2014 Cooking Club Week 39: Pho Bo

Mrs Fox

In my opinion there are two major rules to a good Pho: the beefiness/chickenness of the broth, and a pile of fresh herbs condiment to lift the dish entirely. The clarity of broth is purely aesthetic, but I'm open to arguments.
Traditionally served with raw beef, here I quickly sear the steak to give a bit of colour to the cow. Mooooooooo!


Pho Bo
Vietnamese Beef and Rice Noodle Soup
serves 6

Ingredients
2 cinnamon sticks
5 star anise
1 tsp cloves
1 tbsp coriander seeds
1 tbsp fennel seeds
1 black cardamom pod
1 tsp black peppercorns
2 medium yellow onions, peeled
2 thumbsized ginger, peeled
2kg beef bones (knuckle and marrow) or 6 big chunks oxtail
3 litres cold water
1-2 fillet steak (you'll get 3 servings per steak)
2-3 tbsp fish sauce
2 tbsp lime juice (about half a large lime)
1 tbsp granulated sugar (more if you like it sweetish; I don't)
1 tbsp sea salt
1 packet flat rice noodles

Condiments
a bunch of spring onions, chopped
1 cup Thai basil or Italian basil leaves, shredded if too big
1 cup fresh coriander leaves
1 cup Vietnamese mint or regular mint leaves
a bag of beansprouts
2-3 birds eye chillies or 2 large red chillies, chopped
1 lime, cut into six wedges
Oyster sauce or Hoisin sauce (opt)
Sriracha or hot sauce of your choice (opt)

You may also need:
A large stock pot
Cheesecloth/muslin (the latter can easily be found at the baby section of Tesco or any large supermarket, sold in a pack of 4s)



Method
1. Toast the spices in a hot pan until fragrant. Crush them lightly. Put into a small muslin/cheesecloth and tie up with a string. Set aside.
2. Halve the onions. Using a tong, char the onions on an open flame. If you haven't got a gas hob, use the grill. Do the same with the ginger, and give it a good bash after charring. Transfer them into a large stock pot.
3. Add the beef bones, spice bag and water into the pot and turn the heat on high. As soon as it boils, reduce the heat to low and let it simmer very gently. Regularly skim away the impurities and scums that floats at the top of the pot. Once cleared after about 30-45 minutes, continue to simmer, untouched, for a further 4 hours. 6 hours if you have a whole day to spare; the longer the better. The liquid should reduce by more or less a third. Turn the heat off and set aside to cool. I'd leave it overnight, it'll just taste better, but it's OK if you don't.
4. Strain the beef stock through a piece of cheesecloth/muslin on a fine mesh sieve into a pot big enough to fill in all the liquid. Discard the bones and spices. If using oxtail, pick and reserve the meat from the bones; this can later be added in as condiment for extra beefiness.
5. Bring the soup to boil. Add in fish sauce, sugar and lime juice. Taste and season with more salt, pepper, fish sauce and lime juice if necessary. It should have a slight strong taste that will mellow once assembled with noodles and condiments. Keep it on a rolling boil.
6. Get a pan out and heat on high. Sear the fillet steak about 30 second on each side, just enough to colour the meat. Set aside to rest for a couple of minutes before slicing them thinly.
7. Prepare the noodles as instructed on packet. Drain well.
8. Divide the noodles into bowls, top with sliced beef; about 4-5 slices per serving. Ladle in the hot soup (this will immediately cook the beef), top with a handful of beansprouts, sprinkle spring onions, basil, coriander, mint and chilli. If using, a dash of oyster/hoisin sauce (for extra depth of flavour/sweetness) and Sriracha (for extra kick). Serve at once with lime wedges to squeeze.







Enjoy!

Overflow

Looks amazing !

The Hill Billy

Wow!

Cheshire Cat

Thank you so much, Mrs Fox! My son has eaten Pho in MoschMosch every time we were in Germany and is raving about it. Now I can cook it for him and earn some Brownie points!

Curry Addict

nice, im going to try this with chicken :pac:

BaZmO*

Curry Addict wrote: »

nice, im going to try this with chicken :pac:

Maybe not so rare though!

Neyite

This looks amazing! I can't wait to try it.

