Phở bò

Ingredients

• Beef marrow bones1.5 kg
• Brisket500 g
• Sirloin — sliced almost transparent200 g
• Onion2
• Ginger80 g
• Star anise4
• Cinnamon stick1
• Cloves4
• Coriander seeds1 tbsp
• Fish sauce60 ml
• Sugar1 tbsp
• Flat rice noodles400 g
• Coriander, spring onion, Thai basilto taste
• Lime and chillito taste

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Cover the bones with cold water, bring to the boil and let them go for ten minutes. Throw the water away, rinse the bones under the tap and wash the pot. This step is what buys you a clear broth.

   15 min

2. 2

   Halve the onion and ginger and char the cut faces in a dry pan or straight over the flame until they blacken in patches.

   8 min

3. 3

   Toast the spices in a dry pan until they smell, then tie them in muslin. Return the bones to the clean pot with the brisket, onion, ginger and spices, and cover with water three fingers above.

   5 min

4. 4

   Simmer for three hours at the barest tremble. Skim for the first half hour. Lift the brisket out after ninety minutes and let it cool.

   180 min

5. 5

   Strain the broth through a fine sieve and season with fish sauce and sugar. Taste it: it should be slightly saltier than pleasant to drink on its own, because the noodles will take their share.

   10 min

6. 6

   Cook the noodles and divide them between bowls. Lay the sliced brisket and the raw sirloin on top. Ladle boiling broth over so it covers the meat, and serve the herbs, lime and chilli alongside.

   10 min

About the dish

Phở is the broth; everything else is an accompaniment. It takes hours and there is no shortcut, because the point is to pull the gelatine out of the bones without clouding the liquid.

Charring the onion and ginger over a flame is not decoration. The blackened surface gives the broth the smoky note phở is recognised by, and without it you have beef noodle soup instead.

The beef goes into the bowl raw, sliced thin. Boiling broth cooks it in seconds — cook it in advance and it turns grey and tough.

Worth knowing

• — Never let the broth reach a rolling boil, not for a minute — the fat emulsifies and the clarity never comes back.
• — The sirloin slices thinner if you freeze it for twenty minutes first.
• — Herbs never go into the pot. They go into the bowl and stay fresh, and half the flavour of phở is in that.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

520 kcal

Protein

34 g

Fat

14 g

Carbs

62 g

More from Vietnam

• Bánh mì — A French baguette with Vietnamese filling: pâté, pork, pickled vegetables and coriander in one sandwich.