Filed under: main course, masterlist, red meat | Tags: bean sprouts, beef, broth, cardamom, cilantro, cloves, ginger, noodle, onion, slow cooking, soup, star anise, Thai basil, Vietnamese
Item 5: phở
I was down with a light case of sniffles and sore throat last week. It’s not bad enough to consider myself a full-blown flu victim, but I did fall into that intolerable whinge-y mode that I normally adopt when I get sick. Anyway, times like this makes me reach out for a bowl of warm, satisfying soup. Sorry, Jewish grandmas, I don’t want chicken soup. I want something heavier, more filling. I want Vietnamese pho.
I always assume pho to be one of those dishes where it’s easier, and cheaper, to order from the restaurant. But it’s time to test that assumption. Unlike Chinese noodle and wonton soup, where the soup is usually an afterthought, the beef broth in pho is the star of the dish. No amount of fresh Thai basil or crunchy bean sprouts can elevate a bowl of inferior soup. This means I cannot skim on the beef bones or the spices. And no rushing! This broth needs to be slowly simmered to develop its rich flavour.
I tried out Steamy Kitchen‘s pho recipe. One look at the extremely LONG ingredient list and I remember why exactly I’m so unenthusiastic about making pho. That’s a long-ass grocery list for ONE dish.
Difficulty: Again, much like most of the recipes on my list, this is not difficult per se. It’s just time-consuming. Honestly, there’s nothing difficult about throwing a bunch of beef bones, onions and spices into a big pot. (And that’s after I slightly char the ginger and onions under the broiler.) But it did take me a good afternoon to buy everything. And really, half of that time was taken up by the impossibly crowded Asian supermarket. I swear, you need to be fluent in three languages in order to pick out what you need from the haphazardly-stocked shelves. Also, I’m not going back there on a weekend.
On thing I like to do when I make broth (chicken or beef) is to stick the whole pot into the fridge when I’m done cooking and then skim away the top layer of fat the next day. The fatty bits of meat is rich with flavour and I try not to trim away too much of it beforehand. So that’s an extra time-consuming step.
Room for improvement: I followed the recipe exactly, an yet, it tastes like there’s something missing (see below).
Tastiness: The finished product was spicy, delicious and rich. Very beefy. But it’s not an exact facsimile of the restaurant version. It’s hard to describe what’s so … lacking … about it. It certainly has the right combination of spices and it’s adequately seasoned with salt and fish sauce. I suspect that’s because I didn’t add any MSG to it, and not because of inferior ingredients or cooking skills. So good news, you know exactly what’s in your food; bad news, it pales in comparison to the Golden Turtle‘s pho.
Worth the effort? Depends. There’s nothing more enjoyable than a warm bowl of pho on a cold windy day. But the DIY version takes away the immediate gratification. It took me an afternoon to gather all the ingredients, and another 4 hours to prep and cook the broth. By then it was too late and I was too tired to have any of it. (I think, no joke, I had half a bag of cashews and a can of V8 for dinner that night. Balanced!) And when you think about it, a big bowl of pho usually cost about $7.50 at the restaurant. I think I’ll just eat out the next time. But I’m willing to make the broth from scratch when I have time. Only because it seems like that’s the healthier way to do it.
Items I purchased specifically for this recipe: loads of spices (star anise, cloves, cardamom) that I have no idea what to do with. I’ll probably call up my mom and see what she’ll suggest.
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