Vietnamese Pho Soup

K

Kimchee

Guest
Which is technically pronounced 'fuh'. But no one knows what it is, so I say "foe".

Vietnamese Pho Soup
This makes a pretty big pot of soup. The broth freezes well, but you can cut it in half too; just halve the ingredients.

Oxtail might sound like an unappetizing cut of meat, but it is similar to beef ribs. The benefit to using it is that it has a lot of collagen, which imparts much flavor to the broth. If you can't wrap your mind around it, substitute beef short ribs, chuck, or anything with good marbling.

Ingredients for the Broth:
2-3 pounds Oxtail
3-4 pounds beef marrow bones. Find a local butcher shop and see if they have them
3 inch piece of ginger, unpeeled
1 large onion, halved, unpeeled
1/3 cup Fish Sauce (I like 3 Crabs brand, or Squid brand)
8 whole star anise
7 whole cloves
3 inch stick of cinnamon
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
3 bay leaves
1 teaspoon black peppercorns
2 tablespoons brown sugar. (1 inch chunk of palm sugar preferred)

Ingredients for the garnish:
1 pound of 1/4 inch wide rice noodles. (These are usually quite long and are folded over. I like to break them before cooking.)
Fresh cilantro
Fresh Thai Holy Basil (Ask for it in Asian market)
Fresh mung bean sprouts
Lime wedges
Sliced jalapenos or Thai chilies, if you like heat
Very thinly sliced beef. Look for breakfast steaks, or for frozen thin sliced steak. If you have a Latin grocery store, check there.

Condiments for the table:
Sriracha sauce
Hoisin sauce

Put the oxtails and bones into enough water to cover and boil for ten minutes. Drain water, rinse bones with hot water. This will help cut down on the 'scum' produced.

Place back in pot, fill with 6-8 quarts of liquid. I use 2 quarts of beef stock and water. Bring to a boil, reduce to simmer.
Skim the froth that forms as needed.

Meanwhile, char the ginger and onion over an open flame or in the broiler. When they are nicely blackened, let cool and scrap most of the char off. Cut the ginger into three pieces. Toss ginger and onion into the simmering broth. Add the sugar, 2-3 tsp of salt and the 1/3 cup of fish sauce.

Toast the other spices in a dry skillet over medium heat until they give off aroma... three to four minutes. Tie them up in a double thickness of cheesecloth and toss into the broth.

Let this simmer, uncovered for two hours. Skim as needed.
After two hours, remove the oxtail, let cool, and pull the meat from them. Remove any other meat you added and set meat to the side. Throw the oxtails back into the pot. When the meat is cool enough, pull apart or shred, then put in the fridge.

After three more hours (a total of five), remove the bones, ginger, onion, and spice bundle. If you want to get fancy, you can now strain your broth, but this is for appearance and won't affect the taste.
I highly suggest that you strain as much fat off the surface as you can.

Taste the broth and add more sugar, salt and fish sauce as needed. It should taste a bit strong; it will be diluted by the other ingredients later. I generally add another TBSP of sugar, 1-2 tsp of salt and around 1/4 cup of fish sauce, at least. The fish sauce and salt are key to a good tasting broth; don't skimp. Keep the broth simmering.

Prepare the rice noodles as directed. Have the cilantro, basil, bean sprouts, lime wedges and chili on a plate, ready for use.

Just before serving, bring the soup broth to a full boil.
Put rice noodles in each bowl, along with some of the reserved meat. Lay raw thin sliced steak on top. (I cut it into easy eating size first.)

Carefully ladle the boiling broth into the bowl. It will cook the raw meat.
Serve immediately. Add cilantro, basil, bean sprouts as desired. Some people swear by hoisin sauce and Sriracha.

Another good ingredient are Vietnamese beef meatballs. You'll find them frozen at a decent Asian market.

Some people like to cull the now-gelatinous tendons and connective tissue, and include them in their bowl. Yum!

And don't forget that delectable bone marrow. Portion it out for those who appreciate it.

Yup, it's a long cooking process, but oh so worth it!
 

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Cooksie

Well-known member
Site Supporter
I totally agree that oxtails make a great flavorful stock. I was able to get most of the fat off of mine by refrigerating and then just lifting the hardened fat off of that beautiful gelatinous brown jelly :brows:. The hardened fat covered the whole top. Pic was snapped when I had most of it removed.

RemovingtheFat.jpg


Your pho looks wonderful and "real deal" pho. I have made faux pho before.
 
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