Homemade Pho

Anyone have a strikingly good recipe for Pho? I've tried traditional pho many times, but I'd love to work on something a little different. What kind of additions do you like to your pho, and do you change the method at all? I have heard of pressure cooking Pho, but not much else.

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Johan_Edstrom_5586

Serious eats and MC@H has nice recipes, I usually go the PC route from a time perspective.

tshewman

MC/and MCAH has a nice pho recipe, however, I find the MCAH recipes very much on the tame side (for soups) and I tend to double the infusion ingredients. Have done it in the circulator for 12 plus hours with stewing beef (you know, some left overs :-)..), the beef stock, and it's quite delicious. I also tend to add a chili garlic paste upon serving (I like mine a bit on the spicy side).

Matthew_77468

Yes, I am a huge fan of Sambal in pho as well!

Matthew_77468

I took a look at both of them. MCAH recipe is interesting, but I haven't got a solid pressure cooker at the moment. I'll have to do a little bit of research - one of the posts there mentioned that allowing the PC to vent can cause a loss of flavor. I'd rather tame a 9-12hr broth than have to mess with the temperature every 15 minutes for the PC.

On the other hand, the SEats recipe looks quite good and I'm a fan of Kenji's choices generally. Might have to give that one a shot.

Edit: What meat do you prefer in your pho? Brisket? Some lean rare beef?

Matthew_Snyder_68770

I used to do that as well, then about four years ago I started making a dipping sauce on the side. Just the meat gets dunked in the sauce, and the soup stays unaltered.

ajcampelli

On a related note, I've been trying to figure out a good vegetarian pho broth. I've been thinking about combining the traditional flavorings (charred aromatics, star anise, etc.) with some version of the marmite consomme from Heston Blumenthal at Home. Any other thoughts / recommendations?

tshewman

I find star anise+ onions and ALLOT of mushrooms begins to approach this type of flavoring. Haven't tried the marmite in a broth, but would be worth trying for sure.

Jack_Mayer_85396

IIRC, MCaH has a good recipe for vegetable broth ...

Brandon_Byrd_40557

I always do a pressure cooked broth. Oxtail is nice in the broth, but it's gotten expensive where I am so I mostly use ground beef that's been browned in the base of the pressure cooker and roasted beef knuckle bones. Char some ginger and onion with a torch and cook with star anise and a cinnamon stick. Cook for 2 hours, strain, and add salt, rock sugar, and fish sauce to taste. Boom.

I vary a bit on my preferred toppings. I really like rare beef cheek cooked SV for 72 hours at 130F. Rare brisket is nice too. For faster cooking times, I like flank or skirt steak, ribeye, or teres major. I like a hard sear on the outside of everything. I make a nice "onion condiment" for pho (and a lot of other SE Asian dishes) that's basically a quick pickle of red onion and cilantro in a brine of rice wine vinegar, fish sauce, and honey. People love that stuff.

Typical garnishes... bean sprouts, cilantro, Thai basil, chili peppers, hoisin or sweet chili sauce on the side (I prefer sweet chili sauce). And sambal or sriracha for heat.

This is a mix of ribeye and brisket:

tshewman

Nice!! I have a bias toward cooking the beef in the soup I'm eating after the broth is completed (well, I've only done it 6-8 times so not "allot").....which is a bit backwards as I like doing it with poultry as well, but tend to replace the poultry as I find it can't hold up to the higher temps.

Johan_Edstrom_5586

I actually like shaving sous vide beef in there, insanely good

ajcampelli

Thanks Todd and Jack.

Matthew_77468

Wow, that broth looks very clear! Nice!

I'm going to definitely try your onion condiment, that would be a massive hit with the GF! Does the ground beef seem to break apart into little bits? I'm not sure if I'd like that too much. Also, I haven't seen the price on oxtail in a good couple of months, but I don't recall it being to bad around me. I think I might buy a good bit to make a ragu, so I'll test run some of that in a pho as well!

