Beef Pho
Vietnam in a bowl. Charred onion and ginger thrown into beef stock with cinnamon, star anise, cloves and coriander, then poured boiling over rare steak so it cooks in the bowl.
Total time
55 minutes
Serves
2
Difficulty
Easy, broth does the work
Origin
Hanoi, northern Vietnam
First light
"You sit on a low plastic stool, you do not order, you say nothing. A bowl arrives. You eat in five minutes, you stand up, you leave. The vendor never looked up.
"How phở is actually eaten in Hanoi
Char the onion and ginger dry in the pan until they blacken. That is where the broth gets its depth. Skip this and you have flavoured water.
Freeze the steak for fifteen minutes before slicing. The chill firms the meat so you can cut it paper thin, which is how it cooks in the boiling broth.
Do not boil the noodles in the broth. They release starch and cloud it. Cook them separately, drain, then build the bowl from underneath.
