Beef Pho
This matters to me because...
I grew up eating pho, but I've always found it daunting to make my own broth. Back then, I would look up how to make it and would find out that a typical pho broth takes over 10 hours. It also required beef bones--the thought of needing to buy a meat at a grocery store that you couldn't really eat felt extremely off. I didn't do the 10-hour pot method, but now that I have an Instant Pot, making a bone broth is much simpler!
Ingredients
Broth
- Beef bones
- Water
- Star Anise
- Cinnamon
- Black peppercorns
- Onions
- Cloves
- Rock sugar
- Salt
- Fish sauce
Pho
- Fresh pho noodles
- Beef ribeye slices
- Thai basil
- Scallions
- Red onion
- Fish sauce
- Lime
- Cilantro
- Bean sprouts
2 Comments
- I learned from my parents that after a quick blanch of the pho noodles, I should shock the noodles in cold water to prevent overcooking. I did something similar by running it in cold water. However, I realized that meant I needed to heat my broth to a pretty high temperature in order to make sure that everything was at a pretty warm temperature.
- Beef bones are so fatty! There was such a huge layer of fat that congealed at the top of the broth, and I needed a very strong cleaning of dishes after making the broth. Despite that, I found the broth to be relatively clean. I could've drank all of it. Though, I'm hoping next time I also have some coriander seeds and licorice root.
2 Learnings
- There's a reason why pho is served in relatively large bowls. I think it's because it allows for more broth, which in turn can cook/heat all of the toppings that are the life of the bowl of pho. I found that my red onions were cut a bit too thick, so they turned out raw. That being said, doing a pre-blanch of the ribeye slices really helped make sure that the beef was cooked all the way through.
- Add salt to the broth! Especially at the very end, I think adding salt would've intensified all of the different flavors. I actually made this dish a couple times before writing this entry, and I found that adding more salt really does help.