How to Make Pho

How to Make Pho Have you ever tried pho? Well, it is a Vietnamese soup that is a staple of Vietnamese cuisine. It can be made in different variations, but always has a flavor of either beef broth or a chicken broth base. Pho is served along with side dishes of additional items. Moreover, different sauces like hoisin sauce, fish sauce etc also accompany the soup.
Good in taste and rich in flavor, you can eat pho with both chopsticks and a spoon, in order to enjoy every drop of the broth. Here is a recipe of pho that you can try at home.

Steps to Make Pho

Take beef knuckle in a very large pot. Bones with lots of marrow are considered to be the best for making soup stock because rich marrow makes the soup thicker and tastier. Hence, go for raw beef knuckles or neck and/or leg bones.
Season the beef knuckle with salt and place it in the water-filled pot. Now allow it to boil and cook for 2hours. As it continues to boil you will notice some fat on the surface of the soup. You need to skim this fat.
Now go on to add the oxtail, radish and onions. To make the pho more spicy and flavored, tie anise pods, cinnamon stick, cloves, peppercorns and ginger in a piece of cloth and add it to the soup. As the dish will simmer, it will start acquiring the flavor of different ingredients added to it. Allow it to simmer over low heat for 3 hours. It is always better to cook for long, on low simmer because slow simmering infuses the broth with aromatic spices and let the flavors from the bones seep well.
Keep monitoring the cooking to ensure everything is perfect. Now carefully strain the broth, and pour it to the pot to keep at a simmer. At this stage, remove the spices and bones from the broth. If you want you can keep the meat from the beef knuckle for other uses.
Take another large pot and fill it with slightly salted water and allow it to boil. Take some soaked rice noodles and cook it in the boiling water till it becomes soft. But make sure that it does not become soggy. Now slice frozen beef paper thin, make sure that the meat is thin enough to be cooked instantly.
Put some noodles into each bowl and carefully top them with few raw beef slices and ladle boiling broth over the beef and noodles in the bowl. Now it’s ready to be served. You can serve it with Hoisin sauce or any other sauce of your choice. Moreover, also place some chopped onions, bean sprouts, basil, green onions, and lime at the table so that diners can add desired toppings to their soup bowls.

Tips

It is always better to use thinner sliced beef, because it gets easily cooked when hot broth is poured over it at the end.
If you don’t like beef, you can use any poultry and/or fish.
Make sure you have ample amount of time to make the Pho