Beef Pho

Just want to point a couple of things out before we get started. I grew up in an area where any kind of noodle is an abundant. Therefore, I never have the need to make my own noodle since it a lot cheaper and faster to eat out. I often take my boys to the noodle house every Sunday. So Sunday is our favorite day for everything, but since moving to Texas…there not much here, let alone a noodle house. So we often crave what we can’t have, but I’ve tried to accommodated all of our craving. Especially Asian food, but noodle is top of our most wanted list! Thus we all became a noodle head!

And to maintain our Sunday ritual, I make Pho very Sunday. Of course with my busy schedule I don’t have all day to cook the soup, so I made it the night before on Saturday.
On Saturday night, I get off from work really late like 11 pm. By the time I get home it about 11:30 at night as I started my soup stock. I like to cook overnight my soup overnight due to my busy schedule and also because leaving the soup overnight the heat help finishing cooking the meat and it way more flavorful. The added bonus the fat would deposit when leave in the refrigerator overnight and easier to remove. Love this soup!!



Ingredients:

For the soup:

6 pieces of oxtail or feet bone for more tendons
4 to 6 pieces of neck bone
1 cinnamon stick
3 star anis
1 onion
2 inches of ginger
1 to 2 cube of beef bouillon
1 pk noodle dried or fresh
3 to 4 Tbsp of fish salt
1 tsp of kosher salts


For the topping:

1 6 oz of filet mignon or rib eyes thinly sliced
Handful of bean sprout
Handful of cilantro
Handful of basil
Handful of scallion sliced
Handful sliced jalapeno

Methods:

1. With a 5 quart of pot or bigger put the oxtail, neck bone adds a little salt to about ¾ full and brings to a boil. While the water boiling make sure to grill the onions and ginger to a charcoal so that the aroma will give.
2. Remove from stove top and rinse the bone well off the scum and impurities. Refill the water to almost full and placed back on the stove top on high.
3. Add the salt, cinnamon, ginger, onion, beef bouillon, star anis, salts and fish sauce.
4. Bring to boil and then lower the heat to medium. Boil for at least 2 to 3 hours, depending how tender you want your oxtail and neck bone to be.
5. After the meat is tender and to taste turn the heat off and let it cool then put it in the refrigerator overnight.
6. The next morning before serving, remove all the fat that deposit on the off.
7. Reheat until boil.
8. If using dried noodle, make sure to soak it in water for at least half an hour.
9. Bring water to boil in pot and add the noodle in. Dried noodle cook about 2 minutes for fresh noodle as soon as you put it in, pull it out so that it won’t over cook.
10. Add the garnish and beef and pour the hot soup over the noodle.

Get your chopstick and spoon and dig in!