Pho

Serves 4

Ingredients for the beef stock:

* 3 medium onion, keep as whole piece
* 2 shallots
* 2 small carrots, cut into halves
* 1 big white radish (daikon), peel & cut into big pieces
* 5 stalks of celery (discard the leaves), cut into big pieces
* 5 cloves of garlic, bashed
* big bulb of ginger, ~100g, peeled & bashed
* 1 kg oxtail pieces
* 500g beef bone marrow
* 1 piece of rock sugar

Spices to add to the beef stock:

* 2 cinnamon sticks
* 1 tsp whole cloves
* 1 tsp cardamom
* 1 1/2 tsp fennel seeds
* 5 star anise
* 2 tsp coriander seeds
* 1 tsp coriander powder
* 2 tsp black peppercorns
* 4 bay leaves

Final seasoning:

* 2 tbsp fish sauce,
* salt
* freshly ground black pepper
* sesame oil
* 1 - 16 oz. package of pho/phad thai rice noodles
* 300g of filet mignon, thinly sliced

Accompanies on side:

* 1 spring onion, cut into small piece
* 1/2 Onion, cut into thin strips
* sprigs of fresh cilantro/ coriander
* fresh basil leaves ( I skipped it this time)
* fresh mint leave
* bean sprouts, plug out the ends ( tedious work but make the noodle looks much neat and nicer)
* lime wedges
* 1 fresh red chili cut into thin slices
Dipping sauces (optional):

* hoisin sauce
* sriracha hot chili sauce
* fish sauce with red chili pieces



Method:

1. Using a a large soup pan, bring water to boil (about 3 litres).
2. Add oxtail & bone marrow into the pan, bring to boil, keep boiling for a few mins and then simmer at medium high heat for 10 mins or so.
3. Discard the liquid as you will see the scum floating on top, rinse the meat pieces in tap water.
4. Pour in new hot water (approx 4 litres) into the soup pan, bring to boil, and add in the celery, carrots, daikon, onions, garlic, ginger, cinnamon sticks, bay leaves and star anise (after tossed, see point 5).
5. Toss the rest of the spices in a small pan to let the flavours come out. Don’t over heat or they will get burnt. You can stop when you can smell the frangrant of the spices.
6. The spices which are smaller in pieces or in powder form (cloves, cardarmon, fennel seeds, coriander seeds, coriander powder), I put them in 2 disposable Japanese green tea bags, the second teabag is inserted in another direction after the first one so the spices will not leak out (you can use cheese cloth or cotton bag instead of tea bags).
7. Simmer at medium heat for about 3 hours and then add in the daikon, cook this for another 2-3 hours or until an hour before you are ready to prepare the pho rice noodles.
8. Skim off the fat from time to time and stir gently just to avoid sticking.
9. After 5-6 hours of cooking, your stock is now ready remove the ingredients from the soupbase and season with fish sauce, salt, some fresh ground black pepper & sesame oil as desired.***
10. 40 mins before you want to serve, in a separate deep pan, boil water and cook the rice noodles, unwind the noodles with wooden chopsticks, remove them from the water as soon as they just become soft, transfer to a colander, quickly rinse in cold tap water, drain and set aside. The purpose of this is to cool the noodles immediately and not to let them further cook when warm and not to get soggy. Follow the instructions behind the pack or it should not take more than 2-3 mins. (If you can find fresh pho rice noodles in your neighbourhood, that’s even better.)
11. Prepare the accompanied side dish as mentioned above. Place them onto one plate.
12. Prepare the hoisin sauce, sriracha hot chili sauce or you can prepare a third sauce like the Vietnamese restaurant by adding some chili pieces into some fish sauce.
13. Cut the filet mignon into thin slices****.
14. Transfer enough soup for 4 portion into a pan, bring to boil, place the noodles into the soup, and quickly divide the noodle into 4 soup bowls (this warms up the noodle again). Line the raw beef slices on top of the noodle, add some onion, spring onion as well and then pour the hot soup over on the beef & noodles.
15. Serve immediately. Add some bean sprouts, Thai basil leaves, mint & coriander leaves, chili, lime & dipping sauce***** from the accompanied side dish according to your personal taste.
16. Feel free to finish the last drop of soup.
17. Any leftover stock can be frozen for later use.

Enjoy the real & great stuff!!!


Notes & Tips:

*As usual, not all pho recipes are identical, but I observed one ingredient is also very important, apart from the beef and spices, white radish (daikon) is very absolutely essential. I recalled that the Chinese brisket Noodle and the Korean Beef Soup also use white radishes. So I think I should not miss this out. White radish gives a sweet taste and blends with the beef very well. With the daikon, you will not need more stock powder or MSG!

**If you have a cleaver (either Chinese or American ones), bash on the garlic and ginger pieces with the knife blade. I learnt this from my mom that the flavor can come out more easily.

***You can prepare the stock a day in advance which I will certainly do next time, it will save you time from running around the kitchen the whole day, my feet were tired last night after dinner, also I found the taste of the soup was even better the following day.

****Tip to cut the beef filet into very thin slices: freeze the meat in the freezer, partially defrost and cut them when it is still fairly hard, you will find this is much easier to cut into thin slices, evenly and nicely. These thinly sliced beef is also suitable for chinese hotpot or fondue chinoise (can’t help to mention, I am a hotpot monster!)

***** Our dipping sauces were left almost untouched as the soup was already very tasty that it did not really need additional flavoring.