One of my favourite soups of all time is the Vietnamese beef broth that is made for pho noodles, or specifically, Vietnamese Pho Beef Noodle Soup. I first truly learned it while travelling to Vietnam and took a cooking course given by locals, and my life has never been the same! After learning the original base, you can pretty much tweak it as you like. The good thing is that I live in Asia, and all the ingredients are readily available. The challenge is that to make a good beef soup base, you need to boil it for quite some time – we’re looking at a solid 3 hours or more (like all broths). Even if you can’t find all the ingredients, no worries – just improvise!
Soup Name: Vietnamese Pho – Beef Noodle Soup
Traditional Chinese Name: 越南牛肉河粉 (Yuè nán niú ròu hé fěn)
If you want to skip my running commentary, just go to the bottom for the full, quick-read recipe.
First, you need FRESH ingredients. I’m talking about fresh beef bones, fresh vegetables, and fresh beef slices. For this round, I used beef ribs. They are giant bones, so you’ll need a giant pot! I use a thermal pot to save electricity and it does the boiling for me so I can go out! The recipe usually calls for fresh beef knuckles or leg bones (with plenty of marrow goodness) – but these tend to be more fatty in nature, so just be sure to skim off the oil (and scum) when it surfaces.
Fresh Beef Bones
Start by blanching all the bones in a separate pot of boiling water for about 5 minutes. This will remove impurities, scum and oil off the bones in preparation for your soup.
You can also begin to char the fresh ginger and fresh onions – usually done with an oven or on an open flame. This will bring out the wonderfully natural flavours of these ingredients. I can already smell the onions as they broil in the oven and I’m not even on to making the soup yet!
Fresh ginger and onions for Vietnamese Pho
Charred fresh ginger and onions
Next are the spices. In Asian supermarkets, you can usually buy them pre-packaged as a bundle, but if not, you’ll need a handle of each for the flavouring. Pick up some star anise, cloves, cardamom, cinnamon sticks, fennel, and coriander. You’ll also need a soup mesh bag to keep all the spices together because at some point, you’ll need to remove them and it’s way easier this way!
Soup mesh bag with spices for Vietnamese Pho Beef Noodle Soup
For the soup base, you’ll also need fish sauce, salt, and rock sugar. In the meantime, just throw in the blanched beef bones, charred ginger and onions, spices, salt, fish sauce and rock sugar into a large pot of boiling water and boil uncovered for at least 2 – 2.5 hours.
Vietnamese Pho Beef Noodle Soup base
I was taught that at around this point, you should remove all the floating ingredients of the broth and taste test the soup for saltiness or flavour. You can adjust the taste by adding either more fish sauce, more salt or more sugar depending on what fits your taste. Do this in small amounts so that you never go overboard because it’s pretty darn hard to remove dissolved salt – or at least correct without adding more water, which will then dilute the beef stock. I personally don’t even take out the ingredients and taste it like that and serve. Whatever tickles your fancy as a chef.
Also start to soak your dried Vietnamese pho noodles. Soak in a large pot of cool water for at least 15 minutes – or whatever the instructions of the noodles are. You can even use Thai noodles, Chinese rice noodles, or whatever noodles you like. Actually, it doesn’t really matter because you’re eating it!
At this point, I lay out the bowls – layering first the bottom with thinly sliced fresh white onion rings and bean sprouts. Or you can leave it up to your guest to lay their own, kind of like a buffet.
Fresh onions and bean sprouts ready for Vietnamese Pho
Put in noodles to the bowl, as much as you’ll eat. I then blanch the fresh beef slices quickly in the broth and lay them on top as well and then ladle out that heavenly soup goodness so that it covers the beef completely. Be sure the soup is still boiling at this time. Top with fresh mint, cilantro, parsley, basil, more bean sprouts, chilli peppers and lime to finish it off. And ta-da! Yummy Vietnamese Pho, made from scratch!
