Phil and Sarah
So I’m pretty sure we used the same recipe as Jocie and Albin.
Except we didn’t do the beef bones cause we were being lazy and used beef broth instead.
Sunset Super Haul
Like most good dinners, first there was the trip to the Sunset Super.
Charring the Onion and Ginger
Toasting the Spices
Look Familiar? Also….
Phil got to play this time!
Yay weekends!
Beef and Noodles Ready for the Broth
Toppings!
Ready to eat!
Complete with Fancy Chopsticks
Wouldn’t be a real Pho dinner without Green Tea
And a 49er Win!!!!!!!!!
Conclusions? It was REALLY good. Super happy with it. Very flavorful broth. The ingredients all had a good consistency. Felt like restaurant quality. Critiques? Phil thought a bit too much clove, Sarah thought a bit too much ginger. Phil thought the broth could have been hotter, by which he really meant, had the meat and noodles been warmer then the broth would have stayed hotter when we added it and that would have been nice. But, hey we are getting a little detailed here, eh?
Will we start making it at home regularly? Probably not. Cause it’s so cheap and easy down the street. But still real fun to be successful at.
Galen and Chloe
How do you make veggie pho, you cheat. I mean I totally made and boxed my own vegetable broth before I poured it into my cinnamon and spice:
Is home made I swear (and I lie).
Despite the lack of meat, I liked the pho meal, it was a new experience to pre char and toast. And then hoison sauce, basil, and sriracha is like cheating (which we know I already condone).
Without making meat stock or having to thin slice meat the meal was very easy to create. As a result it really just focused on the toppings, which as we know I am okay with because yum…
Some charred onion, ginger, and carrots for good measure.
And away they stew.
A little bit o green onion and cilantro to pump up the broth flavor.
The fixins: onion, sprouts, cilantro, basil, lime, jalapeno, hoison, and sriracha.
What a lucky bowl of broth, surrounded by delightful toppings.
And all good things in one!
In the end it was basically like eating a delicious sprout and basil salad, with a hoison dressing. Was it legit tasting pho, not even close, but it was still good. Would I go anywhere in Santa Cruz to get pho instead, eh. I claim it to be better than the Diner’s pho (which is not saying much).
Albin and Jocie
Pho was so good! I never knew we could make it taste so good in our own house. Thank you to whoever put this on the list of ideas!
The recipe we followed is in the Recipe Index. The only thing that we did that was against the recipe was that it told us to throw out the onions and carrots along with the whole spices and bones we skimmed out from the broth. We skimmed them all out, but when it came time to construct the Pho bowl, I added the onions and the carrots back in. Oh, I guess we didn’t eat the jalopeño because the Sriracha was enough spice all by itself.
Also, the recipe we use also had a great introduction which described the essence of the pho experience:
“A bowl of pho is more than the sum of its parts. Each bowl gets constructed individually. Tender rice noodles are on the bottom with a layer of thinly sliced raw beef on top. Then the piping-hot broth gets ladled over the top, cooking the beef. To ensure the beef gets cooked through, slice it as thinly as possible (sticking it in the freezer for 15 minutes before slicing helps with this). Also, arrange it in just a single layer over the noodles when it’s time to build the bowl. Slices that are clumped together or stacked up won’t cook through all the way to the middle…But we’re not done yet! In the middle of the table should be a plate of fresh herbs, bean sprouts, sliced scallions and chili peppers, wedges of lime, and any other fresh garnishes the cook feels like providing. Each diner gets their own bowl of pho and can garnish it however they like. ”
There were two things that I learned from making Pho I think may come in handy when making other types of foods and dishes. The first is that toasting spices and charring vegetables adds so much flavor to the meal. The second is that the meat although raw when you put it in your bowl was cooked instantly when you pour in the hot broth because its sliced so thinly — a feat we managed by freezing the meat for about 15 minutes.
The Appetizer: Albin and I have a favorite Pho restaurant here in Burlington. They make these great spring rolls. We’ve been trying to make them at home. Its taken a few tries, and I think we’ve finally nailed down the ingredients and flavors. We combined thin rice noodles, shrimp, lettuce, basil, and mint all together in a tapioca wrapper, and ate it with a peanut dipping sauce. At the restaurant, they add sliced beef to the roll, serve it with a hoisin/ peanut sauce (but hoisin sauce isn’t GF), and do not include the basil. The key ingredient is the MINT. Delicious. Our minds were blown. We made it in our own home. For the rest of the meal, we talked about a hypothetical Vietnamese restaurant we could open.
Anyways, we ate it. I’m sad its gone. At least, we had enough to eat it the next night! Here are our pictures:
Toasting the spices.
Charring the vegetables.
Some other key ingredients.
Throw it in the pot with the bones and simmer.
The Spread
The toppings
Spring Rolls!
Pho!
The Weekly Cook-Off 