Pho Bo - Vietnamese Soup

1. Broth. Wash the meat for the broth (shanks), pour cold water over it and put it on the fire.

2. While the future broth is boiling, prepare the onion and ginger: cut them into 1-1.5 cm thick circles and fry them over an open fire (leave half of the onion for the ceremonial finale). If you don’t know where to get an open fire, use a gas stove (yes, you will have to sacrifice its cleanliness and put the circles directly on the burner, periodically turning them over until they soften slightly. The burnt surface of the onion and ginger is not forbidden, but rather welcomed). If you don’t have a gas stove, do the same in a dry frying pan. In any case, don’t forget to turn on the hood — the smoke will rise like a rocker. Cool a little, clean off the black burnt spots with a knife, rinse under water. And don’t be scared — it’s not as difficult and time-consuming as it seems.

3. Remove the foam from the boiling broth, throw in the burnt ones, as well as the star anise, cloves, whole cinnamon, salt and sugar and fish sauce. Cover with a lid, turn the heat down low and forget about it for 1.5 hours.

4. After 1.5 hours, take out most of the pulp (leave the bones and the remaining pulp for another 1.5 hours). Soak what you took out in cold water for 10 minutes - so that the meat does not darken and does not dry out later. and put it aside until the second chapter. As you may have guessed, we did this so that the meat does not boil down completely into something tasteless, and it is pleasant to savor it in the finished soup.

5. When the broth has been cooking for at least 3 hours in total, turn it off, strain. Try the broth - it should be a little oversaturated - slightly oversalted and very rich in spices. If it is not like that, feel free to add salt, sugar, fish sauce. When we pour this broth over the bland herbs and noodles, everything will be balanced.

6. Bowl. I prepare the contents of the bowl while the broth is cooking.

7. Boil the rice noodles as indicated on the package. Since I usually cook more than once or twice, after cooking I cool them with cold water and twist them into portioned bundles-nests to make it easier. Here is one such nest and put it in each bowl.

8. I cut the meat that we saved from being completely boiled and took out of the broth after an hour and a half into thin slices and put it in the bowl.

9. We send the raw beef tenderloin, slightly frozen in the freezer and cut into the thinnest-thinest slices there. When we pour the scalding broth over it all, the pieces of tenderloin should change color except for the appetizing pink center. Needless to say, the meat should be of the highest quality. If you are not sure that it is 100% kosher, it is better to skip this step and add more boiled meat.

10. Herbs. The simplest! Wash everything, remove the cilantro-mint-basil from the leg (do not cut, let everything be large). Green onions and lime rings, onions - the thinnest rings. Chili will do dried, fresh, any color, and even sauce (my favorite is sriracha). Put all this on a separate plate, and when you have already poured the results of chapter two with the results of chapter one, sit down at the table to savor, and generously drown your favorite greens in a steaming appetizing bowl.