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SubscribeSaturday, February 9, 2008
Vietnamese Pho: Beef Noodle Soup
What the Pho?!
I’ve been working hard perfecting the techniques and recipe for Vietnamese Beef Noodle Soup, or Pho, just for you. It’s taken years of kitchen experiments, eating out and scouring for good recipes. Of all the cookbooks that I own, the best recipe that I’ve found for Pho is from:
Andrea Nguyen’s 
Into the Vietnamese Kitchen, which is one of the most comprehensive books on the cuisine of Vietnam. The book also won nominations for a James Beard Foundation award and two International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP). Definitely a must-have book for Asian food lovers.
So, let’s get right to the Vietnamese Beef Pho Recipe!
The dish is pronounced “fuh” and not “foo” or “foe” or “puh”
Yeah, Pho is cheap eat out…but to be able to make a home made version? Pretty Pho-king amazing, if you ask me.
Pho Spices
It’s best if you can get each spice separately, but I do find that the spice packets are pretty convenient. They cost less than $2.00 and even come with a mesh bag to put all the spices in. Spices include cinnamon sticks, cloves, coriander pods, star anise and cardamom. Whatever you do, don’t use the Pho spice paste that comes in a jar or can. Nasty stuff, that’s Pho-sho’.
Best Bones for Pho
Leg and knuckle bones are the best to make the stock. See that wonderful yellow marrow below in the photo? That’s pure flavoring that makes your Pho taste full, meaty and rich. But let’s say that you can’t find leg/knuckle bones. Go ahead and use whatever beef bones your supermarket has and just supplement with some oxtail bones or a pound of beef meat (rump, chuck, brisket, etc.) for extra flavor.
Bones are parboiled first for a good 10 minutes in rapidly boiling water – this gets rid of the yucky impurities like blood particles and extra fat. You’ll see gray foam float up to the surface as you boil. After 10 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.
This is just after blanching – the golden gelatinous goodness is where all the flavor and body is.
UPDATE 4/11/2010 I started getting comments of the broth being too greasy — and after 8 pots of testing, I found out why. When I normally make pho broth, I use a combination of knuckle and leg bones, normally with 20% of the bones having the marrow (below photo). When I started increasing the % of bones with marrow – the broth started getting too fatty. I guess too much of a good stuff is not a good thing! 
The fattiness is easy to remedy. Refrigerate overnight and just discard the layer of fat that accumulates on top. For best results though, keep the bones with marrow to 20%.
Charring Onions and Ginger
Charring or roasting the onions and ginger gives you a wonderfully mellow and naturally sweet flavor. I used to char over an open flame on my stovetop with a pair of tongs, but that got pretty tiring. Plus, metal tongs + long time over flame = very hothothot hands. So now, I just raise my oven rack to the highest position and turn my broiler on. See how golden the ginger gets?
Damn Scumbag!
So here is my broth boilin’ away with the mesh bag of spices, charred ginger, charred onions and beef bones. You can see floating bits of fat and the damn scumbag.
Fat & marrow bits = good eats. Try to keep that in the broth!
But gotta get rid of the scum! I use a very, very fine mesh strainer designed just for scum. heh. A scumbag strainer. Can you imagine if I had a line of cookware and tools – “Steamy Kitchen Scumbag Strainer.” Straining the scum keeps your broth pure and clean. The lower the simmer, the less scum you have.
A note on broth simmering time – I simmer the broth for 3 hours. According to both Andrea Nguyen and Corinne Trang (author of Authentic Vietnamese Cooking and former editor and director of Saveur’s test kitchen) – all of the flavors in the bone have been extracted after 3 hours.
Thin Sliced Meat
You can use a thinly sliced flank steak, london broil, sirloin, eye of round or tri-tip. Instead of beef slices, you could use beef balls (Bo Vien) found in the freezer section of your Asian market. The secret to cutting meat is to cut across the grain. You want your beef slices as thin as possible, and I always throw the whole chunk of meat in the freezer for 15 minutes to make it easier to slice thinly.
