I'm making phó today so I thought I should post my recipe - I've adapted it from a Lonely Planet one and a couple I found online.
You need to start in the morning for a really yummy soup. I start the day before so I can slow cook it overnight.
It's really very simple and it doesn't use any ingredients you can't find at your local supermarket.
Ingredients
Broth
- about 2 - 3kg's beef bones. The less meat on them the better. If you can get the big marrow bones sliced these are the most flavoursome. My butcher sells them as dog bones lol.
- about 2-3 litres of water (I just fill my dutch oven saucepan to near the top)
- 3 or 4 pieces of fresh ginger about 2-3 cm long, unpeeled (or a 10cm piece broken onto 3 or 4 pieces)
- 1 yellow onion cut in half (don't bother peeling - the peel adds extra flavour)
- 2 or 3 carrots broken into chunks (don't bother peeling)
- 6-8 whole star anise
- 6 cloves
- 1 or 2 cinnamon sticks
- 1/4 - 1/3 cup fish sauce (depends on how strong it is - be careful not to add too much)
Beef, rice noodles & Accompaniments
- 250g beef
- 500g dried rice noodles (you could use fresh but i use dried)
- bean sprouts
- a spring onion or small yellow onion
- a cup of coriander leaves
- a cup of fresh mint leaves (vietnamese if possible)
- a cup of thai basil (or normal basil will do)
- 1 lime or lemon cut into wedges
- some chilli paste (or sliced fresh chillies)
Put the beef bones into the saucepan and bring it to the boil.
Boil it really hard for about 10 minutes.
Take the saucepan off the heat.
Dump the bones in the sink.
Give the saucepan a good scrub and refill it with fresh water.
Give each bone a rinse under water to get the scum off it and cut off any big chunks of fat.
Put all the bones back in the saucepan and start it heating agin but gently not on a high flame.
[instead of doing this you could just skin the scum as it rises to the surface but I think the dump and referesh method gives a clearer broth]
Turn the grill on and grill the onion, ginger and spring onions.
While they're grilling add the spices, carrot and fish sauce to the broth (you could leave the fish sauce and add it by taste at the end).
Once everything that is grilling has blistered skin (I find the onion and spring onion are ready first and then I put the ginger in when it begins to drip ginger juice) add it to the broth.
Let it simmer for at least 3 hours. I leave mine in the slow cooker overnight
Once it's cooked for over 3 hours strain the broth into another saucepan.
Then I let it cool and put it in the fridge for a few hours. This lets the fat rise to the top and solidify so I can skim it off and throw it out.
Making the soup.
About half an hour before I want to eat I put the broth back on a gentle heat.
While it's heating I clean the herbs and put them on a plate with the lemon or lime wedges.
Prepare the rice noodles (I leave it to the last minute and I don't refresh them in cold water so they're hot when I pour the soup over).
Slice the onion really finely and put it in the bottom of some deep soup bowls.
Put cleaned bean sprouts on top.
Put noodles on top of the bean sprouts.
Chop the beef really finely. If you put your beef in the freezer for about an hour or so it is semi frozen and much easier to slice super fine.
You can put raw beef in the bowl and ladle boiling water over it and it will be cooked medium rare by the heat of the water or you can use a sieve/ladle with holes and dip it in the simmering broth for a few moments or even just chuck it straight in the broth if you will be finishing it all in one go.
Pour broth over everything.
Everyone can add lemon, herbs, fish sauce and chilli sauce to taste.
Don't go too nuts with the fish sauce and chilli if it seems a bit bland on the first mouthful. The herbs need a minute or so for the flavour to develop so by the time you reach the bottom of the bowl it will taste different.
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