Fast, easy Hot Pot for One. Tender pork belly cooked in a delicious and savory katsuo dashi with napa cabbage and enoki mushrooms. Inspired by Midnight Diner Japanese drama.
The popular Japanese TV program called Shinya Shokudo (深夜食堂) or ’Midnight Diner: Tokyo Stories‘ is now available on Netflix. The show features Japanese dishes that are more representative of home cooked recipes than Japanese Restaurant menu items in the US.
Since the drama doesn’t provide detailed ingredients and step by step instructions, I started to share these copycat recipes on my blog. Today’s recipe is Hot Pot for One, the Japanese title forthis dish is Napa Cabbage and Pork Belly Hot Pot for One (白菜と豚バラの一人鍋).
Watch How To Make Hot Pot for One
Click here to watch on YouTube
Why do we need a Hot Pot for One
Although you can make this recipe into two or four servings easily, I thought of some situations that would be suitable for enjoy a hot pot for one:
- Comforting late night meal for someone working/studying hard (Otsukaresama! You did good today!).
- Quick and easy yet fancy lunch for stay-at-home moms/dads and people working from home (No more leftovers!).
- Nutritious and easy home-cooked dinner for singles (Ditch takeout tonight!).
- Light meal for someone under the weather (Get well soon…).
- Separate meal for an elder family member (Eat well and enjoy!).
- Or simply, a huge fan of Midnight Diner and want to eat like that (including myself!).
Other Ingredient Choices for Hot Pot for One
There are many other ingredients that you can substitute to use in this recipe:
- Mushrooms (shiitake, shimeji)
- Green vegetables (spinach, bok choy, cabbage, green beans)
- Root vegetables (carrots, turnips, gobo, daikon radish)
- Meat (sliced pork/beef)
- Seafood (white fish, shrimp, squid, crab, fish cakes)
- Noodles (udon, vermicelli, konnyaku, cellophane)
3 Reasons to Get Donabe (Japanese Earthenware Pot)
1. Good Heat Retention
Compared to metal pot, donabe increase the temperature of the pot slowly and gently. Once the temperature is optimal and heat is reduced, it retains the heat well. Other great use for donabe include cooking rice, as you can slowly cook the rice on lower heat and the rice will be cooked to perfection.
2. Beautiful Design
The donabe pot looks beautiful at the dining table when you cook hot pot.
3. DELICIOUS!
The food cooked in donabe is really delicious though I am not sure why. The delicate flavors for dishes like rice porridge (Okayu), hot pot, and Yudofu (hot tofu) are accentuated. There has been scientific studies done proving that using gentle heat to cook food in donabe brings out umami from the food (by measuring the amino acid amount).
You should also know Cons:
- Requires space to store
- Easy to chip
- Heavy
How To Season Donabe before Making Hot Pot for One
When you buy a donabe, you have to season it before you use it for the first time. Please read this post for the tutorial.
Now back to the dish itself, while preparing for the video shoot, it took very little time for me to gather all the ingredients. They are things I have readily in my fridge beside the katsuo dashi. If you never made katsuo dashi before, don’t worry, you’ll be surprised by how easy it is. The dashi is key to this dish so please do not skip. The umami from the katsuo dashi gets soaked up by during the cooking process (5 minutes) and it makes all the ingredients taste better.
We like to drizzle a bit of ponzu in our soup or on the side to dip the ingredients. How do you like your hot pot? Let me know in the comments below.
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Fast, easy Hot Pot for One. Tender pork belly cooked in a delicious and savory katsuo dashi with napa cabbage and enoki mushrooms. Inspired by Midnight Diner Japanese drama.
- 1 cup katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes) (10 g)
- 2 cups water (480 ml)
- 2 leaves napa cabbage
- 4 sliced pork belly (Skip for vegan/vegetarian)
- 2 oz medium-firm tofu (60 g)
- 2 oz enoki mushrooms (¼ pkg enoki or 60 g)
- 2 tsp sake
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Gather all the ingredients.
- Boil water in a medium saucepan. When boiling, add katsuobushi.
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Cook for 15 seconds. Turn off the heat and let the katsuobushi infused for 15 minutes. Strain the katsuobushi and set aside.
- Cut the napa cabbage into smaller pieces.
- Cut and discard the bottom of enoki mushrooms. Cut the tofu into smaller ½” slices. Cut the pork belly slices into halves or thirds.