Pho Noodles
 |
Vietnamese Beef Noodle Soup typically uses rice noodles. You can buy them dried or fresh. I love the slippery softness of fresh noodles (look in the refrigerator or freezer section) Most restaurants will use dried, flat rice noodles. Look for ones that are medium thickness and flat like these. |
Pho-tastic Condiments
 |
On the tables of every Pho restaurant, you’ll see these two condiments, Cock Sauce (Sriracha hot chili sauce) and Hoisin Sauce. You can squirt and slather as much of these two condiments as you want…but I’m a purist.If I’m going to spend a couple of hours carefully crafting a rich, flavor-packed, clean soup – I better taste every damn drop. Condiment sauces just get in the way.
Sometimes, I’ll squirt a bit of each sauce in a little dish and dip my meat in the sauce as I take a bite. You ask….why do we call it Cock sauce? See that rooster on the bottle? |
Pho Vegetables and Herbs
Fresh mint, cilantro, basil, bean sprouts, limees, sliced chili peppers are just some of my favorite accompaniments. Set a plate at the table and your guests can pick and choose what they like.
Great Pho-tograph of fresh vegetables and herbs
Pho-Shizzle, My Bowl-o Noozle!!
Vietnamese Pho: Beef Noodle Soup Recipe
Adapted from my favorite Vietnamese cookbook
Sometimes, I omit the 1lb of beef meat in the broth (you'll see I've made it optional) - as I've found that as long as I have good bones, the broth will have enough flavor to not need the extra beef meat.
Ingredients:
THE BROTH
2 onions, halved
4" nub of ginger, halved lengthwise
5-6 lbs of good beef bones, preferably leg and knuckle
1 lb of beef meat - chuck, brisket, rump, cut into large slices [optional]
6 quarts of water
1 package of Pho Spices [1 cinnamon stick, 1 tbl coriander seeds, 1 tbl fennel seeds, 5 whole star anise, 1 cardamom pod, 6 whole cloves - in mesh bag]
1 1/2 tablespoons kosher salt (halve if using regular table salt)
1/4 cup fish sauce
1 inch chunk of yellow rock sugar (about 1 oz) - or 1oz of regular sugarTHE BOWLS
2 lbs rice noodles (dried or fresh)
cooked beef from the broth
1/2 lb flank, london broil, sirloin or eye of round, sliced as thin as possible.
big handful of each: mint, cilantro, basil
2 limes, cut into wedges
2-3 chili peppers, sliced
2 big handfuls of bean sprouts
Hoisin sauce
Sriracha hot sauceDirections:
Char: Turn your broiler on high and move rack to the highest spot. Place ginger and onions on baking sheet. Brush just a bit of cooking oil on the cut side of each. Broil on high until ginger and onions begin to char. Turn over and continue to char. This should take a total of 10-15 minutes.
Parboil the bones: Fill large pot (12-qt capacity) with cool water. Boil water, and then add the bones, keeping the heat on high. Boil vigorously for 10 minutes. Drain, rinse the bones and rinse out the pot. Refill pot with bones and 6 qts of cool water. Bring to boil over high heat and lower to simmer. Using a ladle or a fine mesh strainer, remove any scum that rises to the top.
Boil broth: Add ginger, onion, spice packet, beef, sugar, fish sauce, salt and simmer uncovered for 1 1/2 hours. Remove the beef meat and set aside (you'll be eating this meat later in the bowls) Continue simmering for another 1 1/2 hours. Strain broth and return the broth to the pot. Taste broth and adjust seasoning - this is a crucial step. If the broth's flavor doesn't quite shine yet, add 2 teaspoons more of fish sauce, large pinch of salt and a small nugget of rock sugar (or 1 teaspoon of regular sugar). Keep doing this until the broth tastes perfect.
Prepare noodles & meat: Slice your flank/london broil/sirloin as thin as possible - try freezing for 15 minutes prior to slicing to make it easier. Remember the cooked beef meat that was part of your broth? Cut or shred the meat and set aside. Arrange all other ingredients on a platter for the table. Your guests will "assemble" their own bowls. Follow the directions on your package of noodles - there are many different sizes and widths of rice noodles, so make sure you read the directions. For some fresh rice noodles, just a quick 5 second blanch in hot water is all that's needed. The package that I purchased (above) - needed about 45 seconds in boiling water.
