Mille Feuille Nabe borrows from French pastry and Japanese stew. Mille Feuille is a french pastry that has layers of razor-thin puff pastry and cream filling, while ‘Nabe’ is Japanese hot pot. The two terms perfectly describe this hot-pot.
It is a hot pot layered with stacks of fresh cabbage, perilla leaves and mushrooms. I first saw this recipe on a Korean celebrity chef TV show and I was amazed by how beautiful it was – looked like an art piece.
Mille Feuille Nabe is a perfect dish for a special occasion. The hot-pot is healthy, light on the stomach and fun to eat. The down-side is that it may require a visit to the Korean (or Asian Mart) for some of the ingredients.
For the stock, we will be using an anchovy-kelp base. Don't worry - the broth doesn't taste fishy at all. Smell as the broth simmers and gets infused with the natural flavors of each vegetables.

Mille Feuille Nabe - Beautiful Japanese Hot Pot
Ingredients
- Napa cabbage - 15 leaves
- Shabu Shabu Beef - 300 grams
- Perilla leaves - 100 grams
- Bok choy - 200 grams
- Enoki mushrooms - 50 grams
- Shiitake mushrooms - 3 save stems for broth
Broth
- Dried anchovies - 10
- Dashima - iPhone-sized piece
- Korean Radish - 50 grams optional
- Shiitake mushroom stems - 3
- Water - 6 cups
- Soy sauce - ½ teaspoon use soup soy sauce if you have
- Salt - ½ teaspoon
Dipping Sauce
- Soy sauce - 2 Tablespoon
- Vinegar - 1 Tablespoon
- Cooking wine - 1 Tablespoon
- Honey - 1 Tablespoon
Instructions
Make Veggie Stacks
- Start with a cabbage leaf. Place two pieces of perilla leaves on top of the cabbage leaf. Then place two beef slices on top. Put another piece of cabbage leaf on top. Then place another layer of perilla leaves and beef slices. Finish the stack by topping it off with a third cabbage leaf.
- Repeat this process until you have used up all of your leaves or other ingredients. Cut each stack into thirds with a knife.
Assemble Pot
- Break off the leaves off each bok-choy. Take out a large pot and place the leaves on the bottom of the pot.
- Then place each stack on top of the bok choy leaves. Place each in a circular path.
- Finish the pot by placing enoki and Shiitake mushrooms in the middle.
Prepare Broth
- Clean out the 'black' insides from each dried anchovy. Discard the head. We will only use the cleaned bodies.
- Place the cleaned anchovies, dashima pieces, daikon piece, shiitake stems and water into a large pot.
- Turn on a high heat and set a timer for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, take out the dashima pieces. Let rest of the ingredients boil for another 10 minutes. After 20 minutes, take-out all of the ingredients. Season the broth with soy sauce and salt.
Dipping Sauce
- Mix soy sauce, vinegar, cooking wine and honey together. It will be enough for two people.
Cook Hot-Pot
- Gently pour your broth into the pot. Turn on a high heat until you can hear the pot boiling.
- Then reduce the pot to a medium heat and let it continue to simmer.
- When you see that the beef has fully cooked through (like shabu-shabu), it is ready to eat. Take out one stack, dip in dipping sauce and enjoy!
Notes
- When making the stock base, take the kelp out after 10 minutes of boiling
- Feel free to use any store-bought shabu shabu dipping sauces as well
- Watch video below for more details
Elizabeth Tran says
Thank you for this easy instructions and ingredients! Love it! Have been making it several of times now!
Kristin says
Yay! Saw this on YouTube but it wasn’t the focus of the video! This recipe looks great, can’t wait to try it.