Pho Bo – Vietnamese beef soup

Ingredients for 6 servings:

• 3 liters of water
• 1 kg marrow bones, high-quality beef, ideal organic
• 1 kg meat bones, high-quality beef, ideal organic
• 4 large onions, sweet, not red
• 15 carnations
• 4 cardamom seeds
• 1 cinnamon stick(s)
• 4 star anise
• ½ tsp coriander seeds
• 3 slices of ginger
• Fish sauce, approx. 5 – 8 tbsp
• 2 tsp salt
• 1 pinch(s) of pepper
• 1 bunch coriander leaves, fresh
• 1 bunch Thai basil, fresh
• 1 pkt. soy sprouts, fresh
• 1 bunch of spring onions
• 1 pack of noodles (Pho noodles, rice noodles), approx. 500 g
• 500 g free-range beef fillet(s), ideal organic
• 4 large onions, sweet, not red
• 1 lemon(s)
• 1 chili pepper(s)
• 1 bottle of chili sauce (Siracha chili sauce), approx. 500 ml

Instructions

Working time approx. 1 hour 30 minutes; Cooking/baking time approx. 8 hours; Total time approx. 9 hours 30 minutes

Place the beef marrow bones and the beef bones in a pot, cover with cold water, and simmer over medium heat for 5-7 minutes. Blanching will create a clear pho broth. Then simply discard the water and rinse the bones, then set aside. Halve the onions and remove the first few layers of brown skin. Leave the last layer of brown skin on. Place a pan on the stove and roast the onions over high heat; they shouldn’t burn too black. Ideally, they should be brown, and roast the skin as well. Also roast the cloves, cardamom seeds, cinnamon stick, star anise, coriander seeds, and ginger slices. But be careful: cardamom seeds, cloves, coriander seeds, and star anise turn to ash very quickly! Lightly roast two beef marrow bones as well. Then place everything in a pot and fill with cold water until everything is completely covered. Then set the stove to medium heat until everything begins to simmer gently. Then reduce the heat to low and let the broth simmer very slowly for about 4-8 hours. The longer it simmers, the better and stronger the broth will be. Once it’s simmering, add about 1 teaspoon of salt to the broth. Tip: I recommend adding the cardamom seeds, cloves, star anise, and coriander seeds in a sealed tea strainer so you don’t have to laboriously filter them out later. Unless you strain the broth through a sieve into another pot after cooking. After cooking, strain the broth (remove bones, onions, etc.), season with a pinch of pepper, add 5-8 tablespoons of fish sauce, and season to taste. If the broth still tastes too bland, add about 1-2 teaspoons of salt. Tip: Be sure not to add too much salt or fish sauce, as the broth is only optimized with the beef fillet. It is common practice to add a little fish sauce directly to the soup bowl afterward if there is a slight lack of salt. Cook the pho noodles in boiling water until they reach the optimal consistency; this takes about 5-8 minutes. Then rinse the pho noodles thoroughly in a sieve under cold water to remove any starch. Thinly slice the beef fillet. Thinly slice the onions. Slice the spring onions into 0.5 cm – 1 cm rings. Halve the lemon. Finely chop the chili pepper. Portion the pho noodles into soup bowls. Add a few sliced ​​onions, spring onions, cilantro, Thai basil leaves, a little chili, a squeeze of lemon juice, and bean sprouts. Then place the raw beef fillet slices on top. Finally, bring the finished broth to a boil and pour over the soup bowl. Tips: You can use the siracha chili sauce as a dip for the fillet. As mentioned before, you can season the broth with a dash of fish sauce if it’s not salty enough. Excellent quality beef bones and beef fillet are extremely important for an excellent broth flavor. The higher the quality, the more flavor they impart to the broth, and the more you’ll enjoy your pho. In my opinion, if you’re going to put so much time and effort into a dish, you should also invest a little more money in high-quality ingredients. Otherwise, you’d have to add MSG to the broth, which isn’t the point of high-quality food. In my opinion, MSG only serves as a means of adding flavor to inferior foods. This recipe is an original Vietnamese one that I’ve tweaked and improved over the years. I’m Vietnamese myself and unfortunately discovered that there are a lot of recipes in German-speaking countries that I consider to be very bad. That’s why I wanted to share this recipe with you.