Beef Pho

Beef pho is a famous street food eaten daily in Vietnam. It consists of a broth, rice flat noodles, meat (which can be beef or chicken) and herbs. The most labourious step and the secret to a good pho is to create enough depth in the broth using beef bones and aromatics spices but it is worth the effort if you make a big batch of broth which you can freeze to be used later. To me, beef pho is the ultimate comforting food of the soul.

Prep time 30 mins  Cooking time 1 hour

INGREDIENTS:

1 kg beef bones (combination of ribs, oxtail)

300 g beef fillet steak, cut thinly

5 cm ginger piece

1 onion, peeled

6 star anises

3 black cardamoms

2 cinnamon bark

2 Tbsps coriander seeds

1 tsp cloves

3 Tbsps fish sauce

Flat rice noodles (for 2)

Salt and pepper, to taste

Garnish

Handful of bean sprouts

Chopped spring onions

Chopped cilantro (coriander), mint or parsley herbs

Fried shallots

Sliced red chillies (optional)

Hoi Sin sauce or Sriracha (optional)

METHOD:

1) To prepare the aromatics for the broth, pan-fried them lightly in a frying pan until fragrant. The aromatics are then placed inside either a tied cheese cloth or a spice basket (like a tea strainer basket but bigger;

2) Chargrill an onion on hob until it is weeping. This step is also repeated with the ginger (with skin on) until it is slightly burnt;

3) Add the bones, aromatics, onion and ginger to a large pot of boiling water ( about 10 cups). Boil for 10 minutes, then skim off the meat scum. Some recipes remove the bones and wash under the tap before returning to the stock but I like to skip this as to me, the bones have more flavour if not done so;

4) Add the fish sauce and gently simmer with lid close for about 2 hours 30 minutes. Cooking time can be reduced to 30 minutes if using a pressurised cooker or Instant Pot;

5) Before serving, cook the rice noodles as the instructions on the packet;

6) Blanch the beansprouts with hot water for 10 seconds, slice the steak thinly and season the broth accordingly with salt and pepper;

7) Serve the noodles in a bowl, topped with 3-4 slivers of thinly cut beef, some beansprouts and herbs before the hot broth is ladled onto the bowl to cook the beef.