marya_

Hi:

I am unburying this question from my lengthy report in the hopes of getting an answer.

Does anyone have a good recipe for pho?

Thanks in advance.

Kristina

Hi marya-

This recipe is from a cookbook I have called "Lemongrass and Lime-New Vietnamese Cooking". I have not made it, so cannot vouch for it's authenticity.

Ingreditents:
1.25 lbs flat rice noodles
1.75 pints Pho Bo Veal stock (this is another recipe, basically a veal consomme-you could probably use a good quality prepared beef consomme as well)
4 Tbsp Hoisin sauce
7 oz raw beef striploin, thinly sliced
4 limes
salt and pepper
5 oz fresh bean sprouts
cilantro and asian basil
2 red chilies, finely sliced and deseeded

1. Bring a large saucepan of salted water to a boil and blanch the noodles for 3 min. Do not overcook.
2. Here it says to mix all the garnish together in a bowl, but I've always had it served on a separate plate.
3. Bring the stock to a boil and whisk in the Hoisin Sauce.
4. Divide the noodles between 4 soup bowls, pour the stock over the noodles and 1/2 the garnish.
5. Place beef on top of noodles and garnish so that it does not sink into the soup. Slice the limes and squeeze 1/2 over each bowl.

Again, I would serve all the garnish on the side and let everyone add their own to taste.

If you want me to type out the veal stock recipe let me know, but warning, it's a long and complicated process to make consomme.

daisygirl

After traveling through Vietnam this past spring for 5 weeks I acquired a real love for Pho and make it at least twice a week. There are lots of recipes out there but I think I have managed to capture the real essence of pho in this recipe. Key ingredient is the star anise. Gives it that wonderful flavor.

Simmer together
2 qts low salt beef or chicken broth
3 whole star anise
1 cinnamom stick
5 whole cloves
3 TBSP nuoc mam (fermented fish sauce)
1 TBS sugar
1 good squirt of chili/garlic sauce

Soak 1 package of 1/4 inch rice noodles til soft, drain and set aside. (I often help this along by a few minutes in the microwave to heat the water)

Place a piece of steak or chicken in the freezer.

Arrange on platter:
sliced lime
chopped basil
chopped cilantro
thin slices of Thai chile
bean sprouts

Strain out the spices from the broth and bring the broth to a full rolling boil.
Place a cup or so of the rice noodles in each of 2-4 deep bowls.

Thinly slice chicken or beef (works best if slightly frozen) and place about 6-8 slices over noodles

Ladle hot broth to cover. Serve with platter of condiments to add to soup by each person.

This makes up really quick and is delicious. Sometimes I simmer the broth down so the spices are fairly concentrated. Often my husband and I will eat the whole batch with a few fresh spring rolls.

marya_

I am printing these out.

Thanks very much!

Gpanda

Does anyone have a recipe that starts with the beef bones?

Nywoman

Gpanda,
If you are serious, I'll be more than happy to send you a few recipes.

Perhaps it would be better if I do it backchannel, so that I don't get accused of turning this into a cooking forum.
You can contact me at [email protected]

Once upon a time many moons ago I had a cooking school in NYC and used to make stock from scratch.

Craig

From: Andre Nguyen's "Quick and Easy Vietnamese Home Cooking for Everyone":

10 oz rice noodles (pho)
12 cups beef stock (if you actually really need a recipe for this Gpanda, they have a totally generic one in the book)
4 oz. lean beef
2 cinnamon sticks
2 oz. fresh ginger
4 whole anise stars
10 whole cloves
4 shallots, broiled until browned
1/4 cup fish sauce
2 T sugar
1/2 T salt

Garnishes: onion slices, cilantro

1) In boiling stock, cook beef together with all other ingredients over low heat, skimming occasionally. When beef is cooked, remove and slice thinly.

2) Cook rice noodles in boiling water, drain and transfer into a serving bowl. Top with beef slices, and garnish with onion and cilantro. Pour over soup.

Neil_Oz

This recipe takes the stock (broth) from scratch, which I think is a good idea. It would be preferable to make it up the day before...

PHO BO (BEEF NOODLE SOUP)

1 kg (2.2 lb) beef shin, in pieces
1 thumb-sized pice of ginger, peeled
1 tsp salt
3 litres (6.3 US pints) cold water
500g (1.1 lb) beef brisket
4 tbsp (5 US tbsp) fish sauce
2 pieces cassia bark (substitute cinnamon if not available - N)
2 star anise
2 brown onions, finely sliced

TO SERVE
500g fresh noodles
200g raw rump steak, very finely sliced
1 small brown onion, finely sliced
2 spring onions, finely sliced
2 tbsp (3 US tbsp) freshly chopped coriander (US = cilantro) leaves

TO GARNISH
lime wedges
fresh red chillies, sliced
Asian basil
Long coriander
Bean sprouts, washed and trimmed

[You would probably have to go to a Vietnamese grovcery for the herb known as "Long coriander" (ngo gai) It's also known as sawtooth herb. If you can't get it I'd use ordinary fresh coriander (cilantro) instead. - N]

Place the beef shin, ginger, salt and ater in a large stockpot and bring to the boil. Skim off any scum that rises to the surface and add the brisket. Season with fish sauce, lower heat and simmer for 4 hours.

