask the butcher at any grocery store to do that.

You can use whatever soup base you want, but I do a dashima broth. The meat can make the soup oily, so something cleaner might be ideal.

Ingredients

Dashima Soup Base

• 3 large dried anchovies, gutted and heads removed
• a couple small sheets of dashima
• 4 cups of cold water
• soup soy sauce
• half an onion (optional)
• a garlic clove (optional)
• a little bit of ginger (optional) Or just use a soup coin/bag.

Mille-Feuille Nabe

• napa cabbage quarter, leaves separated and washed
• thinly sliced protein (i.e. beef ribeye, pork, mushroom, tofu)
• thinly sliced vegetables (optional)
• one pack of udon noodles (optional)
• literally whatever else you want

Dipping Sauce

• soy sauce
• rice vinegar But also like whatever you want

Instructions

1. Start your soup base. Keep warm.
2. Assembling the mille-feuille element is really easy. Start with the largest leaf of cabbage. Then, add a thin layer of protein. If you have multiple thin ingredients, you can alternate between layer fillings. Go from the largest leaf to the smallest.
3. Once you run out of protein or decide you have assembled enough, finish the stack off with a leaf.
4. Flip the mille-feuille so that the largest leaf is on top, and cut the mille-feuille into thirds. I guess this isn’t super necessary. You could cut with scissors later.
5. Transfer the broth into a measuring glass or some other vessel.
6. Place the mille-feuille in the pot and make it look pretty. If you have any other ingredients you want to add, you can make a little hollow with the mille-feuille and put it in there. You don’t really want to put stuff on top because you want everything to be submerged when we cook it.
7. Pour the soup back in so everything is covered.
8. Set to medium and cover.
9. Check periodically—you’re done when the meat is cooked.
10. In the mean time, make your sauce. I just do soy sauce and a splash of rice vinegar.
11. Serve!
12. BONUS: now that you have served everything, put your udon noodles in. You always put starches in last because they suck up the broth.

Dashima Soup Base

1. Put cold water in a pot (about the size you’d use for instant ramen). and soak dashima in for ~20 minutes.
2. Add anchovies and put on medium-low heat. Add garlic, onion, and ginger if you’d like. Remove dashima just as it starts boiling. You should begin assembling the mille-feuille while you wait for the soup to boil.
3. Remove anchovies and aromatics after 10 minutes or so.
4. Add a splash of soup soy sauce to taste.
5. If you’re not making this right now, set aside in a jar or something. You can save this soup for later! Next time you won’t have to make the broth again! Otherwise, keep the broth on low just so it stays warm.

Enjoy!

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