The Cooking Thread

[miscorrections]

Oh whoops, didn't see the "quick" part. Yeah, you can make an alright bowl without doing the whole bone simmering process.

[koryp]

Slightly above average quick pho is what I'm shooting for, so that at least tells me it's possible. I've got saw leaf mint/culantro in my terrace along with a ridiculous slew of perennial herbs. Didn't even realize it'd be a part of this dish. Sweet. Anyway, my goal is to basically take an average broth and kick it up by cutting the herbs fresh, using my own sprouts, and shaving beef tenderloin into the broth. I'm gonna try a pho mix added to a reduced beef broth, simmered with a fresh spice satchet as the broth and tweak it from there. Blendtec has a rice noodle recipe I can prepare while that simmers, so I think we've figured out 30 minute pho. Fuck yeah!

[stinkbutt]

Never cook the noodles in the broth. It will ruin all your work of having a clear and clean broth.

[koryp]

Thanks, I throw them, the beef, sprouts, and mint into the broth after its been bowled.

[bmack86]

So if I didn't want to make it quickly, what would people's recipes be for a good, slow cooked pho broth?

[koryp]

Show off^^^

[bmack86]

I've got nothing but free time on my hands and I could use a good breakfast soup.

[stinkbutt]

Lots of leftover bones chopped to the marrow to get the fat out, and boil them for a day or so

[insbordnat]

There are a lot of recipes online. It's been a while since I made it, but generally here's the recipe:

6 lbs beef bones (preferably ones with some tendon or other gelatinous bits attached), cover with water, blanch for about 10-15 minutes. Split an onion and char over open flame, good size rhizome of ginger, char that over open flame. Set aside.
Dump water after the 15 minutes, rinse bones, scrub pot. This will help get rid of scumminess and keep your broth clear.
Refill stock pot with cool clean water (never use hot tap water, btw) and simmer away. Add sachet of Pho spices (easier to buy this premixed, otherwise it's primarily coriander, anise, cinnamon, bay leaf, fennel, some recipes say cardamom, etc.). Add ginger and onion.

Make sure your stock doesn't boil (gentle simmer) and get a spoon to skim off the scum the forms on top.

Let simmer for 12 hours. I don't recall but I don't see a need to keep the spice sachet in there that long. You'll get to a point where all of the good stuff/flavor is out of the bones and spices, so you'll just be reducing the stock and making it more concentrated. There's a balance between a thin stock and an overly concentrated stock. I tend to go more concentrated, since beefiness is the key to the dish.

Add palm sugar and fish sauce to taste. I don't remember other specifics but that's high level how I made it last time. I also don't remember if you roast the bones as you would a regular brown stock. Seems like it wouldn't hurt the dish.

As an aside: I read somewhere once that better Pho restaurants will never make a "new" batch of Pho broth. Rather, it's perpetual. If they need more, they add more water and more bones/ingredients, but the flame never goes out. They'll leave for the night and keep the pot going. I don't have anything to back this up, but it's an interesting concept - reminds me of a sourdough starter/mother and how that's "fed" and passed from generation to generation.