Ladling: Bring your broth back to a boil. Line up your soup bowls next to the stove. Fill each bowl with rice noodles, shredded cooked beef and raw meat slices. As soon as the broth comes back to a boil, ladle into each bowl. the hot broth will cook your raw beef slices. Serve immediately. Guests can garnish their own bowls as they wish.
***
Crock Pot/Slow Cooker Pho Recipe
Don’t have time to man a stove? Use your crock pot or slow cooker!
Vietnamese Chicken Pho (Pho Ga) Recipe
Vietnamese Chicken Noodle Soup (Pho Ga)
***
Pho-Lovers Pho-Ever
Viet World Kitchen
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481 Responses to “Vietnamese Pho: Beef Noodle Soup”
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Interesting recepe, but we always order vegetable pho with egg noodle
Do you have any recipes. The pho we get at the restaurant has baby bok choy,
broccoli,carrot,bamboo shoots,and other vegetables, and has fried tofu also.
They bring us a dish with fresh bean sprouts,sprigs of basil,sliced jalapeno peppers,
and weges of lime. Not sure if the broth is chicken,beef, or pork.
We don’t text.
Thank you
SteamyKitchen replied: — November 14th, 2009 @ 4:44 pm
Ron-You can always make the pho as is, but also add some of the sliced vegetables that you’ve mentioned for a couple of minutes to cook.
Might also like this one: http://steamykitchen.com/139-vietnamese-chicken-noodle-soup-pho-ga.html
just add the vegetables to boil at the last minute.
jaden
I made the Pho soup and my family loved It !! I recently moved from California to Germany and have not found any good Pho restaurants here in Germany. We are so happy my family especially my German husband to have this recipe. It was absolutely YUMMI !
Thank you so much for posting your recipes online it was fantastic.
Nicole Kretz
I completely agree with you! I am such a purist with my pho. I want to appreciate it the way it was made, that’s how you know you have a good recipe or chef=) My husband on the other hand has this ritual where he takes longer to add ingredients than to eat it, lol.
The way you describe stuff is soo fun! The pho is gonna be delicious because i’m making it now! I am adding meatballs, and tend ant.
I was looking up a veg version and wanted to ensure closeness in technique to the beefy one; I found your explanation of the step-by-step technique really useful! Thanks for demystifying this! (veg pho rocks, too, btw!)
When it comes to finding the right beef, I have found if you go to an Asian market, they will sell the flank steak and other types beef sliced very thin already. Tripe and other hard to find product will be there too.
Soak 3-4 lb oxtail with salt water for 2 hrs. Clean bones well and placed in slow cooker machine (I used a 7 quart slow cooker machine). Bake 1 onion and ginger in oven. Remove from oven, sliced ginger, and placed onion and ginger in slow cooker machine. From the oven, cook water in another pot. After it boil, pour in slow cooker machine. Set high for 6 hours. Go to work, school, sleep, or wherever.
Now just add seasoning. The soup base is very clear and taste way better than restaurant. No need to be around the kitchen. Good luck.
I never laughed so much reading a recipe, as that for your pho! “Damned scumbag!” Oh my goodness, you made reading this so much fun, that what started out as a half-hearted attempt (the soup I’ve tasted from Paris to Flushing has been so outstanding) to one giving my best effort! Wish me luck, and no matter what, I’ve really enjoyed your site. Thanks again!
I made the ‘Pho-Shizzle, My Bowl-o Noozle!!’ the other day. It turned out terrific! Our VN exchange student was gone that day so I had him try it when he returned home. He said it was better than his own mother’s. Ok, probalby best for him not to tell her that. Much thanks!
I’ve have Pho on several occasions, but this is the first time I’ve made it. I followed your recipe, and it turned out great. This will be my go to recipe the next time I have a craving for pho.
