Vietnam: Pho

So I cheated again this week, but for good reason. As previously noted, I've been feeling a little under the weather and was craving a hot, soothing, yummy soup to make me feel better.

At some point this week I found myself craving Vietnamese soup, the spicy liquid being a perfect remedy to clear your sinuses. I hit Pho Cali on Main Street and had the beef stew (which is actually more like a soup) that I love. It made me feel so much better that I decided this weekend I would make my own version of the national dish of Vietnam, Pho.

I searched Food Network and found this recipe for "Emerilized" Banh Pho Bo, Vietnamese beef noodle soup. Emerilized sounded pretty good to me, so I figured I had a winner.

I went back and forth a few times on whether to actually try this today, given that it would take six hours to cook the broth. Would it really be worth the wait to eat it? Please reference "Emerilized." Yes. Yes I decided it would be.

The recipe calls for a meaty bone, and I decided to go with short ribs. I also don't have a grill, so I just stuck the onion stuffed with anise under the broiler until it got blackened. The best thing about this dish is the smell of the anise as it boils on the stove for six hours. It made my kitchen smell amazing!

I threw a few serrano peppers in as the broth cooked just to, well you know, kick it up a notch.

But I got a late start to all this, and with three hours left to simmer the broth at 6:30 I started to come to the realization that this wouldn't be ready for dinner. Once the broth is done, there's all sorts of other things that needed to get done. And quite frankly, I was pretty tired.

So the plan at this point is to let the broth boil some more, and then finish the pho off for dinner tomorrow.

To be continued ...