Add the cassia bark, star anise and sliced onion and cook for a futher 30 minutes.

Remove the brisket form the pot and set aside for later use. Strain the stock and allow it to cool, Remove any fat from the surface of the cooled stock. Transfer the stock to a clean saucepan and bring it to the boil.

Just before serving, bring a large pot of water to the boil, then plunge the rice noodles into the water for 10 seconds to heat through. Don't let them cook or they'll become too soft. Drain and divide them between 6 deep soup bowls.

Top the nodles with a few slices of the cooked brisket and the raw steak. Cover with 2 or 3 ladlefuls of the hot stock and add a little sliced onion, spring onion and coriander (cilantro).

Take garnishes ... to the table for diners to add to their soup as desired.

Serve the soup immediately with additional seasonings* alongside.

* Traditionally served alongside pho soups are fish, hoi sin and chilli sauces as well as Vietnamese sate sauce. Thes esauces can be either added to the soup or served in small dishes into which the slices of beef can be dipped.

- From "The Flavours of Vietnam": Meera Freeman, with Le Van Nhan. Black Inc., Melbourne, 2002.

Neil_Oz

The PHO GA (chicken) version of the preceding recipe, from the same cookbook, follows the same general plan.

The broth ingredients are:
2 chicken carcases
1 whole chicken, 1.5 kg (3.3 lb)
Thumb-sized piece of ginger, peeled
4 tbsp fish sauce
10 black peppercorns
2 brown onions, finely sliced
4 tbsp crisp-fried shallots (available from any Asian grocery)

The broth is made by adding the chicken carcases and salt to the water, skimming off the scum then adding the whole chicken and ginger. Simmer for 30 minutes, remove the whole chicken and when it's cool slice the flesh. Add the fish sauce, simmer for 2 hours. Add the peppercorns and simmer for a further 30 minutes. Strain, discard carcases and spices and skim the surface. Transfer the broth to a clean saucepan and add the onions and shallots; simmer for 15 minutes.

Serving, garnishes etc. are all as per Pho Bo. Hope this helps.

Neil_Oz

Just in case this was ambiguous - after "and when it's cool slice the flesh" I should have said "and reserve", i.e. you don't add the meat back into the broth at this point.

hpn

Any Pho connoisseur judges a bowl of Pho by the clarity of its broth (i.e. must be clear brown, not cloudy) and aroma (i.e. a tantalizing hint of various spices, without any overwhelming smell from any particular spice). I confess to being a Pho snob, who must always cook Pho's broth from scratch. I learned to make Pho from countless generations of women from North Vietnam, where Pho originated. Please e-mail me directly at hpndcn@gmail. I'll be happy to walk you through, step by step, the authentic way I learned to make this traditional food. The instructions are a bit too complicated to go into details on this forum. I'm happy to do this as a small payback for the kind and helpful assistance I've received from others on this forum in planning our previous travels.

Neil_Oz

FWIW, I often cook dishes that involve jointing a whole chicken and I've got into the habit of throwing the leftover back and other odd bits into a pot with a few vegetables, salt, pepper and water and simmering it all for a couple of hours. For a richer stock I buy a kilo of chicken wings, dirt cheap. You can reduce the stock (I think the American term is "broth", right?) and refrigerate or freeze it, and it makes a great base for most soups and a lot of casseroles, curries and whatnot. The dog will eat the strainings (if that's a word) but spits out the peppercorns.

Ackislander

When we are in France we often eat in Vietnamese restaurants. We have found the pho to be very different from the pho served in the US, and we couldn't account for the difference (US pho has more herbs and veggies, milder stock).

Finally, we saw a travel article in the NY Times that described the difference between North Vietnamese pho and South Vietnamese pho. Guess what? The pho we ate in France was Northern style, the pho in the US naturally enough under the political circumstances was Southern style! Both good.

marya_

This is wonderfully illuminating -- thank you.

A Vietnamese person told me that the secret to great pho is excellent veal stock. That set me to fretting because I am not in that cooking league and don't foresee having the time the learn to make "excellent veal stock" yet we would like to have pho at home on occasion.

I am printing everything you supplied out and am going to study the recipes and decide how to proceed after dealing with a family member hospitalization. Hope that I can come back to some of you who are so knowledgeable about cooking.

Thanks again.