Amazing recipe! I’ve started substituting a fresh pineapple instead of sugar in the stock. Acid helps tenderize – along with the sweetness.
Great Recipe. I made pho for 10 of my friends and they all agree that this pho recipe is better than some of the pho restaurants they’ve tried….and we’re from northern va! so that says A LOT.
We decided we needed to get our Pho on… so we went to our local Ranch 99 (The power of Ranch 99 is amazing!!). As we were searching for the Pho spice pack (they didn’t have the one this recipe mentions) we moved down the aisle to find yellow sugar when we ran into another caucasian couple asking an employee questions about spice packets for Pho. “So are you guys making Pho too?!” They said, “YES!” I asked, “Where did you get your recipe from?” They replied, “Steamy Kitchen!” You my dear, are everywhere! We were in Cupertino, CA.
.. anyone working in the kitchen of PHO HOA in El Cajon Blvd. San Diego? Dude.. share us the secret of your broth! You have the best pho soup broth, the bench mark that I compare with of all the phos I’ve had!
April Roberts: that’s tripe! Cow intestines. I’ve never tried it in Pho but I go all the time with my friends and they love it. Maybe I would have tried it if I didn’t know what it was…
SteamyKitchen, Thanks for sharing the pho recipe and it works great at my kitchen too.
Check out here: http://www.mywisewife.com/home-kitchen-recipe-vietnamese-noodle-soup-pho-with-pork-balls-and-spare-ribs.html
Otherwise, I wouldn’t know what to do with the pho spices I bought. Many thanks again!
Thank you so much for posting this online! This saves me a trip from visiting the local Pho restaurants on a daily basis b/c I love eating this so much! now I can just make my own–all with organic ingredients….b/c who KNOWS where those mom and pop vietnamese restaurants get their beef to make the broth!!! Now I can avoid the restaurant staff more frequently b/c as anyone who patronizes vietnamese restaurants know, the service is always poor but the food is always cheap and delicious!
OMG…just checked your bio on this blog. You are like a asian Rachel Ray but ONLY BETTER b/c you KNOW asian food and I feel like Ms. Ray just does goopy generic foods…. Your technique on the detail, say for example on this pho dish, has the same level of detail that I see on sites like Martha Stewart, which I highly respect. I would compare you to Martha Stewart as far as technique and good food goes but your blog on this recipe is too happy (and not uptight) to be 100% Marthat Stewart!! Maybe now you can search out more fantastic asian foods…like some authentic Thai or Asian Indian food….so I will definitely be returning here to see what other great asian recipes you have! =)
Your beef pho came top when I searched and I understand WHY, wonderful post with the step-by-step and GORGEOUS photos! Love “scumbag strainer” idea, very funny. Well, I have to sub a lot with this, don’t have half of stuff. Your handwriting is so artistic.
Thanks Eleanor! jaden
My beef pho must have turned out O.K. cause hubz kept saying, “umm, delicious, very good.” Very pleased with my first attempt. Your instructions were very helpful, I could decide what I wanted to leave in or take out cause I understood WHY, always a good thing. Thnx for guidance.
Hi! I thoroughly enjoyed reading your post; it’s really marvelous of you to display your efforts here and share!
But I have a question: in addition to the simmered spices that you mention, i was instructed by one cook many years ago to also include sliced betel-nut. Have you ever heard of using this ingredient in pho? I, myself, have yet to see a printed recipe that calls for it, although that could be because it is sometimes difficult to find here in the states…or it could have been her personal twist- I have no clue!
SteamyKitchen replied: — January 28th, 2010 @ 5:45 pm
I think it’s a personal twist- I haven’t seen a pho recipe that called for betel nut
Pelicano replied: — January 28th, 2010 @ 7:54 pm
Here’s a chuckle: I did some searching and found absolutely nothing that indicates betel-nuts should ever be included in pho bo (short of beef wrapped in betel-leaves), but…I think I solved the mystery! I found there are some who add grated or sliced nutmeg to pho!
