Fun with Pho

When we used to live in Beacon Hill, we went out for pho at least once every 2 weeks. One of the perks of living in south Seattle is the abundance of Asian grocery stores and eateries. Actually, I still shop for groceries there. I don't know what stop us from going out for pho, but we haven't been out for pho in the longest time. The joy of eating pho at home is we get to choose whatever we want. While I like less noodles and more herbs, my husband is the otherwise. I think that could be the reason why we haven't been going to pho restaurant.

  

Most people associate chicken soup with being sick and needing nourishment. That's how we look at pho. When Seattle's weather isn't being kind to us, we like to have a bowl of pho. The cinnamon scented broth and the noodles cooked just right, with slightly cooked beef slices and crunchy beansprouts, that must be better than medicine, yes?

 We love pho so much, we even made this pho cake, made out of cake and fondant.

It's time consuming to make, but really easy and simple.

For the broth
Ingredients:

• 4 cm ginger, peeled and thinly sliced
• 1 medium yellow onion, sliced
• 3 1/2 lbs beef bones
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 5 star anise
• 1 tbsp salt
• 1/2 tbsp soy sauce

Saute ginger and onion until fragrant. Add and cook the beef bones until no longer pink. Cover with water, about 3 quarts. Bring to a boil, skim the broth. Add cinnamon stick, star anise, salt and soy sauce. Season to taste. Turn down the heat and let simmer for 3-4 hours.

Cook rice noodles and set aside.

Assemble your bowl with meat of your choice, noodles, herbs and beansprouts. Pour the hot boiling broth over it. If you are squeamish about eating raw meat, I suggest you cook the meat first. We like to let the hot broth cook the meat for us, so it's only rarely cooked.

 Ngo gai (culantro?)

 Thai basil

 Scallions

 Beansprouts

 Jalapenos

 Cilantro

 Sliced beef, tripe and noodles

 Clockwise: tripe, beef, noodles