Pho Bo - Vietnamese Beef Noodle Soup

Pho is one of the most iconic Vietnamese food. When you are in ho Chi Minh City, you will easily find the Pho shop in almost every street with many variety of taste and presentation. Most people like is this Pho Bo - noodle soup with sliced beef or beef balls or beef tendon being serve with the noodle and the broth; will invent the name of the pho itself. Pho Bo means pho with sliced beef, Pho Ga means pho with boiled chicken meat. Many variation like the pho soup served with chicken liver, beef liver, fish cake, fish balls, etc. Here I tried my own recipe of the soup. Relatively you just follow your wish to create your very own ingredients to serve your pho soup, but the taste of the broth should becoming an iconic of the dish. Please try this recipe bellow!

Makes about 6 servings

600 grams of fresh pho noodles

9 cups of pho broth

400 grams of thinly sliced beef tenderloin, black to rare

2 pieces of sliced bird’s eye chilies

black pepper powder to sprinkle

For the broth

1 kilogram of clean beef bone, quick blanched

2 inch of fresh grilled ginger, sliced

1 inch of fresh grilled galangal, sliced

3-4 pieces of dried star anise

4 pieces of dried cloves

salt and pepper to taste

1 piece of halved grilled onion

2 cloves of grilled garlic

¼ cup of fish sauce

1½ teaspoons of rock sugar

10 cups of beef stock

For the topping and garnishes

½ cup sliced onions

3 tablespoons of chopped spring onions

½ cup sliced coriander leaves

½ cup sliced saw leaves

½ cup picked anise basil leaves

1 cup of raw clean white bean sprouts

24 pieces of beef balls (optional)

To serve

6 sliced of lime wedges

4 tablespoons of black bean sauce

4 tablespoons of chili sauce

About the image above: pho broth being poured to the bowl

About the image above: a bowl of pho with beef, beef tendon and meat balls

To prepare the broth: in a pot, combine the blanched beef bones with the beef stock, ginger, galangal, dried star anise, dried cloves, onion, garlic and bring to the boil. As soon as start to boil, reduce the heat to simmering point.  Cook slowly the bones for about 1½ hours to make sure you get the maximum flavor of the beef. Skim the surface of the stock occasionally. Season the broth with the fish sauce, sugar, salt and pepper. Discard the bone and strain the broth. Check the seasonings and keep the broth warm for later use.

To assembly the pho noodle soup: In a pho bowl (medium large bowl), place the fresh pho cellophane noodles followed by the bean sprouts, sliced beef, sliced onions, spring onions and the herbs and the sliced bird’s eye chilies. Pour the very hot broth into the bowl of the noodle to ¾ of the volume of the noodle, so you can see the noodle and the garnishes on it. Sprinkle with some black pepper on it and serve with the lime wedges in one small bowl and the black bean sauce plus chili sauce in the other small bowl. Enjoy your amazing Vietnamese pho bo!