I am not Vietnamese (I am Chinese-American) but I sure do appreciate cuisines from all of Asia. Here is a quick way to make authentic Pho just for you 🙂
–Ingredients For Broth–
2 tablespoons cooking oil (I like to use avocado oil)
Beef bones (if you have them. Otherwise, skip step one and go on to step 2)
1 small onion, diced
1 thick slice about an inch long of ginger, minced (or 1/2 teaspoon ginger puree)
1 quart beef broth
2 cups water
2 whole star anise
2 whole cloves (and/or 1/2 teaspoon clove powder)
1 whole cinnamon stick
–Noodles & Toppings–
1 teaspoon sugaer (optional)
one package rice noddles (around 4 oz)
1/3 – 1 lb. roast beef or London broil, sliced thin (buy pre-made or get my recipe from my website SolaGratiaLife (dot) com
2 stalks scallions diced
1/4 cup fresh cilantro leaves, diced or roughly torn
1 lime sliced into wedges
1 jalapeño thinly sliced
1 cup fresh bean sprouts (in this picture I put alfalfa sprouts from my garden because we were out of bean sprouts… tastes good, but definitely prefer the texture and taste of bean sprouts as the alfalfa sprouts absorb the broth
too much to taste refreshing)
–Steps–
1) In a medium pot over high heat, put 1 tablespoon of oil into pot and once oil is rippled or heated up place the beef bones into the pot and brown each side for about 5 minutes. Once bones have browned, move the bones aside in the pot as best you can to make room for adding the onions to the pot. Add onions and turn heat down to medium.
2) In a separate small frying pan, add the remaining oil, turn heat on high and once oil has rippled or heated up placed the aromatics into the pan (cinnamon, star anise, ginger, cloves). Fry aromatics until fragrant or 3 minutes, shaking pan or gently moving ingredients with a spatula every now and then. Turn off heat.
3) Add aromatics to the pot then pour the beef broth and water into the pot. Cover and simmer on medium-low or low heat for about 20 minutes.
4) Meanwhile, cook rice noodles according to package, being very careful not to overcook otherwise they will get very mushy. You want the noodles to be somewhat bouncy. In my experience, a couple of minutes in water that is at a rolling boil is all you need — immediately take noddles out with a noodle ladle thingy or pour into a strainer… do NOT just drain the water straight out of the pot as some water will still remain in the pot no matter how well you think you drained. The noodles will quickly absorb excess water and become mushy.
5) Lift the lid from the broth pot and take out the bones and aromatics with tongs and discard (tedious, I know, but well worth it for beautiful, clean broth!).
6) Combine noodles and broth into serving bowls and place toppings on top. Serve immediately so noodles don’t get mushy. Enjoy!