- Place the ingredients in the donabe (earthenware pot) and pack nicely. Pour Katsuo Dashi and sake.
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Cover the lid and bring to simmer. Skim the foam and scrum with a fine mesh skimmer. Cook for 5 minutes and serve immediately with Ponzu and Shichimi Togarashi.
Recipe by Namiko Chen of Just One Cookbook. All images and content on this site are copyright protected. Please do not use my images without my permission. If you’d like to share this recipe on your site, please re-write the recipe and link to this post as the original source. Thank you.
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I love this series! You are a genius. Thank you. 🙂
Thank you Dilcia! Hope you enjoy cooking recipes from the show! 🙂
Thank you for doing this! I love this series as well and I was curious about how to make this particular dish since it’s just for one rather than the standard 4-6. 🙂 Have you seen the other seasons of Midnight Diner (aired in Japan)? I hope you’ll have a chance to do more recipes based on the show.
Hi Anne! I have a few recipes left to cover from Season 1 on Netflix (actual Season 3 of the show), and see if Netflix is going to release the new season. If not, I have to figure out how to find the shows elsewhere. It’ll be difficult for others to connect when they can’t watch the show, so that will be a drawback. I was very thankful for Netflix to feature this drama and really hope they will continue sharing more seasons!
Hello Nami
Recently i cooked miso salmon, tonjiru n ginger rice using all your recipes.They turned out v nice
I marinated d salmon for 1 hr only.It’s
just nice n d soup goes v well with gobo.However d rice was not so flavorful.Maybe because i didn’t add the aburrage.
Thank you for your recipes.
Tina
Hi Tina! I’m so happy to hear you enjoy my recipes. They are out favorite as well. 🙂 Tonjiru is my favorite miso soup. I can drink it every night if I can! Regarding the ginger rice, aburaage is deep fried tofu and that deep fry flavor gives the rice good flavor. However, some JOC readers tried them without it and still enjoy this recipe, so it could be preference as well. Maybe season it a bit so you can get good flavor out of it. 🙂
This is a very easy recipe to make for one person (or more). The combinations of vegetables and meats are unlimited. You cannot go wrong with this recipe no matter how hard you try.
I don’t have a Japanese donabe but I use a similar earthenware pot. It is a Korean earthenware pot called Ddukbaegi stone bowl. It performs the same job in keeping the soup mixture warm for a long time.
In my household, I have homemade dashi always prepared well in advance. I make a gallon of this heavenly broth at a time. As for the meat, I usually like to use shabu-shabu meat, thinly shaved.
By increasing the quantities, this recipe could serve an entire family.
Many thanks to Nami for posting the lovely recipes.
Hi Steve! Yes indeed! It can be one or many and I totally agree with you on variations of this hot pot.
Ohhh you have a nice Korean stone bowl! I have one (just one…) too! I haven’t used it as much but it’s time to take it out.
It’s so nice to hear that you make homemade dashi ready to go all the time. As dashi powder is easily available I strongly believe in homemade dashi (or good dashi packet) as dashi is really the key for the main flavors of Japanese food. 🙂
Thank you for your kind feedback and comment, Steve!
For the dashi, I been using either “Hokkaido Ma-Kombu” and/or “Hokkaido Rishiri Kombu.” As for the katsuobushi, I use the widest shaved flakes so the broth can absorb the maximum umami. Both these products I have them imported directly from Japan.
A year ago, as I was browsing through your recipes, an ad for Nihon Ichiban attracted my attention. I have since then bought two times from them and I am very pleased with their service and the quality of their products.
You and I know that good food starts with quality ingredients. Believe me, the Ma-Kombu really enhances the dashi. It goes miles ahead of the Korean and Chinese Kombu.
Hi Steve! Wonderful to hear you get kombu from Nihon Ichiban! I bring back kombu from Japan too. We get really good kombu from our Hokkaido friend. It makes amazing broth! Thanks so much for your comment!
Can I use kombu dashi instead?
I keep kosher and I can’t get kosher katsuobushi. Thanks. (I’d sub beef for the pork but this is more of a challenge. Thanks!
Hi Shoshana! Yes, you can use kombu dashi.:) Hope you enjoy!
