I don't drink because I'm Asian.

Most people are familiar with Vietnam's national dish — beef noodle soup or phở bò.  There are as many phở restaurants in Little Saigon as there are coffee shops in Seattle.  Luckily Pho Oxnard near us is quite decent.  I always order their phở bac, a Northern-style phở with chopped filet mignon and slivers of fresh ginger.

Different people make phở differently, although my kids tell me mine is the best one out there, and I tend to agree.   But I've seen funky recipes floating in cyberspace: one had bok choy and lemongrass, another had soy sauce, and bestseller Nelson DeMille just about lost me in his novel Up Country when he described eating PORK phở! 

DeMille is one of my favorite authors — The Charm School among his best — and Up Country was a good fast read, but his latest effort in The Gate House (2010) was downright awful!    

I've seen a variety of phở quick-fixes that come in a can, bag, bowl, or jar, and I hope I'll never be that hungry to try them.

The spices I use are cinnamon, anise, cloves, licorice root, and black cardamom pods.  I'm too lazy to char the onion and ginger, so I just peel their skins.

The beef bones are covered with cold water and brought to a full boil, but I dump out this first broth since it's full of gunk.  I rinse out the bones, refill the pot with cold water, add the dry ingredients above, and bring the pot to a full boil again.  Then I skim the broth and turn heat to low, cook partially covered for 12 hours.

This is what it looks like after 8 hours.  I continue to skim off the fat and scum from the surface.  The house smells wonderful.

I strain the broth using a large splatter screen.  The best way to remove fat from the broth is to stick the whole pot into the fridge to allow the fat to solidify on top, then you can remove it with a slotted spoon and toss.

While the broth is cooking, I get everything else ready.  The sliced white onion in Japanese rice vinegar is something I learned from my sister-in-law Thu's mom — we just add this into our soup at the table.

Voila!  Homemade phở is so worth it.  Someone has called it "heaven in a bowl." 

**********

I don't drink because I'm Asian.  Really.  Or something like that.  Well, I can't drink a lot — either I get very silly or I pass out.  One beer or one cocktail with food is about my limit.  This is my second time making this margarita with fresh mangos and lemons.  (It was so good the first time!)  Just a few simple ingredients and look what I made.





Posted by fawnnguyen at January 4, 2012 8:43 PM
Categories: Cooking
Tags: pho Vietnamese beef noodle soup pho bo Up Country The Gate House Nelson DeMille The Charm School mango margarita
Previous Post
Next Post

 
Trackbacks
Trackback specific URL for this post
  • No trackbacks exist for this post.
Comments
Display comments as (Linear | Threaded)

Leave a comment

 Name (required)

 Email (will not be published) (required)

 Website

Your comment is 0 characters limited to 3000 characters.