So…either I misunderstood, or the lady at the shop confused the English name for these with that of betel-nut.
simon replied: — April 27th, 2010 @ 6:19 pm
I suspect, Pelicano, that the cook of years past whom you referred to, really meant Cardamon pods or seeds as these do look somewhat like betel nuts. I think this is a very likely scenario…?
my broth turned out to greasy. i used all beef bones and skimmed during simmering. any suggestions what went wrong?
SteamyKitchen replied: — February 10th, 2010 @ 10:18 pm
Hi Joyce,
Did you pre-boil the bones? Did you follow the directions exactly? Hard to tell you an answer without seeing photos or knowing what you changed in the recipe.
joyce w replied: — February 11th, 2010 @ 5:56 pm
i preboiled the bones for 10 min. as stated and used the suggested bones. i did not remove the extra bits attached to them. could that have something to do with it or maybe i simmered it to high? i followed the recipe exactly, i even looked it over and over to make sure i didn’t overlook something.
SteamyKitchen replied: — April 17th, 2010 @ 8:22 am
Found the solution! See above update inside the post – it’s in bold and red.
I am a caucasion and a strict vegetarian. My wife is Chinese-Vietnamese and loves Pho. I won’t go to a Pho restaurant because apparently the very nature of Pho is that it contains animal flesh. My wife knows how to make it, but, won’t bother, because I won’t eat it. Are there any recipes for Pho which can give the same flavor without animal flesh?
SteamyKitchen replied: — February 15th, 2010 @ 11:08 pm
Use a vegetable broth but with the same charred ginger/onion and spice packet.
I’ve tried this recipe twice and I just can’t seem to get it right. The first time I used some frozen assorted beef bones from my Asian market and the broth came out very dark and sick looking. I’m pretty sure they were the wrong kind of bones because they didn’t have much marrow and there were not as many leg/knuckle bones as the others. The broth tasted very bland which was surprising as it smelled very nice while it was cooking. I figured the reason for the blandness was the wrong type of bone, so today I purchased some “beef marrow bones for broth” from a chain grocery store that appeared to have a lot of marrow and appeared to be leg bones though they weren’t labeled as such. This time around the broth came out looking more like how I’m used to seeing it in restaurants and when my aunt makes it, but the taste was still very bland and watery. I had the broth simmering VERY low but I thought that as long as there were still small bubbles going it should be fine. I used regular sugar (2 tbsp.) because I couldn’t find rock sugar and I didn’t add any of the optional sliced beef to the broth to simmer both times. I was skimming oil and filmy residue off of the top of the broth every so often so I don’t think that was a problem, it just didn’t seem like there was that powerful beef flavor in the broth like I am used to. I’ve never made a broth like this before, any idea what I could be doing wrong?
SteamyKitchen replied: — February 15th, 2010 @ 11:38 pm
@hjk You should try following my recipe as-is first before making variations. It’s really hard to help you if there are so many variables! Bland stock may mean a) not enough bones b) bad quality bones. Next time, add a tablespoon of fish sauce to see if the flavor wakes up!
also a note to @hjk and @joyce the quality of your stock all depends on the quality of what you start with – the bones. And that’s try of any soup/stock/broth recipe. Remember that soup is just bones and/or meat plus water. So if your soup is greasy, and you didn’t add any grease…then it must have come from one of your ingredients.
Thanks Steamy Kitchen for this recipe. When I was growing up, my Dad used to make pho every weekend. We were so spoiled! I haven’t had Dad’s pho in years and made this recipe for my family this past weekend and fell in love with pho all over again. I even called my Dad to tell him!
I noticed that the marrow was not all dissolved out of the beef bones, there was still some in there, perhaps a longer simmer would give my broth more flavor and help bring that marrow out?
I live in Northern Virginia, They have a huge Vietnamese-American shopping center. I think They have the best Pho-Vietnamese food I’ve ever had. It’sa in Falls Chhurch,Va. And you have to try each and every restaurant in there.
