Can you say pho?

Thursday Jan 21. Pho is Vietnamese noodle soup and is pronounced like 'fah'. Today I'm feeling almost 100% and starving. I've not been able to eat much in the past 2 days. I think I've lost 5lbs in those days... I must start eating or there's going to be nothing left of me! I will start with a nice bowl of beef pho. I got this pho recipe from MC and started making the broth the day before. This was so that we could skim the fat off easier after it cooled down, and has congealed.

The pho was a hit at the dinner table and everyone loved it! The taste is very authentic because we were able to find all the ingredients down here. This is rare because the selection of Oriental ingredients are very limited, and for good reason. I haven't seen any Asians walking around town except for us.

Lucky for you, you can try to recreate the same authentic taste of pho at your own home. Sandi has kindly noted and typed out the recipe for all to follow:

Ingredients:

Soup:
* Oxtails, at least 3 (but add in more depending on your size of pot & mouths to feed)
* 2 white onions, whole
* a handful of whole cloves
* 1 knob of peeled ginger
* A couple cinnamon stick pieces
* Two whole star anise (or more)
* Fish sauce

To serve:
* A package of long wide rice noodles, similar to ones used for pad thai
* 250 g (or more) beef tenderloin
* Coriander
* Spring Onions
* Basil
* Beansprouts
* Lemon/Lime
* Red onion
* wine/cider vinegar
* sugar
* hoisin sauce
* siracha sauce / sambal olek
* red bird chilies

1. The day before, you need to prepare the soup. First of all, stud the onions with cloves - using a knife, cut slits in the onion and push the whole cloves in. Then, add the onions, oxtail, ginger, cinnamon and star anise to a large pot of boiling water. Bring to a boil, then simmer for at least 3 hours or longer; a longer boiling time equates to more flavor. Remember to watch the simmering and add more water as necessary.

2. Once the soup is done, season with fish sauce to taste and put the entire pot into a fridge overnight. This is to congeal the fat at the top of the soup for easy removal. The next day, remove all the white stuff on top - this is the fat.

3. Place the beef tenderloin in the freezer for an hour so it is mostly frozen but not entirely. Once mostly frozen, slice very thinly, as if you were making carpaccio.

4. Soak the rice noodles in hot water until desired softness is reached, then drain.

5. Prepare the pickled red onions. Slice one onion (red onion has a sweeter taste) very thinly. Mix with wine or cider vinegar, diluted with water (about 1/2 of each), and add a bit of sugar to the mix. Adjust mix to taste.

6. Cut up the spring onions and also cut limes into 8 wedges to serve.

7. To serve, spoon some noodles into a large bowl, top with raw meat, spring onions, coriander, then ladle soup on top. Then add bean sprouts, basil, lime juice and 1 bird chili; add sambal olek and hoisin to taste.

Bean sprouts, basil, lime juice and bird chilies are optional. Also, if you do not have basil you can substitute in mint instead. If you are eating this as leftovers the next day, and have no raw tenderloin left use the meat off the oxtails instead.