Perfect Pho

Vietnamese Pho Recipe: Beef Noodle Soup
Authentic Pho recipe with a broth that’s light yet so full of flavor, it’s infused with spices like cinnamon, star anise and cardamom. Utterly addictive!Ingredients 
For the Pho broth

• Yellow onions
• Ginger
• Beef leg or knuckle bones
• Water
• Star anise, whole cloves, cinnamon, coriander seeds, cardamom, fennel seeds
• Beef chuck (or rump brisket/cross rib roast)
• Fish sauce
• Sugar

For The Pho Bowls 

• Flat rice noodles
• Cooked beef (from the broth), meatballs, chicken, or pork..or all 😛
• Round sirloin, London broil, flank steak or tri tip steak
• Yellow onion
• Scallions
• Cilantro

Garnish for Pho Recipe (Optional)

• Bean sprouts
• Hard Boiled Eggs
• Mint
• Basil
• Chiles
• Lime wedges
• Pickled cucumbers and onions
• Kimchi
• Pickled Daikon
  
  
  Step by Step How To Make the Pho Broth
•  Set baking rack 8 inches below heating element. Turn oven to low broil. Place the onion and ginger halves, cut side up, on a baking sheet. Brush the halves with a little bit of oil. Broil until the onion and ginger slightly charred, about 10 minutes, turning half-way. Remove from heat and cool.
• Parboil the beef bones: Fill a large stockpot (about 12 quart capacity) with water and bring to rapid boil. Carefully lower in the bones. Wait until the water returns to a hard boil. Boil vigorously for 3 minutes to release the impurities. Dump bones and water into a clean sink, and rinse the bones with water to wash off any clinging residue. Quickly scrub pot clean and fill with about 6 quarts of clean water. Return bones to pot. Add the charred onion, ginger, spices, beef, fish sauce, and sugar to pot.
• Bring water to boil over high heat, and lower heat to gentle simmer. Simmer, uncovered, for 1 1/2 hours.
• While simmering, use a ladle or fine-mesh strainer to spoon off any scum that rises on top.
• At this point, the boneless meat should be slightly chewy, but not tough. Use tongs to transfer the meat to a bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate. Meanwhile, maintain the broth at a steady simmer for 1 1/2 hours longer.
• Strain the broth through a fine-mesh sieve (or a coarse-mesh sieve lined with cheesecloth) positioned over a pot. Discard the remaining solids. Use ladle or fine meshed skimmer to skim as much fat as possible from the top of the broth. Taste and adjust the flavor with salt, fish sauce and sugar. There should be about 4 quarts (16 cups) of broth.
  Assemble the bowls
• If using dried rice noodles, cover them with hot tap water and let them soak for 15 minutes, or until they are pliable and opaque. Drain in a colander. If using fresh rice noodles, untangle them, place in a colander, and rinse briefly under cold running water.
• Cut the cooked beef across the grain into thin slices. Freeze the raw beef for 15 minutes, then slice it across the grain into very thin slices. Set all beef aside. Ready the raw onion, scallions, cilantro leaves for adding to the bowls. Arrange the garnishes on a plate and put on the table.
• To ensure good timing, bring the broth to a simmer over medium heat as you are assembling the bowls.
• At the same time, fill a separate large pot with water and boil. For each bowl, place a portion of the noodles on a strainer (or mesh sieve) and dunk the noodles in the boiling water for 10 seconds. Immediately pull the strainer from the water, letting the water drain back into the pot. Empty the noodles into a bowl.
• Top each bowl of noodles with cooked and raw beef, arranging the slices flat. Add a bit of raw onion, scallions, cilantro leaves to each bowl.
• The pho broth needs to be boiling hot, to cook the raw beef slices. Raise the heat of the broth to a boil. Do a final taste and make any last minute adjustments with fish sauce and sugar. Ladle about 2 cups of broth into each bowl. Serve immediately with plate of garnishes.

So, let’s get right to the Vietnamese Beef Pho Recipe!
Best Bones for This Vietnamese Pho Recipe
* Knuckle bones are the best to make the stock for pho recipe. The knobby knuckle bones, about the size of your fist, is full of gelatin – which gives body and richness to your broth. The knuckle bones make the biggest difference in your broth! You can find knuckle bones at Asian markets, but at regular supermarkets – you might have to ask your butcher.
*Leg bones is also essential for the pho broth. Take a look at the photo below. The bone that’s at 12-o’clock position is a leg bone that contains marrow. The marrow is good, but it’s extremely fatty. If I have a lot of marrow bones, I’ll scoop out the marrow with a small spoon or knife and discard after the par-boiling (see below). Having too much marrow will give you a greasy film on your pho broth.
*At Asian markets, bones for Vietnamese Pho are often sold in bags, already cut into 3″ sections, ready for broth making. Look in the freezer section if they don’t have the bones fresh. Nowhere near an Asian market? At a standard grocery store, ask your butcher for knuckle and leg bones with marrow. The leg bones is best cut into about 3-inch sections.
💚Can’t find leg or knuckle bones?
But let’s say that you can’t find leg/knuckle bones. That’s okay! Here’s what I use combination of these:
*3 pounds of whatever beef bones my market has
*1 pound oxtail bones
1* pound boneless beef chuck, rump, brisket or rib roast
Together, this combination will provide a rich, flavorful broth for Pho.
💚You must par-boil bones first.💚
*Bones are parboiled first in rapidly boiling water – this gets rid of the yucky impurities like blood particles and extra fat.
*You’ll see pink or gray foam float up to the surface as you boil. Let it come to a rapid, hard boil. Then after 3 minutes, dump out all of the water, rinse out your pot, rinse the bones, and refill with clean, cool water. *I know it’s an extra step, but this will give you the pure, clean-tasting broth.
Bone scum: this is what happens when you boil bones. That nasty stuff will end up in your hard-worked pho broth if you don’t dump it out!

Pho Vegetables and Herbs

Fresh mint, cilantro, basil, bean sprouts, limees, sliced chili peppers are just some of my favorite accompaniments.

💢Top Tips For This Vietnamese Pho Recipe💢

• Parboil bones first in rapidly boiling water – this gets rid of the yucky impurities like blood particles and extra fat.
• To make Vietnamese Pho low-carb, substitute the rice noodles for Shirataki noodles.
• The secret to slicing meat for Pho, is to cut ACROSS the grain.
•  Straining the scum and foam keeps your broth pure and clean. The lower the simmer, the less scum you have.

Enjoy!!!!

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