Curry Addict

BaZmO* wrote: »

Maybe not so rare though!

lol, not sure how ill do it. I was thinking maybe a whole chicken or a pack of chicken thighs, browned then, cooked for a couple of hours on slow and then remove the meat, strain the stock and add the chicken meat back in

Mrs Fox

Curry Addict wrote: »

lol, not sure how ill do it. I was thinking maybe a whole chicken or a pack of chicken thighs, browned then, cooked for a couple of hours on slow and then remove the meat, strain the stock and add the chicken meat back in

One whole chicken plus a whole carcass and wings and everything boney. Pull chicken out after about 30-40 minutes of simmering and pick the meat out, return carcass back into stock and simmer for good couple of hours. Shred/slice the chicken to your liking and set aside covered for later. I won't add the chicken back into the stock because it'll overcook and go dry, funny grainy texture, no no no. Fresh supple chickeny texture, yes yes yes.
With chicken broth I'd tend to swap black cardamom pod with 3-4 of green cardamoms, and leave fennel seeds out completely. But that's just me, associating those two spices with beef.

Frigga_92

Curry Addict wrote: »

lol, not sure how ill do it. I was thinking maybe a whole chicken or a pack of chicken thighs, browned then, cooked for a couple of hours on slow and then remove the meat, strain the stock and add the chicken meat back in

Mrs Fox wrote: »

One whole chicken plus a whole carcass and wings and everything boney. Pull chicken out after about 30-40 minutes of simmering and pick the meat out, return carcass back into stock and simmer for good couple of hours. Shred/slice the chicken to your liking and set aside covered for later. I won't add the chicken back into the stock because it'll overcook and go dry, funny grainy texture, no no no. Fresh supple chickeny texture, yes yes yes.
With chicken broth I'd tend to swap black cardamom pod with 3-4 of green cardamoms, and leave fennel seeds out completely. But that's just me, associating those two spices with beef.

I'm allergic to red meat but this recipe looks amazing so I'm interested in trying it with chicken.
Sorry if I sound a bit thick but, when you're talking about cooking the chicken, do you mean in the oven or what?

Mrs Fox

26sdrawkcab wrote: »

I'm allergic to red meat but this recipe looks amazing so I'm interested in trying it with chicken.
Sorry if I sound a bit thick but, when you're talking about cooking the chicken, do you mean in the oven or what?

In the stock pot, as per step 3. Put the whole chicken in plus bones/wings, spices, onion and ginger, cover with water. Let it boil them immediately turn heat down and let it cook to a gentle simmer. Take the whole chicken out when it's just cooked about 30-40 min, strip the meat of the chicken and put the carcass back in to cook the stock further. The chicken meat is cooked by then, you just need to put it side till ready to assemble the pho. You may slice it, dice it, shred it, up to you. You may also nuke the chicken quickly before pouring the hot broth in, but they usually leave it as it is and let the hot broth warm the chicken.
It's delicious with chicken, just what you need on a miserable cold day.

Frigga_92

Mrs Fox wrote: »

In the stock pot, as per step 3. Put the whole chicken in plus bones/wings, spices, onion and ginger, cover with water. Let it boil them immediately turn heat down and let it cook to a gentle simmer. Take the whole chicken out when it's just cooked about 30-40 min, strip the meat of the chicken and put the carcass back in to cook the stock further. The chicken meat is cooked by then, you just need to put it side till ready to assemble the pho. You may slice it, dice it, shred it, up to you. You may also nuke the chicken quickly before pouring the hot broth in, but they usually leave it as it is and let the hot broth warm the chicken.
It's delicious with chicken, just what you need on a miserable cold day.

Thanks a mill, can't wait to give it a go.

Curry Addict

eating mine now, yam yam totally delicious!

I used 1kg of chicken thighs. I used the base recipe with some minor changes due to using less weight of protein. Just 1 litre of water, 2tbs of the spices after roasting and coarse grinding. I also added just 1 green chilli at the start as that level of heat is perfect for me. Slow braised the chicken in the broth for 1.5 hours, removed the chicken, picked the meat. Cooked the noodles in the strained broth, added the chicken back in. 1.5tbs lime juice, 1 tbs fish sauce, 1 tbs sugar. Nice clean flavours in perfect balance for me.

thanks Mrs. Fox great recipe!

Mrs Fox

Glad you liked it, CA. That's the thing about this dish, everything is adjustable according to your own taste.
Thanks for trying it out!