Pho (Mumma S Recipe)

Makes: 5L

Preparation time: 20 minutes

Cooking time: 12 hours

Difficulty: Medium

Ingredients

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3kg beef bones

500g beef

1 onion

1 inch ginger

1 cinnamon stick

3 star anise

4 cloves

3 black cardamom

1 tbsp salt, plus more for seasoning

1 tbsp sugar, plus more for seasoning

6L water

For the bowl

Flat rice noodles, “banh pho”

1 onion, sliced thinly and soaked in ice water

300g raw beef fillet, sliced thinly

Sawtooth coriander

Mint

Bean sprouts

Hoisin sauce

Sriracha

Lemon wedges

Method

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1. Place beef bones in a pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil and boil for 10 minutes. This is to clean the bones and get rid of the impurities. Then pour out all of the water, wash the pot clean and give the bones a good scrub. This is very important to keep the broth clear.

2. Place the bones and beef back into a pot, and fill with water (6 litres). Add 1 tbsp salt and 1 tbsp sugar. Bring to a boil and simmer on low heat, skimming the top.

3. Separately, grill the onion, ginger, cinnamon stick, star anise, black cardamom on an open flame until charred on all sides. Peel the onion and scrape the char off the ginger. Wrap the spices into a tea bag or cheese cloth and place all into the stock pot.

4. Once the meat is cooked (approx. 2 hours), remove, rest and slice thinly. At this point you can remove the onion as it will make the broth not as clear.

5. Continue to simmer overnight if possible and add more water if the broth is reduced too much.

6. To finish, soak the flat rice noodle in water for 30 minutes to soften. Blanch for 30 seconds, drain and place directly into bowls. It is ok if they are still chewy as we will add the hot broth in.

7. To assemble, place noodles in bowl, sliced beef on top, raw beef, sliced onion, coriander, mint, bean sprouts. Pour the hot broth directly on top, and squeeze in lemon, and your desired amount of hoisin and sriracha.