PHO FOR Y'ALL

Hi folks,

Chef G. is back.  I haven't produced a new episode in several months, and I bet you thought I'd never have the gall to show my face here again.  Well, you're wrong.  I have no shame when it comes to posting ridiculous food articles on The Chef G. Cooking Channel.  In fact, the idiocy that results from my lack of shame is what makes this blog famous all over the world.

Anyway, the dish I have in store for you today will absolutely blow your mind--assuming everything goes according to plan.  It's a Vietnamese soup called "Pho."  Perhaps you've heard of it?

My first experience with Pho occurred in the city of Seattle about 15 years ago.  That's when I still thought it was pronounced "foe."  Thank goodness the menu informed me the correct pronunciation is "fuh" before I embarrassed myself by ordering a bowl of "foe" when the restaurant owner took my order.   

That batch of Pho was unbelievably delicious, and, in my opinion, it was all about the broth.  I'm no rookie when it comes to soup broth, I might add.  I've slurped homemade soups all across the country.  Heck, I've even had canned Campbell's and Progresso soups.  None of those fine products were any match for the authentic Vietnamese Pho broth I had on that day in Seattle.

I've had Pho several times since then, and EVERY SINGLE TIME I've been amazed by the flavor of the broth.  It was imperative that I try to make it on my own one day.

That day has come.

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Every year, I like to prepare something special on Super Bowl Sunday.  I don't know why, but American football's biggest day goes hand-in-hand with food.  I also don't know why I thought of going with Pho this year, but it probably had something to do with some kind of psychedelic broth flashback.

Look, I've made homemade broth before.  All you have to do is throw a bunch of bones, meat fat, onions, celery and carrots in water, and boil it together for a few hours.  It's easy.

Yesterday, I looked up some Pho recipes on-line, expecting them to be similarly simple.  Um, NO!  Not even close.  It might be the most complicated thing I've ever made, and there were a ton of ingredients.  Some of them were things I have never heard of before.  WTF is a star anise, for example?  Or a daikon radish? 

I came up with a composite of all the recipes I found and created my own personal recipe.  Then I went out to buy the most essential ingredients . . . even cloves, which I hate.  I sure hope this experiment works out.  Usually I test out my recipes before I put my reputation on the line.  Not this time.  I'm venturing blindly into the Vietnamese culinary night, hoping for the best Pho ever.  Good luck to ME!

It starts with 5 pounds of beef shanks and neck bones added to 3 quarts of water.

The second step is to char a large, sliced onion and a fresh, halved ginger root under the broiler.  The charring releases the sugars contained within.

Next, toast peppercorns, cloves, 6 smooshed cloves of garlic, and 4 star anise pods on a skillet. 

  

The star anise not only LOOKS cool, but it also produces a strong scent of black licorice.

Then there is the daikon.  It's like no other radish I've ever known.  It looks weird and it's kind of rubbery.  That's okay, I'm adventurous and I'm not gonna question Pho genius-ness. 

Three chunks of skinned Daikon, cinnamon sticks, shallots

So, you'll want to throw all of the stuff in the previous pictures into the pot with the meat bones and water.  Boil it all for AT LEAST three hours.  Longer than that is even better.  In my case, I could only take five hours of that incredible aroma wafting through my house before I gave in.

It looks almost as good as it smells.

Then I poured the brown liquid through a fine meshed strainer into another soup pot.  The strained broth was clear, aromatic and beautiful.  I brought it back to a hard boil.

In the meantime, I prepared some toppings for the soup:  sliced green onion, cilantro leaves, bean sprouts, and limes.

And I filled the bowls with thinly-sliced top sirloin steak, thinly sliced yellow onion, and ramen noodles.  (Rice noodles are the preferred noodles for Pho, but I went with ramen because, to me, they taste a hell of a lot better.)

Perhaps the coolest thing about Pho is how you cook the raw steak, onions and noodles by pouring the boiling broth over them and let the concoction rest for a minute or two.  Incredibly, they cook to perfection.

Then I sprinkled the bean sprouts, green onions, cilantro and lime juice over the whole shebang.

The finished product.

My soup was delicious, but very expensive to buy all the ingredients myself.  Honestly, I think it's more cost effective, and just as tasty, to buy your Pho from a Vietnamese restaurant.

Your favorite chef with a bowl of hot soup on a chilly Minnesota Superbowl Sunday.  Bon Apetit!