Pho

This weekend, I went to my coworker friend's house to learn how to make pho.  I've always assumed pho was too much trouble to make at home.  Turn's out it's quite the opposite.  Buy some simple ingredients, throw it in a pot, simmer for 5 hours, and you're rewarded with a vat of rich flavorful broth, enough to feed a small army.

First things first: assemble your meats.  This consists of beef bones, flank (can be purchased as "beef plate" from viet store), and tendon.  Once you have your meats, wash in water several times to clean.  The water should run clear, free of blood.  For the faint of heart, do not look too closely at the following picture.

Next, generously salt the meat.  Apparently this is more of a cleansing exercise than any attempt to add flavoring.

Set aside the meat and assemble your spices (cinnamon stick, cloves, star anise, and dried tsaoko aka black cardamom) and add-ins (onions and ginger).

Both onions and ginger should be peeled, although the onions get thrown into the pot whole while the ginger should be sliced into chunks.  Spices go into a tea bag/container.  Sorry for incredibly ugly picture below.

Now add 8 heaping tablespoons of sugar, 2 heaping tablespoons of salt, and 2 heaping tablespoons of msg.  The proportion can be adjusted to taste.  If you react poorly to msg (like Badge), I imagine you can add less or skip it altogether.  Just don't expect the broth to live up to its full potential.

Now just sit back and let the broth simmer for 5 hours.  Check back periodically to skim off that white foamy junk that rises to the surface whenever you boil meat.  At around 3 hours, your flank will probably be done.  Pull it out once tender and let the broth keep cooking.  When the meat has cooled, slice it thinly and set aside.

Once done, your broth will probably look (and smell) as good as the following.  Time to assemble!

Soften some noodles in boiling water.

Top with the cooked flank and tendon.  Add rare steak if that's your thing.  Be sure to add thinly sliced onions, cilantro and green onions.  Pour the broth on top.

Make sure you have plenty of bean sprouts, basil, limes, and whatever that long green leafy thing is on the side.  As always, hoisin and rooster sauce are a must.

And that's it!  The broth freezes quite well so you can eat some now and save to enjoy later.

Pho Broth
Courtesy of Phong's mom

2-2.5 gallons water
2 cinnamon stick

2 small spoon of dried cloves

4 dried star anise

4 nuts of dried tsaoko (crack only for the flavor)

2 big spoon of MSG

2 big spoon of salt

8 big spoon of sugar

2 onion

2 5-inch ginger sliced

4 lbs beef bones

4-5 lbs beef plate?  (just get flank)

Beef tendon