Hello, this is chef John from Foodwishes.com with faux pho. Pho is a Vietnamese noodle soup, usually
beef and this did not come out that good. So let me show you what I did and I’ll tell you how to make it
better. I got two beef shanks. You see the marrow bone, you want the marrow bone. What I didn’t
have in here was oxtails which I should have which you will read about in the post. So you’re going to
sear those till they’re brown. Just about a tablespoon of vegetable oil. You’re going to get your star
anise, your onions, your cloves, your ginger, your garlic, your cinnamon stick, your fennel, your
coriander, your bay leaf, your cardamom pod and if you missed that, go to the site, they’re all there. I’m
going to warm the spices in the oil that I brown to median. I’m going to throw in my ginger, my garlic,
my onions, my bay. We’re going to add some sugar and then pour in our cold water.
Now this should have had a package, a couple pounds of oxtails in it. I should have bought them, I
didn’t, I thought the two beef shanks would be enough flavor and it wasn’t. It still is pleasant. It still is
tasty but just didn’t have that rich flavor that I wanted. I simmered that very slowly for about 6 hours
until it was just falling off the bone and how will you know your stock is done? There’s an old
Vietnamese saying that roughly translates to when the marrow’s gone from the bone, you’re ready to
continue on. I’m going to strain the stock. I’m going to take the meat and big chunks out like this,
reserve of course and I strain the stock and as soon as I was done I had about two quarts of beef stock
left. I’m going to take the shank meat and I’m actually going to shank it with this big cleaver. I’m going
to put it back into the stock which did I mention should have been much richer and had oxtails in it? I’m
going to add some soy for a little salt, some fish sauce you knew was coming, some Vietnamese fish
sauce, you know I like to make you use that.
So that stock, we’re just going to keep simmering, keep warm. It’s ready. Now for my noodles, I’m
using Thai rice stick, it’s called, just a rice noodle. These are not boiled. This particular brand, you have
to check your own package but this is just cooked by pouring boiling water over it and then you let it sit
for about 5 minutes and the hot water basically hydrates those noodles and they become nice sort of
slightly, very slightly al dente but pretty tender. So five minutes later, nice. What you need to do is
drain those, rinse it with cold water and you’re ready to use them. If you’re going to keep these like
overnight or something, you want to put water in there, otherwise, they’ll stick together. To finish our
pho, our faux pho, we’re going to add some bean sprouts, very traditional. You’re going to put a big
handful of noodles in there. It’s Vietnamese soup so of course, there’s going to be sliced jalapeno.
Always has herbs, basil, mints, cilantro, whatever you like. I like basil. This is actually Thai basil. So I
threw some of that in.
Then I’m going to put a nice spoon of samba which is chili paste. This is supposed to be a painfully hot
dish. So I put a nice spoon of that in there then you ladle over the boiling hot beef stock. It has all that
beautiful aromatic spice in it from the star anise and the ginger and so forth, really really nice soup. It
could have been better but I didn’t use oxtails and really I’m not happy about it. Finish with a nice
squeeze of lime, it gives a nice fresh acidity and then you eat it. Now you need two different weapons
to attack this. You need your nice Asian soup spoon, you can use a regular spoon but these are kind of
cool and when you eat pho or any Asian soup for that matter, you must slurp, otherwise, you’re
insulting the chef so listen. Alright, I know it sounds kind of weird to our western ears but that’s what’s
supposed to be. Then for the noodles, you’re going to need some chopsticks to help you get those in
your mouth.
Now those of you watching very carefully probably said to yourself, those aren’t chopsticks. He’s using
bamboo skewers trying to fool us. You are correct. I didn’t have any chopsticks. So when MacGyver
and I got a couple wooden skewers and just used those, it worked but you need chopsticks and one of
these big spoons and that’s it. Faux pho and I’m calling this fake pho partly because I didn’t make the
stock rich enough as I’ve already covered with my lack of oxtails. But also real pho has beef brisket and
tendon and flank steak in it. They also put some rare fillet mignon on top sliced really thin and I didn’t
do that anyway, go to the site, get the ingredients, I showed you the technique, the rest is just up to
you. And as always enjoy.
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