Pho.

After several ideas exchange with one of my mate, I finally decided to attempt to sous-vide one of the most iconic Vietnamese dishes: pho.

Ingredients preparations.

All spices into a cheesecloth.

Dropped all ingredients in 2 separate bag. (Ox tail, bone marrow, charred onion and ginger, spices and top up with water.

Into the bath for 48 hrs @ 140.

Beef brisket cleaned and ready to go into the bag as well.

Brisket in after 24 hrs.

After 48 hrs, transfer both bags into a big pot to finish it with some fish sauce, rock sugar and little salt. Simmer the broth little before serving.

Sous-vide Vietnamese pho.

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Comments

Brandon_Byrd_40557

Great... now I want pho! I make pho regularly and usually SV the proteins, as my wife is somewhat squeamish about eating raw beef. The results are pretty impressive. Haven't tried doing the broth that way though... I usually pressure cook it. I wonder how the onions and ginger work in a broth at such low temperatures (since they don't break down under 85C). How did your broth turn out?

Jack_Mayer_85396

BB, do you have a favorite recipe for the PC broth? I have Momofuku but I don't think Dave Chang has a PC version for the broth ...

Brandon_Byrd_40557

Modernist Cuisine has an Oxtail Pho broth that's pretty good. I don't have much of a standard recipe, but the process is pretty simple. I wait until the supermarket marks down oxtail, short ribs, or spare ribs and then buy all of them. Roast them off in a hot oven for an hour, deeply char a couple onions and some ginger, and toast your spices (star anise, clove, cinnamon, whatever). After the bones come out, transfer them to the base of a pressure cooker, add the onions/ginger/spices and barely cover with water. Pressure cook for 2 hours. Strain, chill, defat. For service, I heat the broth and season with fish sauce, salt, and palm sugar.

When I make ramen, I follow Chang's broth recipe, but I pressure cook it for 2 hours after adding the pork bones. It's much faster and the flavor's really nice. It has a lot more gelatin than doing it on the stovetop, but it's more convenient for me.

Jack_Mayer_85396

Much appreciated, thank you! I have MC, I'll check it out ...

Minh_Huynh_48807

Hi Brandon. The broth was really good but a little under seasoned from what I am used too. I was to shy on the spices since I was afraid to overpowered the broth. That was my first mistake. Also I did not have cinnamon sticks at home so that little kick was missing as well. As far as temp, I would have gone even longer to break down the brisket and beef tendon (forgot to mentioned it in the initial post.) or a little higher if I was to do it again for 48 hrs. The onion and ginger did not break up as I am used too but lots of flavours were extracted . Beside all that, I do think that making pho sv brings a different element to the broth due to the length of cooking time. Still have a long way to get it right tho..

I grew up watching my mom and later learned from her how to make pho. All ingredients I used was her recipe past down. We never used other cuts of beef. Steps were as follow: clean bones and ox tail, par boiled and clean it again, charred onion and ginger, put everything (ox tail, bones, spices, onion, ginger) in a very big pot and top with water, bring to a boiled and slowly reduce heat while skimming all the impurities to achieve clear broth, simmer broth for 4-5 hrs, add beef brisket and tendon, keep simmering for another 3 hrs while skimming any impurities or fat. Near the end add fish sauce, rock sugar and salt if needed. She never let us eat it right away. She would let it cool down and stored it in the fridge to be re-heated the next day.

Brandon_Byrd_40557

Minh: Thanks for sharing your experience -- and your mother's method! You've inspired me to try (eventually) making nice aromatic stock in the bag. It sounds like a method worth experimenting with for sure. One thing that might be worth trying is bringing the stock to a boil and then straining it through cheese cloth to get rid of whatever protein globs that emerge during the SV cooking process. That's something I do when making sauces from the bag juices and it really helps with the appearance and mouthfeel.