The weather is starting to get colder, which means soups and stews will start gracing dinner tables soon.

Soups and stews are fine, but there are some cold weather dishes that absolutely get slept on. One of those dishes is hot pot. Sure, a person can go to Sweetwater County’s only hot pot restaurant and enjoy a meal there, but it’s a dish that can easily be enjoyed at home. All a person needs is a pot of broth, some sliced meats and veggies. While it can be fun to replicate the experience using an electric skillet or, if you’re feeling fancy, a segmented electric hot pot that you can find online, those tools aren’t needed. You can enjoy a home cooking style of hot pot using pots already on hand on practically every kitchen.

Mille Feuille Hot Pot

This week’s recipe is somewhat unique as it comes from Japan but bears the name of a French pastry. Mille Feuille (thousand leaves, pronounced “meal foy-uh”) is a desert that consists of multiple layers of thin pastry separated by layers of cream or fruit. This dish replicates the appearance of the dessert using napa cabbage with thin slices of beef or pork belly placed between the leaves. The cabbage and meat are arranged in the pot and any space left over towards the center makes a good place to add additional vegetables. It may sound complicated, but the whole thing is quite simple and once cooked, the simmered vegetables and meat come out to be very flavorful.

What you’ll need:

• 1 napa cabbage
• 1 1/2 pounds of shaved beef steak or pork belly (Note: I used the package of shaved steak sold at Smith’s)
• Assorted, sliced vegetables (I used 2 heads of baby bok choy, roughly 1 cup of halved baby potatoes, roughly 1 cup of broccoli florets, and four green onions cut in 1-inch lengths, but I was also using a rather large pan and had some space to fill)
• 1 32 oz. carton of beef broth
• 2 tablespoons of soy sauce
• 1/3 cup of sake
• 1 tablespoon of minced garlic
• 2 teaspoons ginger powder
• 1 tablespoon of salt

Starting with the broth, combine the beef broth, sake, minced garlic, salt, ginger powder and soy sauce into a saucepan. Cover and let it simmer over medium heat.

Quarter the napa cabbage lengthways without removing the core, then wash the leaves in cool water. Take each quarter of cabbage and place the meat between the leaves, if you have leftover meat, add additional slices to the outer layers of the cabbage, where the leaves are largest. Take each quarter of cabbage and slide the core off, then slicing each quarter into four segments. Place the thicker cabbage leaves near the edge of a sauté pan or second saucepan and place the tender leaves near the center. If you space left over in the pan, add additional vegetables in the center and pack everything in tightly. Pour the broth over the vegetables and bring it to a boil. Once boiling reduce the heat to medium low, then cover and cook until the vegetables are tender and the meat is cooked through — about 10-13 minutes.