House recipe
🍜 Shortcut phở bò
Shop-bought beef stock deepened with charred onion, ginger and whole spices, poured over noodles and raw beef.
Allergens. Contains: Fish. May contain, depending on the brands you buy: Celery, Gluten, Milk, Soy, Mustard, Crustaceans, Sulphites.
This is based on the ingredient list only. Always check the labels of what you buy for “may contain” warnings.
Ingredients
- 1 onion, halved, skin on
- 5 cm fresh ginger, halved lengthways
- 3 star anise
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 4 cloves
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- 2 litres beef stock
- 3 tbsp fish sauce
- 1 tsp sugar
- Salt, to taste
- 300 g beef steak, sirloin or rump, very thinly sliced
- 300 g flat rice noodles
- 150 g bean sprouts
- 3 spring onion, sliced
- a handful thai basil
- a handful fresh coriander
- 1 fresh red chilli, sliced
- 1 lime, in wedges
- to serve sriracha
Method
- Char the onion and ginger, cut side down, in a dry heavy pan over high heat until blackened in places, about 5 minutes.
- In a large pot, toast the star anise, cinnamon, cloves and ground coriander for 1 minute. Add the stock, charred onion and ginger, and simmer gently, partly covered, for 45 minutes.
- Strain the broth, season with fish sauce, sugar and salt until it tastes rich and slightly sweet, and keep it at a rolling simmer.
- Cook or soak the noodles according to the packet and divide between deep bowls. Pop the beef in the freezer for 15 minutes beforehand if it is hard to slice thinly.
- Lay the raw beef slices over the noodles and ladle the boiling broth on top; it will cook the beef in seconds.
- Top with spring onion and serve with bean sprouts, basil, coriander, chilli, lime and sriracha for everyone to add at the table.