If you’re new to pho, it’s much harder to know how to pronounce it right than to make it. Pho is all about the broth, but you can make a doggone good broth without simmering bones all day! 🐾 And it’s pretty hard to ruin it too. Just put a little heart and soul into it and you’ll have a flavorful bowl of magic in about an hour or two!
You will need a few ingredients you probably won’t find at Piggly Wiggly or your average local American grocery store though. Scroll down to the ingredients to make sure you can find the items you’ll need. And if you can’t, tell your local store to stock this stuff cuz everyone should be able to enjoy a good bowl of pho no matter where they live!
The beef you use should be sliced very thin, so it cooks in the bowl the moment you add your broth to serve. It’s easier to slice the meat if it’s partially frozen. Or you can just buy it already sliced thin at your local Asian market.
I also suggest you use a good fish sauce. The best way to tell if it’s good is to pour a few tablespoons on your spouse’s pillow and see how long she/he can handle the smell. It should take less than a minute before the pillow is thrown in the garbage outside. If not, you have crap fish sauce. Okay, maybe not. But if it looks American it’s probably not the most authentic. Here’s what I use, and you should be able to find it at your nearest Asian market (see photo below).
Serves 4
1.5 hours (though you can simmer the broth longer if you like)
INGREDIENTS:
For the broth:
- 8 cups of beef broth (Swanson is the clearest in my experience – cloudy broth is not good broth!)
- 1 Pho Bo boullion cube (I use Bao Long. If you can’t find it a regular beef broth cube will work)
- 4 cups of water
- 1 yellow onion, peeled
- 1 large shallot, peeled
- 4 garlic cloves, whole
- 2” piece of ginger, peeled
- 6 – 8 Thai chili peppers, both red and green (or 2 jalapenos), stemmed (and seeded if you like) – This will add a slight zing to the broth but won’t make it super hot. If you’re a heat wussie you can omit this.
- 2 stalks of lemongrass, trimmed and crushed slightly with the side of a knife
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 2 – 3 black cardamom pods
- 4 – 5 green cardamom pods
- 12 – 15 black peppercorns
- 6 – 7 whole nutmeg
- 5 – 7 whole star anise pods
- 2 – 3 tbsp of fish sauce
- 2 tbsp of crystal rock candy (it’s like sugar, crystallized and in big chunks)
To complete the soup:
- 1 pack of pho noodles
- 1 lb thinly sliced beef (like, as close to paper thin as you can get)
- 1 yellow onion, halved then thinly sliced
- Thai chili peppers, both red and green, sliced (or jalapeno) – you choose how many according to your heat preference
- Thai basil leaves (or Italian basil if you can’t get Thai)
- 3 green onions, thinly sliced (just the green parts)
RECIPE:
Turn the oven to broil.
Add the broth, boullion cube and water to a large stock pot and bring to a boil over high heat. While it heats up, put the next 5 ingredients in a baking pan and place in the oven to broil. Let them brown a little bit to bring out their flavor and then add them to the broth. The smaller items will brown quicker so be sure to take them out before the larger items or they’ll burn. Once the broth is boiling, lower it to medium low heat and allow it to simmer.
Add the lemongrass, cinnamon stick and next 5 ingredients to the broth. If you have a cheesecloth bag you can put the herbs inside and tie it shut to keep them from swimming all over the broth. Add the fish sauce and rock candy. Give the broth a taste test and see if it needs any adjusting. Let it simmer for at least an hour. You may have to add more water, beef broth, or boullion at some point to adjust the taste as it boils down.
Cook the noodles according to package directions. Drain in a colander and rinse lightly with cold water.
Pour the broth through cheesecloth into another pot to clear out the solids and put the nice, clean broth back on the stove to simmer. Once simmering, you’re free to assemble the bowls and serve but there’s nothing wrong with letting it simmer further to your liking.
Place a handful of the noodles in each of the bowls then add some of the sliced onions and the raw beef. The meat will cook through when you ladle the broth over it if you have it nice and thin. That doesn’t fly with my wife, who likes her meat super done. If that’s you, you can swish the meat in the simmering broth prior to adding it to the bowl to serve.
Ladle hot broth over the mixture. Top with sliced chili peppers to your heat preference, green onions, and finally the basil and it’s ready to serve!
