← Nouns Cooking · Japanese

Ingredients

• 1 napa cabbage (about 1.5 kg)
• 600 g thinly sliced pork belly
• 4 cm piece Ginger, peeled and thinly sliced
• 1.2 l Dashi powder or stock
• 2 tbsp Sake
• 1 tbsp Soy sauce
• ½ tsp Salt
• 120 ml ponzu, to dip
• 2 Spring onion, finely sliced
• shichimi togarashi, to serve (optional)

Method

1. Separate the cabbage leaves and rinse them. Pat dry.
2. Build stacks: a cabbage leaf, a layer of pork, another leaf, more pork, until you have 3–4 leaves in each stack, finishing with cabbage. Repeat with the rest.
3. Cut each stack crosswise into 5 cm lengths.
4. Stand the pieces on their sides in a wide pot or donabe, packing them tightly in circles from the outside in so the layers show. Fill the centre and any gaps with the smaller pieces, and tuck in the ginger slices.
5. Mix the dashi, sake, soy sauce and salt and pour it in. Cover and bring to the boil over medium heat, then simmer for 12–15 min until the pork is cooked through and the cabbage is tender.
6. Bring the pot to the table and serve with ponzu, spring onion and shichimi for dipping.

Tips

• Pack the pot really tightly; the cabbage shrinks a lot as it cooks.
• Add udon or cooked rice and an egg to the leftover broth to finish the meal.

Sources

Written in our own words after cross-checking these recipes:

Just One Cookbook Japanese Cooking 101