Watching cooking shows are seriously a dangerous past time for me. It is totally scary that I develop cravings after watching these shows and even scarier when I thought I wasn’t watching but letting it just drone on in the background as I go about doing my daily chores. So this meal was inspired by Rachel Ray’s Pho. Watching her cooking made easy method, it inspired me to find out how pho would originally be cooked.

First, I found out that pho is pronounced as “fuh” like in “fir” with an ‘h’ sound at the end. And it’s called pho because you use pho noodles which can be easily bought from Asian stores. I got mine from Uwajimaya. It’s probably one of the easiest and tastiest noodle soup recipes I’ve ever tried. The only thing that some might like and others not about the recipe is that you’ll need to remember that it takes 3hours to get the stock simmered right. For me, this is perfect. It means while the broth is simmering, I can get on with my housework, the e-mail, the facebook, a bath, some TV time and then back to the kitchen to start preparing the condiments for the dish. And finally to enjoy lunch with the family and have fun with the mix-and-match condiments spread. This is one fun dish to try out if you’ve never done it before.

Ingredients:

2.5 lb of beef bones - leg or knuckles or whatever part that your butcher has available
1lb beef - eye rounds or whatever cut is available and sliced thinly against the grain
1 packet of banh pho noodles - dried or fresh - follow the instructions on the package
1 large onion - peeled and cut in half
4in ginger - peeled and sliced in half lengthwise
2 tbsp sugar candy or a large piece of rock sugar
1 cinnamon stick
salt to taste

Roasting spices:

5 star anise
1 cardamom pod
1 tbsp of coriander seeds
1 tbsp of fennel seeds
1 tsp cloves

Condiments:

Hoisin Sauce
Sriracha Sauce
Thai Fish Sauce
Basil Leaves - washed and shredded
Serano chili - washed sliced
Bird’s eye chili - washed
Lemon - sliced into wedges
Bean Sprouts - washed

Method:

1. How to Parboil the bones : Wash bones then put the bones in a big pot and fill it up with water up to 3 inch above the bones. Remove the bones, set aside and bring the water to a boil. Then return the bones to the boiling water carefully. Boil the bones for 10 minutes. Then throw away the water and set the bones aside. (While parboiling the bones, char the ginger and onion and pan fry the spices.)



2. Rinse the pot and fill with clean water. Add the bones to the water. The water should be twice the height of the bones in the pot. A little more or less won’t really hurt. It really depends on how much  beef stock you want.
3. How to char the ingredients: Place the ginger and onion on a baking tray. Place it in the oven on broil. Broil the onion and ginger for about 10 minutes or until it starts to char partially. See picture.



4. How to pan roast the spices: Place the spices in a small pan and put it on the stove at medium-low heat. Keep stirring or swirling the spices until it starts to smell aromatic and starts to turn a slight shade darker. Do not burn the spices. Place the roasted spices in a spice bag (homemade or store bought) or a spice infuser mesh ball.
5. Add the charred ingredients, spice bag, sugar, cinnamon, salt into the pot with the bones. Bring to a boil and then lower to a simmer. Cover the pot and continue to boil for 3 hours. Check once in a while for scum that rises to the surface and remove it. There should be very little scum if the parboil was done right.



6. After 3 hours, correct the seasoning of the stock by adding more sugar and/or salt.
7. Prepare the noodles according to instructions on the package.



8. Put some noodles in a bowl, top with thinly sliced raw beef and ladle BOILING hot broth onto the beef. This should cook the beef.
9. Then serve with the condiments.

Alternatively, if you’re worried about serving raw meat especially if you have little kids eating this dish, ladle the boiling broth into a small saucepan, add the thinly sliced raw beef a few pieces at a time and give it a stir so that the pieces do not clump together. Add more pieces of meat until desired amount. Then bring the broth to a simmer on the stove and cook the meat till done. Then add to the noodles. Serve.

Tips:

• Parboiling is an important step if you don’t want to keep removing scum from the broth throughout the 3 hours boiling period. It also gives you a clearer broth.
• It is important to get good beef bones for a delicious broth. If you get a rancid smell while parboiling and the water turns green, it means that the bones are not fresh and the broth is better thrown.
• You can make your own spice bag using cheesecloth. Find out how here.
• Some people add the Thai Fish Sauce into the broth. But I prefer serving it as a condiment because not everyone likes the fishy smell or taste of the sauce in my family.
• While the meat is partially thawed, use a very sharp knife to slice the beef to get very thin cuts.