Pho-tastic

For Christmas Katie got me “The World’s Best Street Food” by Lonely Planet. This book highlights unique recipes from around the world and gives you a recipe for each as well as where you can procure them. Pho immediately caught my eye as I flipped through the pages. I have had pho in China town and thought it was really good, except that the broth was so salty that I left most of it in the bowl at the end of the meal. What better way to remedy this than to whip up a batch of home-made pho, either that or go to the Quan An Ngon restaurant in Hanoi as the book suggests. The broth takes 3 hrs to simmer but everything else just goes in the bowl uncooked and is cover by the boiling broth. I added some vegetables to the recipe in order to make it a more well rounded meal.

 

Beef Pho

Serves 4 large bowls

Broth:

10cm piece ginger, halved

2 yellow onions, havled

Canola Oil

5 lbs beef marrow bones

5 L water

1 tsp coriander seeds

1 tbs fennel seeds

5 star anise

2 cardamom pods

6 cloves garlic, whole

¼ cup fish sauce

2 tbs sugar

1tbs salt

 

Assembly:

225g sirloin steak, very thinly sliced

450g rice noodles, cooked as per packet instructions

Handful chopped parsley

Handful chopped fresh basil

Green onion, thinly sliced

450g bean sprouts

1 cup sliced Napa Cabbage

1 Carrot, julienne

 

Method:

Place onion and ginger on baking tray and brush with oil. Broil on high for 10 to 15 minutes until slightly charred. Remove from oven and set aside.

Fill large pot with cold water, bring to boil and add beef bones. Cook for 5 minutes and then drain. Rinse bones and pot. Add 5L water, w/ bones and bring to boil. Once at a steady boil, lower heat and simmer, removing any scum with a spoon.

Place spices and garlic in mesh bag, tied off with kitchen string. Add to pot with charred garlic and onion. Simmer for 1 ½ hours.

Discard spice bag, ginger and garlic. Continue simmering for 1 ½ hours, skimming off excess fat.

Strain broth into clean bowl and add salt, fish sauce and sugar.

 

To serve:

In bowl place cooked noodles, beef, carrots, bean sprouts, cabbage, green onion, parsley and basil. Ladle over boiling broth and allow beef to cook. At table mix ingredients and dig in!