Family Recipe Special: Pho

by Danny Pham

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Family meal has been a tradition of Vietnamese people for many years, especially my family. It is a great time for me, my sister, cousins, uncle, aunt as well as my grandparents to gather. We talk, tell stories about what has happened that day, watch comedy, shows as well as listening to music. Each meal we have various food like braised meat with eggs, sautéed spinach, papaya soup, … We all enjoy them. But the food we enjoy most is “Pho”, which is Vietnamese traditional food and we made them every weekend or special events like: an anniversary, Tet, and National Day. In my opinion, my grandpa is the one who makes the best “Pho” ever.

“Pho” is a type of rice noodle dish can be made with many type: beef, chicken meat, or pork. However, our favorite is beef which is usually called “pho bo”. Beside it, there are some delicious alternatives soup dishes: “hu tieu”, “bun bo hue”, “mi quang” but “Pho” cannot be replaced.

After interviewing my grandpa, I came up with a special recipe.

- Ingredients:

• 4.5 lbs of beef bone

• 2.2 lbs of beef fillet

• 2.2 lbs of “pho” noodles

• 0.8 lb of onion

• 0.4 lb lemon grass

• Purple onion

• Ginger

• Herbal broth: dried cinnamon, cardamom, tangerine peel, star anise, cloves, coriander seeds.

• Vegetables served: scallions, cilantro, coriander, lemon, chili, basil, braised vegetables.

• Spices for beef noodle soup: salt, fish sauce, seasoning, rock sugar.

- How to make: 1. Process ingredients:

• Peeled onion, 1 part thinly sliced, 1 part cut areca

• Wash coriander, cut into small pieces.

• Green onions, keep the head of the onion separate, the leaves are finely chopped

• The accompanying vegetables are washed and dried.

2. Soup spices package:

• Put dried cinnamon, cardamom, peel, star anise, cloves, coriander seeds into a cloth bag, tie it up.

3. How to make “Pho” soup:

• Wash beef bones. Put a pot of water on the stove with a little lemongrass and bring to a boil. Put the bones in the blanching to remove the bad smell.

• Take out the blanched bones, put in a tray with ginger, red onion, and cut onion and bake until the bones are golden, remove the bones from the oven, and immediately put them in a bowl of ice water.

• Bring a pot of water to a boil, put the grilled beef bones, the seasoning packet, the grilled onion, ginger, and lemongrass into the pot of water. Stew the bones for about 5-6 hours for fresh water. While the bones are stewing, add the beef and boil until cooked. Note that when the beef is cooked, take it out immediately, if it is left for too long, the meat will become soft. Then remove the ingredients, filter the broth. Put the pot of filtered broth on the stove, season with a little salt, monosodium glutamate, seasoning seeds, rock sugar to taste, bring to a boil and turn off the stove.

4. Present and Enjoy:

• Clean beef fillet and thinly sliced.

• Thinly sliced ​​corned beef.

• Blanch the bean sprouts and onion heads in boiling water.

• Blanch rice noodles in boiling water.

• Put the bean sprouts, onion head, and rice noodle in a bowl, arrange beef, fillet, scallions, cilantro, onion, sliced ​​chili and then add broth.

• Enjoy pho with accompanying vegetables, chili sauce, black sauce.