Saturday, December 01, 2012

pho bo (beef pho)

I think I've told you that whenever I get a craving for something, most times I need to make it from scratch if we don't have access to it.

The other day, the temperature was kinda brisk and I was craving something for dinner that would use some of the cilantro on my lanai.

I decided to try my hand at...pho (fah)

I roughly followed this recipe.

I say roughly because our supermarkets don't sell the bones of beef. You can't even find a t-bone steak!

For my broth I used a fatty sune-niku (shank) and cooked it for an hour with the various spices and fish sauce.

Anyway, by itself, the soup was awesome and the beef really tender, but with the noodles, the flavor was a little lacking, but, it was perfect for Satoshi (who is supposed to watch his sodium intake).

I added thinly sliced yellow onion, bean sprouts, snow peas and the cilantro when I served it.

Talk about using all my pots, pans and burners! A little hectic because the noodles shouldn't be made in advance, just right before eating.

For dessert we had coconut milk with tapioca, which I bought and jazzed up with some nuts and fruits.

I think I have enough broth for us to have this one more time...mmm!

8 comments:

Rowena said...

That's interesting to hear about not finding beef bones at the store. I feel your pain, because nothing beats homemade broth from those bones!

K and S said...

I think if I went to a "butcher" I might have been able to buy some bones, Rowena.

Take care.
Kat

Nami | Just One Cookbook said...

Not only beef, but chicken bones too, isn't it? Most people never make chicken stock from scratch because we don't really have the whole chicken too. Maybe because the oven is too small to cook the whole chicken? I am thinking about making pho with oxtail... and again, I wonder if this parts of meat exist in Japanese typical supermarkets. :) Some stuff is easy to find while there are other stuff we can't find in Japan... Muzukashii ne. :)

K and S said...

when we used to have carrefour (a french supermarket), they used to have whole chickens, now I rarely see them Nami. I hope your pho turns out delicious :)

Take care.
Kat

bluang3lbby said...

We are Vietnamese and don't usually use beef bones in our pho at all. We normally use scraps of beef and it makes for a much richer broth in my opinion then beef bones.

K and S said...

That is interesting bluang3lbby! Thanks for telling me how you make your pho :)

Take care.
Kat

K said...

I love pho, it's right around this time of year when I want it all the time!

K and S said...

I totally understand that feeling K :)

Take care & stay warm!
Kat