Pho, Vietnamese Beef noodle Soup

Vietnamese noodle, known as Pho, is one of my favourite noodles. There are many recipes on this but it’s very hard to make the broth because you need lots of effort to simmer the beef stock with lots of spices. Here, I would like to share with you 3 different recipes I tried. I personally tested all other recipes and these are the best 3. Out of these 3, the very last one is my own recipe which I was taught by my friend. In my opinion, this personal recipe was the simplest and easiest of all to make Pho without the hassle of getting all spices and boiling for long hours. And yet, I guarantee you won’t be disappointed by the actual result despite the  simplicity of actual ingredients you use in this recipe. At first, I was very sceptical when I was told about this recipe since it sounded too simple until I actually decided to give it a go. I am glad I tried.


1. Traditional recipe


(This is from Women’s weekly recipe which I  tried myself and found it took excessive amount time and effort but the outcome is worth it.)


INGREDIENTS


2 pieces cassia bark, about 5cm each in length
2 whole star anise
6 cloves
3-4 cardamom pods, bruised
1 large onion, peeled and halved
1 large piece of ginger, bruised and slightly crushed
2kg veal bones, including split chin bones
500g piece beef brisket
3-4 litres cold water, to cover bones
1/3 cup fish sauce, to taste
1 teaspoon sea salt, to taste
1-2 teaspoons sugar, to taste
200g rice stick noodles, soaked or blanched in boiling water 2-3 minutes until tender, cooled and drained until needed
2-3 spring onions (green shallots), cut into 2-3 cm batons
200g eye fillet or sirloin or rump steak (optional), sliced very thinly
1 bunch coriander, picked and roughly chopped
1 bunch chives, finely chopped
freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Fresh herbs (to serve)
1 cup bean sprouts, trimmed
1 cup Thai basil leaves, picked
1 bunch long coriander (Mexican coriander, thorny coriander, saw-leaf herb, saw-tooth herb), washed and trimmed
2-3 long red chillies, sliced on the angle
2-3 limes, cut into wedges


Preparation


1. Pre-heat salamander style grill or top element of oven to a high heat.


2. Place cassia, star anise, cloves, cardamom, onion and ginger in an ovenproof pan or baking tray and grill 3-4 minutes until fragrant. Remove. Turn off grill.


3. Place grilled spices, onion and ginger in a large stockpot. Add veal bones, brisket and enough cold water to cover, bring to a slow boil.


4. Simmer two hours, skimming the surface of any fat or scum as necessary, then remove brisket and store, covered and refrigerated until needed.


5. Continue cooking stock a further 2 hours, skimming as necessary. Season with fish sauce, sea salt and sugar to taste, using the above quantities as a guide.


6. Strain stock and discard bones, onion, ginger and spices. Cool and store refrigerated until needed or strain stock to a clean pot and bring back to a simmer, ready to serve.


7. To serve, place sprouts, herbs, chillies and lime wedges in little bunches around a serving plate, place on table for guests to add to their pho as desired.
8. Bring a pot of lightly salted water to a rapid boil. Using a small blanching basket or chinois, blanch a small handful of noodles and spring onions for each person. Transfer each portion to individual serving bowls (pho is one of the few Vietnamese dishes not shared, with each diner receiving their own bowl).
9. Slice reserved brisket thinly and place atop noodles. If using, add 20-30g thinly sliced raw beef per portion. Ladle hot stock over beef and noodles (the heat of the stock will cook the finely sliced raw meat).


10. Garnish with chopped coriander and chives, season lightly with pepper.
Serve hot portions to each guest, accompanied by Asian soup spoons and chopsticks (for the handling and choice of the fresh herbs).
 
2. Secret Pho base soup Recipe from a Vietnamese noodle restaurant


 (With this recipe, you will have to guess how much you will need for each ingredient. What you need to do is to refer to the first recipe and guess how much of each ingredient you might need. Basically, they are vey similar except the last secret ingredient, dried sandworm. I didn’t know until I came across this recipe but apparently, this is very commonly used in pho in Vietnam by asking many of my Vietnamese friends. It was very hard to find dried sandworm but I got it from a Chinese herbal medicinal place in China town once. To this recipe, you will need to add lime juice, coriander and basil otherwise, the broth itself is not quite what you expect to get at a Vietnamese restaurant.)

Ingredients

Marrow bone
Oxtail
Brisket
Boiled chicken
Cinnamon
Star anise
Cardamom pods
Dried sandworm
 
3. My own personal recipe
 
Ingredients


1 litre Campbell beef liquid beef stock
100g thinly sliced beef (get shabu shabu cut from a butcher)
1-2 Star anise whole
1/2 thinly sliced brown onion
1/2 lime (just use the lime juice)
some fish sauce to season
1 bird eye chilli chopped
bunch of long coriander, chopped
bunch of basil, pick the leaves only
2 cups bean sprouts
1-2 piece of lemon
2 TBS dried fried onion (optional, you can get it from Asian groceries. It’s only added because some Vietnamese restaurants, pho is served with sprinkle of it on top)
Rice noodle (I use fresh noodle which you can get from an Asian market. If you use dried noodle, it’s not quite the same as what you would get at a restaurant)
 
Serves 2


Preparation


1. Place Campbell beef liquid stock in a pot and add the whole star anise.  (I personally like the taste of Campbell but it’s totally up to you. But do not use stock cubes. I used it before and the result is quite different)


2. Boil the stock on medium heat. When it’s boiling add 100g of beef in the stock and simmer. Add in lime juice and fish sauce to season.


3. In a separate bowl, boil some water and soak the noodle for 2 minutes. Discard the water after 2 minutes.



4. Place the rice noodle into a bowl. Pick out the cooked beef (Originally in Vietnamese noodle, you would place thin slice of raw beef and pour in hot broth to cook it but I don’t like the raw meat in the soup. If you prefer it that way, that’s also doable) and place them in the bowl around the noodle. Pour in the hot broth and sprinkle sliced onion, dried fried onions (only optional), chopped coriander, picked basil leaves. Now, when you serve it you can serve it with bean sprouts to add in and a piece of lemon. I like adding a little bit of chopped fresh bird eye chilli just to add heat. But again, it’s personal choice!!


5. When you go to a Vietnamese restaurant, you will almost always see two sauce bottles on each table. They are chili sauce and hoisin sauce. You can add combination of both into your soup if you like or dip the beef in the sauce. The most common brands the restaurants use are all shown below.