Lien Trinh from Vietnam shows how to make pho bo Viet Nam (Vietnamese beef noodle soup).
Lien Trinh and her husband came to New Zealand two years ago after spending time in New York and Hawaii. Originally from Hanoi in the north of Vietnam, she is studying postgrad preventive and social medicine at the University of Otago.
Pho bo should be salty, sweet and sour. It is an everyday dish, often eaten for breakfast or lunch, good in both winter and summer, and is satisfying but doesn't leave you feeling overfull, she says.
Spiced beef stock is the main ingredient and takes four or five hours to cook so it's best prepared ahead, but once it's done the soup is quick to assemble.
Pho bo Viet Nam (Vietnamese beef noodle soup)
for the stock:
500g beef bones
1 onion
25g fresh ginger
2 cinnamon quills
2 (walnut-sized) pieces of rock sugar
salt
4 Tbsp fish sauce (nuoc mam)
for bouquet garni:
1-2 tsp coriander seeds
5 whole cloves
5 star anise
5 black cardamons
To finish the soup:
400-600g beef rump steak
25g fresh ginger
1 onion, finely sliced
bean sprouts
Vietnamese or Thai flat rice noodles (pho 5mm thick)
To serve:
fresh coriander
3-4 spring onions
Thai basil
mint
lemon or lime
chilli sauce (not sweet)
hoisin sauce
1 egg (optional)
To make the stock:
Wash the bones, put in a pot with cold water, bring to the boil then strain and wash again. Put bones back in the pot with hot water and bring to the boil.
Grill or dry-fry the onion, ginger, cinnamon quills and spices to darken them. Add the onion, ginger and cinnamon quills to the stock, wrap the small spices in a piece of cheesecloth to make a bouquet garni and add to the stock. Add fish sauce and half a teaspoon of salt. Simmer for three to four hours with the lid half off, removing the scum that rises to the surface from time to time - the stock needs to be clear.
When cooked, leave the stock to cool then scoop off the congealed fat and pour off the clear stock. It can be refrigerated if you wish.
When ready to finish the soup, bring the clear stock to a simmer.
Remove any meat from the bones and set aside. Slice any tendons thinly and set aside (chewy slices of tendon are considered a delicacy by many Vietnamese).
Peel, crush and chop the rest of the ginger.
With a very sharp knife, slice the raw rump steak paper-thin across the grain and mix the pieces with the ginger.
Leave to marinate and tenderise.
Put the noodles to soak in cold water for 10-15 minutes. Then drain and rinse, put into a pot and pour hot water over them. Bring to the boil and simmer for about 10 minutes - they should be soft but not mushy.
Prepare the accompaniments:Wash and slice spring onions and coriander.
Slice the second onion very finely in to crescent shapes.
Cut the lemon or lime into pieces. Put hot chilli sauce and hoisin sauce in dipping dishes ready to serve.
Warm soup bowls - it is important to have everything hot.
To assemble:
When noodles are cooked, drain and rinse briefly in cold water. Place in bowls.
Briefly blanch the strips of raw beef in the stock until no longer pink and place on the noodles along with some of the cooked meat and thinly sliced tendon if wished.
Briefly blanch the onion slices and bean sprouts in the boiling stock and place on the meat and noodles, along with chopped coriander and spring onion. Ladle boiling stock over.
Serve with a squeeze of lemon or lime, fresh Thai basil and mint leaves, and, if you like, an egg poached in a little of the stock and served in a separate bowl. Dip meat, sprouts or noodles in the chilli and hoisin sauce as you eat.
Tips:
• You can put the spices directly into the stock instead of wrapping them in cloth, but it is not pleasant to bite on one and the bouquet garni can be removed easily.
• You can add more water to the bones and spices and make another batch of stock if you wish.
• When you have used the leaves of a coriander plant bought from the supermarket, plant it in the garden and it will come away again.
• Lien uses a chilli sauce with garlic in it, not a sweet chilli sauce.
• If you like spicy pho bo you can add chilli sauce to the soup as it is assembled instead of using it as a dipping sauce.
• Thanks to Afife Harris and John Baker of Organicland.