Vietnamese Pho – Beef Noodle Soup
Recipe Type: Vietnamese Pho
Cuisine: Vietnamese
Author: LadyTong
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 8
Ingredients
4-5 pieces of [url href=”http://www.thechinesesouplady.com/fresh-beef-bones/”]fresh beef bones[/url]
In soups, beef bones are primarily used to make beef stock
Not a common ingredient used in Chinese soups at all – in fact, beef is not a common ingredient for “old fire” soups traditionally compared to pork – if you consider it from a historical perspective, having a cow back in those days meant you were wealthy
Bones are rich in nutrients (calcium & magnesium), collagen, easy to digest and rich in flavour
Shown in the picture are the ribs of the cow – I used this for my pho base because it’s relatively low in fat, but you can consider using cow knuckle and leg bones as well
The amount of fat on the bones will vary depending on which part. The ox-tail (of beef tail) is often a fatty part of the cow, but the most commonly purchased bone part from the vendor! He usually has the tail on reserve already for clients.
How do I prepare it?
Make sure the pieces you buy can fit into your pot (that’s probably the first most important thing!)
Blanch the bones in boiling water for at least 5 minutes to boil out the impurities and fat – this will produce a brown film of “gunk” which you should just throw out
Where can I buy this?
Most Asian wet marts will carry beef bones at the beef vendor
Supermarkets may also carry beef bones, which are already cut up into manageable pieces for you to take home
What is the cost?
The cost will vary depending on supply, but in Hong Kong, 3 bones (as pictured above) cost me $30 HKD
Any benefits?
Bones (any animal) are an excellent source of nutrients and minerals such as Calcium, Magnesium, Potassium, and silicon
The broth created from bones are easy to digest, are high in amino acids, collagen and gelatin
Bones broth is actually known to help fight colds and viruses because of these amino acids that help boost immune system and heal disorders like allergies, asthma and arthritis
Nothing beats real stock with real bones – store bought stock (which are primarily enhanced with flavour enhancers) has nothing over real stock
Any precautions?
Be careful of an over fatty cut of the bone – knuckles, ox-tail, or any other cuts that come with fat should be either cut off or boiled off and then removed from the soup
Consider purchasing animal products that you know are pasture-fed and free of antibiotics and hormones
Be sure to remove any scum that boils from the soup or blanching process
Traditional Chinese Name: 泡菜豆腐牛肉湯 (pàocài dòu fu niú ròu tāng)
Introduction:
This is a Korean dish that I love eating. I say eat because of the volume of ingredients, it turns into a stew that packs a bunch (in terms of spiciness) and nutrients. The ingredients are readily available and it’s not your traditional old fire soups because you can make this in about half an hour. And of course, it’s flexible in that you can add your favorite ingredients to make it more wholesome. My husband and I literally had this for dinner (only), the kids of course, couldn’t take the spiciness, so they didn’t have any. You can serve this with rice, rice noodles, noodles or add any other starches to really make it filling.
1 tablespoon of soy sauce 1 tablespoon of cornstarch 1 tablespoon of hot chili oil 1 teaspoon of chili powder (optional)
How do I prepare it?
Pre-marinade the beef with the soy sauce, cornstarch, chili oil and chili powder at least 1 hour before cooking. Cover and set aside in the fridge.
In a pot of boiling water, add the fresh clams (already soaking in fresh water). Once the clams open, remove immediately from the water and set aside.
Wash, peel and cube the radish. You can re-use the clam water to boil the radish until they are soft (use a chopstick to see if you can smoothly poke through a radish, if so, it’s sufficiently soft).
In a large pot on medium heat, add 1 tablespoon of hot chili oil, garlic and fry beef until half-cooked. Remove from pot.
In the same large pot, fry onions until cooked. Add half-cooked beef and kimchi. Continue to cook on medium heat for 5 minutes.
Add cabbage to the beef and cook for another 5 minutes on medium heat, while continuously stirring.
Pour in chicken broth and water to the mixture and turn on high heat. Boil on high for 10 minutes.
When ready to serve, add in tofu, cooked clams and green onions. Boil together for another 2-3 minutes.
As optional, you can add 1 fresh egg (whole) into the soup and scoop out along with soup per serving. Be careful not to pop the egg and for plating, place on top, in the middle of the soup.
