Let’s go on a journey to distant lands with Vietnamese pho

Pho is a Vietnamese soup made with meat broth, rice noodles and many other flavourings. Here is the original recipe to prepare it!

Pho is a Vietnamese soup usually eaten for breakfast or during lunches on holidays. Being a typical dish, it is really difficult to codify the recipe: every family has its own technique for preparing it as well as its own blend of spices. In fact, however, Vietnamese pho consists of three elements: meat broth , rice noodles and a vegetable "side dish".

The preparation is divided into two phases: the first is the preparation of the broth which must cook for a long time so as to absorb all the flavors of the meat (usually beef, rarely chicken) and of the aromas (cinnamon, star anise, ginger, onion, black cardamom , coriander, fennel seeds and cloves).

• Recipe
• storage
• How to serve it
• Variants
• Origin of the dish

How to make Vietnamese pho recipe

1. First, toast the onions and ginger in a grill pan, directly over the flame or in the oven with the grill mode. It will take about 10-15 minutes for them to blacken.
2. Peel them and keep them aside.
3. Put the bones in a large pot and cover them with cold water.
4. Bring to a boil for 3 minutes then drain and remove all water.
5. Cover them again with water (about 5 litres) and start cooking.
6. Add the onions, ginger, garlic, fish sauce and sugar.
7. Cut the sirloin in half , divide one half again into pieces and put it in the pot, cut the other half as thinly as possible with a knife to obtain slices of beef carpaccio.
8. Combine the spices in a small cloth or gauze bag, close it well and put it in the pot.
9. Cook for 2 hours on a low flame, so that it barely boils.
10. Then filter the broth before using it.
11. Rehydrate the rice noodles as indicated on the package (keep in mind that usually they shouldn't be boiled but only covered with boiling water). Bring the water to the boil, salt it, turn off the heat and soak the noodles for 5 minutes before draining them.
12. Distribute the spaghetti in the bowls and also place the slices of carpaccio . They must be very thin.
13. Cover with the broth and bring the bowls to the table by placing the bean sprouts, sliced ​​lime, fish sauce, Thai basil, chilli pepper and coriander on a separate plate . Each diner will complete the Vietnamese soup according to their tastes.

What do you think of this dive into Vietnamese cuisine? We were really pleasantly surprised and can't wait to prepare other recipes!

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storage

Pho, once dispensed into bowls, can no longer be stored. Separate ingredients, on the other hand, can be kept for quite a long time. Just keep the broth in the refrigerator to have a hot soup available for a week.

How to serve Vietnamese pho

The soup, served in large bowls and consumed with the characteristic chopsticks, is assembled by the diners according to their taste by adding not only the aromas just mentioned but also bean sprouts, fish sauce and lime . So let's see how to prepare this delicious Vietnamese recipe.

Variations of pho

Pho takes on different names depending on the ingredients used. When the term "pho ga" is used, reference is made to the variant of pho with chicken, while "pho bò" is the one with beef, which can vary according to the cuts used. Here is a list of the most common cuts of beef used for pho bò:

• chín (noodle soup with well-cooked beef flank or brisket)
• tái (noodle soup with rare beef tenderloin)
• tái băm (noodle soup with minced beef)
• nạm (beef flank noodle soup)
• gầu (noodle soup with beef brisket)
• gân (noodle soup with beef tendons)
• sách (noodle soup with beef tripe)
• bò viên (noodle soup with beef meatballs)
• cay (noodle soup with beef in spicy sauce)

Origins of the pho recipe

Opinions about its origins vary: one of the most common theories states that pho was created in the early 20th century . According to one school of thought, this dish derives from Cantonese cuisine and the rice noodles were introduced to Vietnam by immigrants from the Chinese province of Guangdong. Another theory claims that the broth was born out of French influences, and more precisely the French colonization of Vietnam. If this theory is true, the original dish may have been the "pot au feu" , which inspired the word "pho" thanks to its component "fire" (in French, "feu").

Regardless of its origin, pho originated in the northern regions of Vietnam and is believed to have first been created in the city of Nam Dinh . However, today the inhabitants of the capital claim the authorship of the dish.

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