Special Guest Post: Beki D's Pho

When a lot of people think of Vietnamese food, they think Pho (unless you're one of my HealthStream friends, then you're likely to think bun. Mmm. Bun bowls . . but I digress). I've tasted some delightful pho from various locations, but never considered making it myself until my dear friend Beki posted this elsewhere:

Quick and easy Pho
Ingredients:
soup broth choose whatever will compliment your choice of meat (I used 2 cans of chicken stock)
rice stick noodles (aka rice vermicelli, pho noodles)
meat You can use any type of meat I used chicken
1 star anise
thin sliced young ginger (a medium to smallish nub) Make sure its “new” ginger as its not fibrous and is much easier to slice I use a microplane grater that does thin slices.
thin sliced shallot (I used 2)
thin sliced garlic (I used the rest of the garlic we had, maybe 3 small sections I could have used more)
Garnishes:
bean sprouts
fresh cilantro
fresh basil
minced green onion
lime
thin sliced carrot or julienned carrot
snow peas
water chestnuts
baby corn
plum sauce
siracha sauce (HOT stuff)
fish sauce

The original recipe didn’t really give amounts, so I think the porportions will work well. Even the kids ate it.

What I did:
I took 2 cans of broth and about 4 cups of water and tossed them in the pot. I turned up the heat to get the broth to boil. While waiting for the broth to boil, I sliced thin some ginger, some shallot, and garlic. I tossed that in along with the star anise. Once the broth was up to a boil, I tossed in the meat and let it cook.
While I was waiting for the broth to come up, I put on the kettle to boil. I put the rice sticks in a bowl and then added the hot water to let the noodles steep. I drained them once the broth was ready. Fish out the star anise. The steeping of the rice noodles took about 15 or so minutes.
Once those bits are ready, Get a bowl and put in whatever garnishes you want to have. Put in some noodles and ladle the broth and make sure you get some meat. You might want to steam the pea pods a bit if you don't like them crunchy.
You can add any accompaniments you want, a lot of this is suggestions.
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I haven't made this yet, but it's on the list now that it's getting cold and soup sounds more and more tantalizing. It's also coming up on chili season. I have a chicken chili in mind for later this month, with long hot peppers and not a small amount of garlic.

What do you cook in the fall? Le't's hear it!