I've considered SV the meat before, but like Todd I am a fan of cooking some of the meet to make the broth (brisket) and then adding a little bit of rare meat to be cooked in the pho itself. Maybe I'll give it a shot - do you use the juices left in the vacuum bag at all in your broth?

Also, how did you keep the broth so clear? It looks like there is almost no fat sitting at the top there! I hate when theres a greasy layer of oil on top!

Brendan_Lee_56950

I do oxtail, and a fatty cut of brisket for flavoring that then gets sliced as a part of the meal. Char ginger, garlic, scallion stems, a small amount of cinnamon stick, and star anise (charring the spices is a must in my book). I haven't done it in the PC yet as I don't have one big enough to justify the amount I usually make but I throw the meat in a large stock pot, bring to a rolling boil, drain and rinse the meat and bones. Refill with water and add the meat back in with the charred aromatics, simmer until the brisket is nice and fall apart tender and remove it. At that point I season for the first time with fish sauce and fish out the anise and cinnamon and refresh with another star of anise to finish. Let it simmer until I like the aroma and flavor, adjust seasoning and voila bob's your uncle.

I'm pretty traditional with toppings. I usually like to mix the well cooked brisket with slices of really thin raw beef and then top with thinly sliced raw white onion, thai basil, and bean sprouts, serve with a wedge of lime and lots of chili's (serrano in a pinch, thai chili's if I remember to hit the market). I always serve the sauces on the side. If I'm at a pho joint I always grab an extra soup spoon and mix the sauces (2:1 chili to hoisin) so I can dip on the side without messing with the soup. If I'm at a restaurant I will always get the tendon and tripe as well, love that texture but really not going to bother making that at home. I also usually get a side of meatballs, nice and dense and chewy.

Brandon_Byrd_40557

Thanks! I break the ground beef apart as much as possible while browning it, and I usually brown it in batches because I use a lot. I buy the leanest I can find because I'm more interested in meat than fat. Bones by themselves don't have a lot of flavor, though they provide a lot of collagen, which is why I supplement bare bones with ground meat. It's usually about half the price (sometimes less) of oxtail, and since it's just for broth I go for the ground stuff. It doesn't break apart much during cooking... be sure to do a natural release on the pressure cooker to minimize violent rapid boiling that occurs when you vent steam). After it's done, I strain it through a chinois, chill it down, and let it sit overnight. The next day, there will be a large "puck" of fat on top that you can simply remove for a clear, fat-free (or close to it) stock. I usually make a double batch, so I portion it out, vacuum seal it, and then freeze so I have pho broth on hand.

Pressure cooked stocks tend to come out clearer than stovetop ones because there's not a lot of boiling that goes on inside the container (unless you're venting lots of steam) to break up the food inside. If you use enough bones or cuts with connective tissue, you can get the broth crystal clear by using gelatine ice filtration. My stock sets up like Jello whenever I make it which means that you can freeze it and then hang it in a strainer lined with muslin and the ice will release a delicious "pho consomme" as it melts. All this talk has got me thinking about how to do a high end version of this simple soup... maybe with 100 hour SV oxtail or some 72 hr wagyu short ribs to go with the consomme.

Brandon_Byrd_40557

The high temperature in Chicago tomorrow is -1F, so I thought it'd be a good idea to roast some bones and make some broth. I had a bunch of short rib bones in the freezer and found beef back ribs at the store for cheap (they were the cheapest thing they had... cheaper than "hamburger meat" [whatever that is]). They're surprisingly meaty and have a lot of connective tissue along with the bones. I cut most of the meat off them and sliced that into small pieces and browned it in the base of my pressure cooker while the bones roasted. This may be my go-to cut for pho broth from now on (unless something better goes on sale).

Brendan_Lee_56950

Interesting, I go way darker on the charred shallot/ginger/garlic. Do you do it over the gas burner or with a torch?

Brandon_Byrd_40557

I use a torch. I'm not too keen on eating carbonized anything, so I've been sort of shy about it. It's actually pretty dark, but I don't hit it too hard.