Just wanted you to know that I’ve made this recipe three times, the last time I used a roast beef (not flank steak) that was leftover and all the juices from it for the broth, sans the fat which I peeled off the top. It really tasted very close to the original. Also, made my own home-made rice noodles from scratch with a steamer, it was pure heaven. Thanks so much for posting this recipe and making feel so easy to accomplish!
Hi!
I have made the beef pho but I have not tried the chicken….my family absolutely loved the beef, especially with the fresh limes and herbs and bean sprouts….I am going to try your chicken recipe….thanks for posting it!
I’ve made this recipe a few times and in order for me to make it work was to finely strain the broth with a coliander lined with paper towels. Otherwise it will come out greasy. The paper towels will soak up the excess grease and you will have a very clear broth. After that it’s very very good!!!
SteamyKitchen replied: — April 17th, 2010 @ 8:24 am
Michael – I found the problem of the fattiness of broth! And of course I have a solution – see above update inside the post – bold and red text.
We have tried this recipe for the first time today, it smeels really good but tastes pretty plain. We visited Ho Chi Minh city in Jan and want to get the same flavour we tasted there! Oh well we will keep trying.
SteamyKitchen replied: — March 7th, 2010 @ 9:32 am
If the broth tastes bland, add another 2 teaspoons of fish sauce! That’s how to adjust the flavor of pho.
I’m almost done with the simmering and heading towards preparing the Pho to eat. However, the liquid level in my pot keeps getting quite low, so I’ve added about two additional quarts of water during the simmering process. Is this supposed to happen, or have I been cooking the broth at too high of a temp?
SteamyKitchen replied: — March 7th, 2010 @ 10:57 pm
everyone’s stove is different – your’s might run hotter. sounds like you’re almost finished w/the simmering so– just stop and serve!
Thanks, I’ll try that next time. I’m a foreigner to the kitchen, so it’s all a learning process for me! Your descriptions, pictures and directions are PERFECT for a novice like myself. Thanks so much for all of your work.
-Lisa
When adding water for the stock, can i replace half of the water needed with chicken stock to give it more flavor???
SteamyKitchen replied: — March 9th, 2010 @ 11:01 am
yes you can if you would like!
Thanks for this recipe. I made the broth last night and put in the fridge overnight. Before I did, I tasted and it still was missing something, though maybe it just needs the sugar/salt/fish sauce addition. Do you not typically leave the onions in (sliced up) or green onions, cilantro etc?
SteamyKitchen replied: — March 9th, 2010 @ 4:50 pm
As I mentioned in the recipe- you have to adjust the broth with the fish sauce, sugar!
Very good!
ANjai replied: — March 9th, 2010 @ 6:10 pm
I agree it tastes wonderful. How do I get rid of the oil in the soup?
SteamyKitchen replied: — March 9th, 2010 @ 6:24 pm
You can refrigerate the stock for a few hours and the fat will float up to the top and solidify. Otherwise you can just skim top with a large spoon.
Can you use purchased beef stock and add the ginger and spices or will it not taste right? I would love to try this recipe but 3 or more hours seems so long!
SteamyKitchen replied: — March 12th, 2010 @ 10:23 am
Well, for Chicken Pho, I would say, YES! But canned beef stock tastes like crap. Do you have a slow cooker? I have a recipe for Pho using slow cooker – there’s a link for it above!
Josee replied: — April 3rd, 2010 @ 8:11 pm
Hi Angela,
I just made the Beef Pho Soup with a mixture of Knorr Beef Broth and Beef Bovril and it was excellent. I also added 3 garlic cloves halved. I didn’t put the spices in a bag – I just strained the broth once it was done. I cooked it for approximately 1 hour. I took out the cinnamon stick and half of a star anise after 15 minutes, because the tast can be overwhelming. When serving the soup, I added hoisin sauce, chili sauce and Kecap Manis (it’s like a thick sweet soya sauce) – Absolutement YUMMY…
Hope this helps !!!
