Hot Pot for One is a fast, easy, and comforting meal to make at home. My recipe features tender pork belly simmered in a delicious and savory dashi stock with napa cabbage and enoki mushrooms. Inspired by the Japanese drama Midnight Diner.
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 for this dish is Napa Cabbage and Pork Belly Hot Pot for One (白菜と豚バラの一人鍋).
Why We Should Make 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 enjoying 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!).
Ingredient Choices for Hot Pot for One
There are many ingredients that you can use in this recipe:
- Meat (sliced pork/beef, chicken)
- Seafood (white fish, shrimp, squid, crab, clams, fish cakes)
- Tofu
- Leafy vegetables (napa cabbage, spinach, bok choy)
- Root vegetables (carrots, turnips, gobo, daikon radish)
- Mushrooms (shiitake, shimeji)
- Noodles (udon, vermicelli, konnyaku, cellophane)
3 Reasons to Get A Donabe (Japanese Earthenware Pot)
1. Good heat retention
Compared to the metal pot, donabe increases the temperature of the pot slowly and gently. Once the temperature is optimal and heat is reduced, it retains the heat well. Other great uses 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. Looks 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 First Use
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.
Enjoy Hot Pot For One!
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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Hot Pot for One
Video
Ingredients
For the Katsuo Dashi
- 2 cups water
- 1 cup katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes) (for vegan/vegetarian, make Vegan Dashi)
For the Hot Pot
- 2 leaves napa cabbage
- 4 slices pork belly (skip for vegan/vegetarian)
- 2 oz medium-firm tofu (momen dofu)
- 2 oz enoki mushrooms (¼ package)
- 2 tsp sake
Instructions
- Gather all the ingredients.
To Make the Katsuo Dashi (Use Kombu Dashi for Vegan)
- Boil 2 cups water in a medium saucepan. When boiling, add 1 cup katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes).
- Cook for 15 seconds. Turn off the heat and let the katsuobushi infuse for 15 minutes. Strain the katsuobushi and repurpose it for another use. Set aside the Katsuo Dashi.
To Make the Hot Pot
- Cut 2 leaves napa cabbage into smaller pieces.
- Cut and discard the bottom of 2 oz enoki mushrooms. Cut 2 oz medium-firm tofu (momen dofu) into smaller ½-inch (1.3-cm) slices. Cut 4 slices pork belly in half or thirds.
- Place the ingredients in the donabe (earthenware pot) and pack nicely. Pour in the Katsuo Dashi and 2 tsp sake.
- Cover the lid and bring it to a simmer. Skim the foam and scum with a fine-mesh skimmer. Cook for 5 minutes and serve immediately with ponzu for dipping and shichimi togarashi (Japanese seven spice) if you like a spicy kick.
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. 🙂
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! 🙂
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
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!
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). 🙂
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. 🙂
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!!!
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 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!
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. 🙂
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!
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!
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. 🙂
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!
Hi! Just wanted to let you know the seasons of the original run are on Netflix now. They are known as “Midnight Diner” while the new ones are “Midnight Diner: Tokyo Stories”. I hope you cover some of the food in those stories too!
Hi Nessa!
Thank you very much for letting us know!
Yes! We’ll be working on those recipes as well. Please stay tuned!😊
I love this series! You are a genius. Thank you. 🙂
Thank you Dilcia! Hope you enjoy cooking recipes from the show! 🙂