Hi Gem! Oh yes, this will be a nice dinner for you, and you can make Katsuo Dashi in a big batch and keep in the fridge for a week. I’ll try my best to share more easy recipes. 🙂 . Good luck with your new job!
Loving the series, this nabe is great for the cold weather we’re getting in Toronto these days
Hi Diana! Hope you enjoy this dish! It’s quick and easy, and hopefully it will warm you up nicely. 🙂
I really loved that Netflix series. I am so happy you have tried to recreate these dishes period I am going to try this one pot dish but plan to use Sukiyaki Cut Beef instead of pork belly period I am sure it will be just as good:-)
Hi Mary! That sounds good too! I enjoyed re-creating the recipes from the show, and I look forward to sharing them! 🙂 Stay tuned!
I’m watching the series for a 2nd time, hoping for a new season soon. Just made Hot Pot for One for lunch using kombu dashi, katsuo dashi and shitake dashi with sweet potato, snap peas, pork belly, enoki, tofu and mini tatsoi – delicious!
Hi Thomas! Haha you’re watching for a 2nd time! I watch each video 2 times too, just to make sure I am re-creating the dish correctly. xD We can’t wait for a new season too, hopefully they will share it! Your hot pot for one sounds PERFECT!!!
I just made this and am eating it now. It’s lovely, such clean flavours. Thank you for the recipe.
Hi Caroline! So happy to hear you enjoyed this recipe! Thank you!!!
Apologies if this sounds silly, but when do you wash the cabbage – before or after cutting? Thanks.
No question is silly. 🙂 It depends, but in this recipe, I tear the leaves first (you can use a knife to score to take off leaves nicely), then rinse. I don’t chop and wash because vitamins go away from cut edge. 🙂
Hello Nami,
Just wondering, what’s the capacity of the donabe you are using? Is it 1 litre? I am interested in getting a donabe but not sure what’s a suitable size for a one-person hotpot. Thanks!
Hi Bernice! This one is a single serving hot pot, and I just measured it.
6.5 inches (16.5 cm) diameter and holds 2 cups (500 ml). 🙂
Konnichiwa!
I love tour websit and your clear and simple way of cooking instructions! Wonderful!
Thank you so much! And yes, I love that tv drama as well! There is also another drama you may like, I love it, called Wakakozake. I can recommend this drama too!
I am a huge fan of miso soup and hot pots! Only when I’m making dashi, I prepare it in a different way and takes me 6 hours hahahaha. I strain dashi for 3 times and never mix. Keep all dashi separated until I use for cooking.
I have 2 questions about this hot pot,
1. What is that cooking devise you use for the hot pot and where can you buy one?
2. What is a good site to buy this hot pot?
Again, arigato for sharing all this good food with the world!!!
Niels.
Konnichiwa Niels! Thank you for reading my blog and for your kind words.
I didn’t know about the drama Wakakozake, so thanks for introducing!
Whoa you’re serious dashi maker. 😀 Here are my answers.
It’s called Donabe 土鍋. You can purchase it on Amazon, Japanese grocery stores (which I got mine from), or this Japanese person in LA sells high end donabe.
https://toirokitchen.com/ (she has donabe recipe cookbook as well)
Hope that helps! 🙂
Thank you very much Nami!!!
Your answers are really helpful!!!
But I am afraid a lot from Amazon will not ship goods to Holland.
But I will make contact with toirokitchen.com. A great site too!
The device I mention was the burner you use for the hot pot and I found that by spending half a day searching hahahaha. And that cooking device we have here in Holland! Wohooo ???? (Maybe slightly different from Japan, but that’s oke I think…hope)
Wakakozake drama I found on Chrunchyroll a site for Anime and of course drama. I don’t know if you can find this drama somewhere else. It’s about a girl who loves to drink, like sake and eating. So her search for drinks fitting with the food and otherwise makes a wonderful drama. It is copied from an anime with the same name, I think. But really great too.
Ah yes, when it comes to something so old and authentic,healthy and spirit and taste uplifting as dashi…I do my best to make time and effort to make good balanced food. To separately prepare different dashi it’s more easy to figure out what combination (or just 1 kind) dashi fits best for mood, taste, day, season, etc.. I try to learn also as much as I can from Japanese cooking. I really love it! Thinking of that makes me want to buy a ticket to Japan immediately ????
But for now I will search on your site and enjoy your hard work and research on this wonderful and delicious food!
Again thank you very much!