Enjoy!
Any benefits?
Soup is versatile in that you can add other ingredients such as chicken, pork, dumplings, rice noodles, and other leafy greens
A quick boil soup that is easy to make
Serves as a meal
Helps keep the body warm and promote blood circulation
Soup is low in fat and high in proteins
Excellent source of dietary fibers
Any precautions?
The soup spiciness may be harm or upset sensitive stomachs (you can vary the kimchi, hot chili oil or chili powder amounts as desired)
If spiciness is a concern, you can also rinse the kimchi in cold water before using in soups
Step 4: Fresh beef slices fried with garlic
Step 5: Fried onions with kimchi
Step 8: Add tofu to soup (with cooked clams) before serving
It is not common to use beef slices in Chinese soups, but you will find ox tails and other parts sometimes. I bought this beef from the wet part and truly, the softest and tenderest part has to come with fat. It is unavoidable. Depending on how you make it, you can eliminate the fat in soups through a fat scooper. This type of beef cut is probably best used for quick boil soups (as old fire soups) will just beat the living daylights out of the meat.
What is this?
Fresh beef slices from the loin portion of the cow
This muscle does the least amount of work (in the cow’s body) and therefore is normally the most tender
This type of meat is often used in tartares, whole steak or sliced
It is one of the more expensive parts of the cow for consumption
How do I prepare it?
To prepare, wash first before cooking or marinating
You may need to cut up into pieces if you’ve purchased it by the pound
Where can I buy this?
You can buy this in any supermarket
In Asian supermarkets, you can purchase them by the weight and cut
What is the cost?
1 bitter melon about 30cm in length cost around $5-6 HKD
Any benefits?
Lean beef is an important source of 12 essential nutrients including high quality protein, iron, zinc and B vitamins
Any precautions?
Be sure to remove excess fat
Many believe that organic beef is best as there are no growth hormones and antibiotics, which can potentially make you sick if there is over consumption of beef
Any substitutes?
Depending on the soup, pork or even chicken meat is substitutable
Also known as beef tail, it is a bony, gelatinous meat, and is usually slow-cooked, often stewed or braised. It is a good stock base for a soup.
The oxtail is usually skinned and cut into short lengths for sale
They usually come with some fat attached
How do I prepare it?
When store bought, it is usually already cut into pieces
Wash with cold water first and then boil before usage. Boiling it will remove excess dirt, broken bone pieces, and undesired fat.
After boiling, remove it from the water, rinse, and use as desired
To insure tender meat and the best flavor, cook the oxtail slowly. A crockpot is perfect, if available. If not, a heavy dutch oven on top of the stove produces the desired result.
Where can I buy this?
Look for pre-packaged oxtails at your local market. These will be in the meat section and are usually pre-sliced. If you don’t see them on the shelf, ask the butcher if they have them or can order them for you.
Try one of the specialty food stores if you have no luck at the local market. ey tend to have more exotic choices in all products including meat. They usually have a butcher knowledgeable in these items.
Call a local meat market. They tend to have any cut of meat you are looking to buy, but these markets ar not found in all areas.
Choose fresh oxtail if available. Buy the whole tail and have the butcher slice it for you into 2-inch slices.
In Asian supermarkets, you can purchase them by weight and request the size of cut you want
Substitutes
If oxtail if unavailable, you may consider substituting with veal or beef neck, shanks or short ribs. However, don’t expect the flavor to be as intense.
What is the cost?
Depending on where you buy oxtail, it may be a pricier cut of meat. In Asia, where many people enjoy oxtail, it can cost approximately $70 – $100 HKD / tail
In western countries, oxtail are less popular and may be significantly cheaper (and maybe even free if from a butcher), but range around $7 – $10 CAD / tail
Any benefits?
Beef is an important source of 12 essential nutrients including high quality protein, iron, zinc and B vitamins
In general, it’s a good idea to eat from all parts of an animal because each part provides different nutritional value.
Any precautions?
Consumption of meat should be done in moderation.
Oxtail contains more fat and is not considered a lean cut of beef.