Josée
ahahaha… i just made it but for one mistake, 1/2 cup of fish sauce instead of 1/4, so i added a bit more beef and water to compensate, hope it’ll be alrite lol…
I made it!!!! Everyone at home said it was delicious.except for, I wasn’t hungry, cause I tasted it so many times during the preparation phase… lets hope tomorrow I can appreciate it more =)
The best pho I ever tasted was in Seattle, @ Pho Than Brothers.I would have my pho there every other day.I tasted it @ many other places, it never tasted as great and addictive.
Thanks for a great recipe, it was fun making it, and turned out pretty close to what I was used to.
This got made on Sunday! I have made your chicken pho recipe previously (well the recipe from your blog). Now, we loved that one. This beef one, we also liked, BUT (of course!) we found that the broth ended up very oily!
I guess the leg bones I had contained too much fat, which melted into the broth? I will try to trim most fat off the bones next time, all I did this time was plunk them in, parboil, rinse, then boil broth.
For our second meal, when the broth was in the fridge we skimmed off the solidified fat and that should be much better, less oily. Great flavours, though! I think we will add 2-3 dried chilies to the mesh spices next time, we love heat.
Oh and we have tons of good pho restaurants here in Ottawa, Ontario (large Vietnamese population), so I am lucky enough to know a good pho when I taste one!
Is there a particular brand for pho spice mix you use??
SteamyKitchen replied: — April 1st, 2010 @ 2:31 am
Hey Ari- I don’t remember what brand I use – each time I go to the Viet market, it’s a different brand!
Even with two Asian supermarkets not too far away, I can’t find any beef bones except neckbones. They’re very meaty, and so even without as much marrow I’m sure they’ll give a decent flavor, but still . . . Any suggestions on getting the leg and knuckle bones in whitebread Atlanta?
Hello…
I’m a giewlo or haole living in Asia for many years. I love ur suggestions on food. I’m trying them out will update u. Danke Danke.. Merci..Todd
Hi
Just a note to say thank you. I made this soup for some friends and it went down and absolute treat. I have to confess myself even I really enjoyed it which for me is unusual when I cook.
Well done
Paul
SteamyKitchen replied: — April 14th, 2010 @ 4:17 pm
Well done to YOU!
Just wanted to say thank you jaden… This soup turned out fantastic!!! Cheers!
SteamyKitchen replied: — April 14th, 2010 @ 4:17 pm
Thank you Eman!
I’m currently making my 2nd pot of this, the first pot was absolutely divine. One difference I do is I toast the spices in a small skillet for couple of minutes before bagging them and putting them in the soup. Seems to bring out more flavor. I also put too many noodles in the bowls the first time, ended up with way too many noodles and not enough broth. The broth is what is so beautiful about this dish in my opinion. Thank you for such a fantastic recipe… I think my next Amazon order is going to be your book!
thanks for the lovely recipe!:) I really enjoyed it.
Thank you for the Pho recipe. I used to labor for hours to make Pho and it still doesn’t taste good. But I found this awesome new Pho-making kit called Happy Pho by this woman who used her grandparents’ recipe to make them. They come in a box with a spice packet and a pack of pho noodles for 2 people. I was skeptical at first, but they have a simple recipe at the back that takes 15 mins. All I need to get is some chicken or beef broth and fresh ingredients, and the Pho that came out is absolutely delicious! It’s also all natural and organic and made with brown rice. Check out their products here http://staranisefoods.com/our-products.aspx. I got them from Whole Foods in SoMa. But you can also get them from Amazon.com I think. I’ve also joined their facebook page http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Star-Anise-Foods/111447418877428 — and just went to their product demo for some free tasting of all flavors. Love it!
Thanks for recipe. We are very exicted to try it out. Do you know if the broth freezes/stores well? We would like to make a large quantity so we can have it whenever we like.
actually the fat on top of the broth should be saved and used sparingly…maybe a spoonful or so in a bowl of pho! according a a Vietnamese expert (cookbook writer/blogger/etc.) this is classic deluxe pho because there is so little fat with so much broth. adds to taste and mouth feel. if you want to throw it out…send it to me!
my site http://dmreed.com includes my Asian cookbook collection and some Asian recipes plus a lot of other stuff.