I was actually thinking if you asked me about the portable burner, but I wasn’t sure. Glad you found it. The one I have is gas burner. There are lots of electric one, but I like cooking on gas stove to control the heat. 🙂
So happy and inspiring to know that you’re cooking Japanese food in Holland!
Thank you Nami for this wonderful and easy recipe. I use my hotpot at home and scale the ingredients up to feed my family. It is fast, delicious, light, but surprisingly filling. Perfect for a quick lunch or as a base for dinner after a long day. I was afraid my 3 young boys would find the mostly vegetable soup insufficient as a meal, but they love it. I do add a small amount of rice noodles to the broth to cook after scooping out the ingredients to make it more of a full meal in a bowel for my kids, but not for me. Thanks again.
Hi Grace! Yeah this hot pot is very easy to prepare as it only includes a few ingredients compared to shabu shabu etc. It’s great idea to add carbs at the end (we add udon or rice). 🙂 Thanks so much for your kind feedback! xo
My husband and I had just finished watching Midnight Diner and this was one of the dishes we were excited to make ourselves. I love that the recipe is so simple to make. Thanks for the recipe (and the others as well!).
Now I just need to visit the Japanese store in our area to buy a donabe for two. 🙂
HI Hazel! I’m so happy to hear you are watching Midnight Diner as well! Hope you can find a good size donabe for you two! I have more Midnight DIner recipes coming, I hope you enjoy them!
I actually couldn’t wait until the weekend to buy a donabe and try it out, so I cooked some nabe for myself in a small pot. Sooo good! I even made some ponzu sauce based on your recipe too. 😀
Gonna try making the tanmen next time. 😀
Hi Hazel! So happy to hear you enjoyed it! You made ponzu too! 😀 Hope you will enjoy Tan-men too! 🙂
Would you recommend pre-cooking the diakon for this dish since it’s cooking time is much longer? Thanks!
Hi Zev! Are you replacing the meat or napa cabbage or additionally adding it? IF you use a peeler and thinly peel the daikon, no need to pre-cook. If you can shave thinly slice with a knife, I think it’ll be ok. But if you can only cut into a slab… hmmm maybe? I recommend the peeler method. 🙂
Thank you for this recipe and opening the door to the world of Donabe cooking for me. I got mine a week ago and coked this dish tonight. It was everything that I was hoping for: simple, healthy, fresh, clean. I can’t wait to explore more recipes to do with this donabe. Thanks for the blog, really enjoy your work and your approach to cooking.
Hi Xavier! I’m so happy to hear that you enjoyed this recipe! It’s fun making hot pot. It’s easy to prepare (mostly chopping ingredients), lots of veggies, not so oily… and it’s comforting. We had hot pot last night and tonight we’re having different kind as well. 😀 Thank you for your kind comment!
Hello! I just seasoned my nabe pot and tomorrow I’ll be attempting to cook with it!
Just a question – is it possible to substitute the dashi for konbu broth?
Thank you!
Hi Elena! Yes, you can use kombu dashi instead. Hope you enjoy the recipe! 🙂
Hi Namiko,
Is there a reason why your 1 cup measurement is 480ml? Cos this feels like a lot for 1 cup, US measurement.
Thank you
Hi Vi! I apologize for the typo, it should be (2 cups = 480 ml). I removed the confusing “2 cups =” part from the recipe. Thanks so much for letting me know.
Hello Nami! Have you seen the second season of “Midnight Diner” on Netflix? I’ve started watching it and thought about you trying to recreate some of Master’s dishes!
Hi Donna! Yes! We’re watching now and will start filming the recipes from the show soon! 😀 Hope all is well with you!
Looking forward to that! 😉
This is my go-to breakfast/lunch. Whatever piques my interest that day goes in the pot. The only difference is I don’t use any tofu. Leftover meat/poultry/fish is just fine. Frozen gyoza works. Instead of Napa cabbage, kimchi for a kick. Bored with just dashi – add miso.
But I always have a carrot in the mix.
The only downside is the donabe retains heat so well that you have to eat slowly to avoid scorching your tongue & palette.
So versatile a recipe it is.
As always, a pleasure to peruse your site.
