Stateside Pho

Must be Pho week or sommit in the States. Or is it a pre-Tet thing?? The Washington Times has its face stuffed in a bowl. The Miami New Times gets poetic (kind of) on the east coast and the Contra Costa Times (registration required) brings us a recipe, a list of do's and dont's and 'phocabulary' for pho beginners. Here's a few snippets and the recipe from Jessica Yadegaran's piece in the Contra Costa Times,

"You don't want to put hoisin sauce in it," insists Anh Bui, 45, of Oakland, referring to the South Vietnamese tradition of adding sauce and bean sprouts. Bui grew up in the north....

...Bui got her pho fixes from vendors who worked the city streets selling beef balls and noodles in broth. This was in the 1970s. Back then, a bowl cost 150 dong, or about 15 cents, and the vendors leaned on their bamboo carts arguing whose pho recipe was best...

It was bargainsville way back then, ehh? Hardly breaks the bank now though. Pho costs between 5,000VD (30c) on cheap street and 24,000VD ($1.50) at swish diner Pho 24.

"The most important thing about pho is the broth," says Hung Le, owner and executive chef at Walnut Creek's Three Seasons, an upscale Vietnamese restaurant where pho is only served at lunch and costs $10. Like a French saucier, Le spends hours and hours on his stock: blanching bones, skimming residue and simmering spices in a bag. "You want it to be pure and clean but still full of flavor."

Ten bucks. Yowsers. That's 33 street bowls in Saigon. Is it worth it? Pho's good, but 10 dollar's good? Anyway, here's the recipe from the Contra Costa Times,

Pho Bo (Beef and Rice Noodle Soup)

Serves 8-20

Making pho is a long and arduous process. But once the stock and meats are cooked, it's a cinch to whip up a bowl -- or 8. The recipe below, courtesy of Hung Le, executive chef and owner at Three Seasons in Walnut Creek, produces a more refined stock than you might find at your average pho house. It makes enough meat and stock for 20 bowls of pho. The amounts of garnish listed are appropriate for 8 bowls. If the recipe looks too intimidating, don't think twice about buying your pho. "We never cooked pho at home," says Anh Bui, of Oakland, who grew up in Hanoi. "It was too involved."

FOR BROTH AND MEAT (ENOUGH FOR 20):

7 pounds beef bones with marrow

5 pounds beef brisket

6 pounds oxtails

6 pounds beef back ribs

1 medium onion, peeled and charred directly over a gas burner

9 pieces star anise

6 cinnamon sticks

7 dried cardamom pods

10 whole cloves

1 tablespoon black and white pepper (whole kernel)

1 ounce licorice root (optional)

4 small long white radishes (daikon), peeled and cut into 2-inch chunks

3 pounds celery, washed and trimmed at base, cut into 2-inch pieces

2 teaspoons salt

3 small rock-candy crystals

FOR 8 BOWLS:

11/2 pounds 1/4-inch wide dried rice sticks (banh pho)

3 scallions, thinly sliced

1/4 cup shredded cilantro

1 medium onion, sliced paper-thin

Freshly ground black pepper

ACCOMPANIMENTS:

4 fresh red or green chile peppers, sliced

3 limes, cut into wedges

1 bunch of fresh mint, separated into leaves

1 bunch of Thai basil, separated into leaves

1/2 cup hot chile sauce

1/2 cup hoisin sauce

1. Rinse the bones with cold water and soak for 2 hours in a pot. Drain.

2. Place the beef brisket, oxtails, beef back ribs and beef bones in an extra large stockpot. Add water to cover and bring it to a boil. Simmer for about 15 minutes. Drain. Rinse the pot, bones and meat.

3. Bring the bones and meat back to the pot and add water to cover. Bring to a boil, skimming the surface to remove the foam until it ceases to rise. Add 2 quarts more cold water and bring back to a boil. Skim off all of the residue that forms on the top. Set the heat to low and simmer for one hour.

4. Tie the charred onion, star anise, dried cardamom, cinnamon sticks, cloves, white and black peppers and licorice in a cheesecloth. Add the spice bag in the simmering broth. Simmer for 1 hour.

5. Add celery and radishes and simmer for another hour. Remove the beef brisket, oxtails and back ribs, allow to cool and pull the meat away from the bones and reserve it. Thinly slice the beef brisket. Slice the rib and oxtail meat into small chunks. Set aside.

6. Simmer stock for one more hour, then remove and discard all of the bones. Strain the broth through a strainer lined with a cheesecloth into a clean pot. Add the fish sauce, salt, black pepper and rock-candy crystals, and bring the broth to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer the broth. Broth can be prepared ahead to this point and refrigerated.

7. When ready to serve, bring 5 quarts of water to a boil. Drop the noodles in the boiling water. Drain immediately.

8. Combine the sliced scallions, shredded cilantro and sliced onion. Set aside.

9. Divide noodles in large soup bowls. Top the noodles with meats. Ladle hot broth over the meat and noodles. Garnish with the scallion mixture and black pepper. Serve with the accompaniments on the side as desired.

Comments

[Reid]

Hi Noodlepie,

That recipe for pho looks quite complex. How they can take the time to make it and sell it so cheaply AND at a profit, is beyond me. Maybe that's why most pho places here sell it for about US$5.00!

[Christine]

Celery in pho? I've never heard of that and neither has my stepmom. But wow, I've never seen an actual recipe for pho and i've never realized that there were THAT many ingredients! I guess that's why we don't cook it that often.

[Nhi Torres]

Wow...this is the most extensive recipe I've seen on the web. I've seen many recipes with much less spices in it. This is the first time I've seen celery actually mentioned as being used. In most recipes, it calls for Coriander seeds which are from celery plants. For me it is not that time consuming because I use my pressure cooker to initially cook the bones for that 15 minutes but it only takes 3 minutes. I then put the bones into a crockpot full of water over night. In the morning, I have my beef stock and then I add the spices, onions and ginger for an extra hour or so and then ta-da...it's done. Thank goodness for modern appliances. ;)