Every time we go out for Vietnamese food, I always get Pho, for one reason – the broth! It is so fragrant, so smooth and just so tasty. So it came time to try to make this broth at home. The 3 hours the broth was cooking, our entire house smelt amazing, please do not make this broth on an empty stomach!

Vietnamese Pho: Beef Noodle Soup

Recipe from Steamy Kitchen: http://steamykitchen.com/271-vietnamese-beef-noodle-soup-pho.html

1 onion halved

3 inch nub of ginger, halved lengthwise

2-3 pounds of good beef bones, I used rib bone, knuckle and leg

1 package of Pho Spices (1 cinnamon stick, 1 tbs coriander seeds, 1 tbs fennel seeds, 5 whole star anise, 1 cardamom pod, 6 whole cloves in cheesecloth mesh bag)

1 tablespoon kosher salt

1/4 cup fish sauce

1 lbs rice noodles

1/4 lbs beef, thinly sliced

2 limes sliced

3 hot chilli peppers, sliced thinly

Big handfuls of cilantro, basil and mint

2 cups bean sprouts

Hoisin and Sriracha sauce

Char the onions and ginger under the broiler for about 7 minute on each side or until blackened slightly. This will really bring out the flavour of both ingredients.

Parboil the bones to remove the impurities so they don’t end up in your broth. Bring a large pot of water to a boil, add your bones and boil vigorously for 10 minutes. Dump water, rinse bones and pot.

Now for the good stuff! Add those cleaned bones back into your pot and fill with 3-4 quarts of water. Add in the spice bag, salt and fish sauce, bring to a slight boil and turn down to simmer. Simmer the broth for at least 2 hours up to 3 hours.

I boiled the broth the night before so I ended up putting the broth into the fridge overnight so I could skim off the fat that hardens when it cools.

To assemble to soup. Add cooked noodles to the bottom of the bowl. Carefully place the thinly sliced meat on top of the noodles. I ended up freezing the meat for 15 minutes to make it much easier to slice, make sure to slice against the grain of the meet.

Ladle boiling hot broth over the noodles/meat and finish by adding in the herbs, sprouts, hot peppers and sauces.

And enjoy, this one is a keeper!