pho (vietnamese noodle soup).
this is most certainly my favorite meal... ever. i don't think pho can ever go wrong, especially when my mom makes it. oh my god, it is basically the best dish to have ever popped up on the face of the earth.
for those of you who don't know what pho is, it is a vietnamese noodle soup which basically consists of broth (we make a chicken pho broth), rice noodles, meat (generally pork, beef, chicken), and occasionally (depending on your taste) beansprouts, cilantro, onions, etc.
the essential part of this dish is definitely how to make the broth. without the broth, it would not be pho.
here is my mother's recipe for the broth which generally makes about 12 servings. (we typically freeze the broth so we can have pho whenever we want, or give the broth to my sister - even my friends.) but be warned, making this broth does take a good amount of time. so if you decide to spend a morning to cook, but you also want some pho throughout your winter to warm you up (remember, the freezer is your friend), then cook this pho broth in the background, because it takes about three hours for the broth to finish!
ingredients for broth:
6 chicken legs
(we use chicken legs to make the broth because they are the cheapest to buy. and considering how we won't be eating the chicken once the broth is done (due to its lack of nutrition), we toss the chicken out.)
2 1/2 kettle-full boiled water
2 tablespoons of salt
1 ginger broken into pieces
2 whole peeled onions
40 drops of nuoc mam (fish sauce)
1/4 cup of sugar
2 beef cube flavorings
2 chicken cube flavorings
directions:
place chicken legs in a large stock pot. pour in pre-boiled water into the pot and allow the water to come to a boil again.
then set the stove to medium heat, allowing the water to simmer. add in salt, ginger, onions, fish sauce, sugar, and beef/chicken cube flavorings. place a lid onto the stock pot, and let the broth cook - occasionally stirring.
do not let the broth boil over - this will make the broth thick and cloudy, which is not what we are looking for!
you know the broth is finished when the meat of the chicken easily slides off of the bone. like i said earlier, this may take about three hours to do so. add more salt or fish sauce for taste as needed.
finally, for my own serving of pho, i used about 3/4 cup - 1 cup of rice noodles. these can easily be found at any asian food market.
with the rice noodles, take the noodles out of the package and place it into a large bowl of warm water. in a single serving pot, boil some water. throw in the serving of rice noodles you wish to have and stir it around in the boiling water for no more than thirty seconds (you don't want your noodles to be mushy). drain out the water, and toss the noodles into your bowl.
i used a few slices of chicken breast as my meat portion, and threw that and my garnish (a cilantro/chopped red onion mix) into my bowl. then i poured in the broth, and voila!
and there we have it! a nice bowl of pho!
a bowl of chicken pho is typically about 350-400 calories. it is a great meal to have when you're feeling kind of sick - not to mention it has lots of nutrition, too! plus, it has a delicious taste that will have you wanting more and more.