Hi Al! Thank you so much for your kind words. I’m so happy to hear you like recipes from my site. 🙂 You can have a bowl too, to take out the food temporary before dipping. That’s what I usually do… I also can’t eat super hot food. 😀
Hello Nami! May I asked what size donabe is this? For one person? There are so many sizes available, and I get confused. Thank you! 🙂
Hi Ra! I recommend a 12 inch (30 cm) donabe for 4 servings. The single pot (1 serving) diameter is 6.5 inches (16.5cm) and can hold 2 cups (500 ml).
Hello
Have been making many of your recipes during this lockdown period. Thank you for your generosity in sharing your knowledge – it’s made Japanese food my new go to food choice (esp as a single person meal) and I’ve been telling friends to use this blog. I have a question on the an alternative if you don’t have a donabe – what do you suggest?
Hi Bernice! Thank you so much for recommending my site to your friends! You’re so kind!! If you don’t have a donabe, you can use a regular pot. If you use a heavy bottom pot, the heat goes around equally so that’s a plus, but if you don’t have it, just use a regular pot that fits ingredients. We Japanese think donabe makes it tastier and also retains heat well even though you turn off the heat and bring it to the table, etc. 🙂
I like to add in cloud-ear fungus,** preferably fresh stuff, in addition to the enoki mushrooms. In my view the enoki mushrooms are an essential part of this dish, really, in order to maintain the “clarity” and clean-ness of the recipe. Even bunapi-shimeji is not as preferred, even if that would be OK if enoki mushrooms are not on hand and one has a hankering for this soup.
Other substitutions I’ve used include fuzzy squash in place of the hakusai. Works well.
** NOT wood-ear fungus, which is coarser than is desired IMO in this delicate soup.
Hi Huiray! Thank you so much for sharing your detailed feedback and cooking experience! 🙂
Thanks for the kind words.
I’ve made other recipes from Japanese cooking dramas including this one as well as from Kodoku no Gurume. 🙂
What about recipes from the original Shinya Shokudo? What you post here are recipes from Midnight Diner: Tokyo Stories, which is really seasons 4 & 5 of Shinya Shokudo. I saw the original seasons 1-3 elsewhere, but they have recently been “cleaned up” and added on to Netflix, just in case you missed this new addition to their catalog. 🙂 One of my favorites from the original seasons is menchi katsu (original season 3 episode 1), for which I use your recipe on this site. Nice one!
One of the simplest and most attractive (to me) recipes from Kodoku no Gurume was/is “patan”, from that episode where Goro ended up in that Chinese-owned & operated “pork everything” restaurant in Yokohama (Season 3 episode 2). It’s a kicker of a dish, and simple in the extreme. After eating one, no vampires would dare approach you. Heh. Just visual observation enables one to make the dish. I do change it slightly in that I mix my chopped garlic (LOTS and LOTS of it, more than shown in the show) with the sesame oil then zap it in the microwave for 20 seconds – this mellows it out a bit – then toss it with rinsed & drained fresh yakisoba with a splash of soy sauce & top with chopped scallions. That’s it, that’s the entire dish. 🙂
Well, I just rewatched KnG S3E2…and besides the “patan” I was left LONGING for the wonderful pork innard dishes shown on the show and on the restaurant’s menu. 😀 Pork stomach, pork uterus, pork intestines, pork this-and-that, etc etc etc. Haven’t had those in a while, should get to creating them to be enjoyed again.
And the “patan” – heh, I just started peeling a couple heads of garlic to make a big “patan” dish for dinner. 🙂
One of the other “food items” in that same episode of “Midnight Diner: Tokyo Stories” from which the Hot Pot for One dish comes from [season 1 episode 7; which corresponds to season 4 episode 7 or episode 47 overall of Shinya Shokudo] is where the woman protagonist is urging her good-for-nothing nephew to have some of the croquettes she had just got, when she come upon and recognizes Chu, her former schoolmate, one of the regulars in the diner. These croquettes, a Japanese take on the food item, intrigued me – and was a reminder of their appearance here and there on the show in other episodes as well. You should draw people’s attention to this (and others) as well. 🙂
KOROKKE, that’s what they presumably are. I’ve made them and loved them. I used your recipe for them, thanks very much. To other folks reading, this is:
https://www.justonecookbook.com/korokke-croquette/
Hi Huiray! Thank you so much for all the feedback! 🙂 I’ll try to add more MD recipes in the future, but I haven’t had much time to watch… we’ll have unlimited recipes to share in the future!