Vietnamese pho with beef brisket, tripe, and pork meatballs
In cosmopolitan Sydney today, Vietnamese pho (pronounced “fur”) has slowly albeit surely been jostling up the comfort food ladder to contend with the likes of Italian pizza and pasta, Chinese yum cha, Japanese sushi rolls, Lebanses kebabs and pad Thai just to name a few.
Fresh beansprouts, lemon wedge and fresh coriander
What’s not to like about a piping hot bowl of silky smooth rice noodles, tender slices of raw beef with fresh beansprouts, thinly sliced onions and herbs to warm the heart and sooth hunger pangs?
We are big fans of pho and have our favourite Vietnamese restaurants to satisfy our craving as and when it arises. And as much as we love frequenting these tried and tested restaurants where the food is tasty and relatively cheap, we love cooking our version of Vietnamese pho at home too.
Main ingredients for Vietnamese pho
The quality standard of a simple bowl of pho is almost entirely predicated on the way the stock is prepared. The resultant broth that is ladled into each bowl of noodles requires a good depth of flavour, good herb and spice complexity and aroma as well as the right savoury balance of taste.
This is easier said than done as the spectrum of flavour and taste is very wide even among the most popular restaurants that serve pho in the major capital cities in Australia.
As a result, what constitute a great bowl of pho noodles can be as subjective as your mate boasting that his wife is a beautiful woman. Indeed, I suspect every pho enthusiast will have his or her preferred restaurant to fix a pho craving. After all, one man’s meat is yet another man’s poison and in similar vein, your mate will also have his own opinion whether your wife is indeed as beautiful as you so claim.
Fresh coriander bunch with roots
So here is my version of Vietnamese pho, with a Thai-inspired dipping sauce that showcases some of the great flavours of the Indochinese peninsula.
Ingredients Garnish and dipping sauce 1 bunch shallots Spices for stock 2 cinnamon sticks Meat and rice noodles 1.5kg of beef brisket * I prefer pork meatballs over beef meatballs as they are tastier, firmer yet succulent and have no tendon residual. Method 1. Slice beef brisket into bite size pieces. Serving 1. Blanch rice noodles in boiling water to warm and remove excess oil. Dipping sauce 1. Finely dice fresh red chillies and coriander, then add approximately 3 – 4 tablespoon lemon juice and 3 tablespoon fish sauce. Serves This recipe serves between 8 to 10 medium sized bowls of pho. Wine suggestion Chilled rose or mild flavoured beer if only eating brisket, pork balls and tripe with dipping sauce. Note to recipe: This recipe can be adapted to cater for a low-carbohydrates diet. Personally, I consume very low levels of carbohydrates and this recipe can be used wihout the rice noodles and served as a soup with fresh beansprouts or other preferred vegetables.
1 bunch coriander
1 bunch Thai basil leaves (optional)
500gm beansprouts
2 lemons
10 birdseye or 5 large red chillies (depending on your spice tolerance level)
5 star anise
10 cloves
2 tablespoon white peppercorns (crushed with pestal and mortal)
500gm tripe (optional)
2 chicken carcass (trimmed of fat and rinsed in hot water)
3 -4 piece of pork bones
15 – 20 pork meatballs (available in packets from Asian supermarkets)*
2 one-kg packets of fresh rice noodles
2. Add brisket chicken carcass and pork bones to 5 litres of hot water and simmer in medium heat for approximately two to two and a half hours or until brisket is soft and tender.
2. Slice beef tripe into 7-8cm strips and gently slow-boil tripe in a separate saucepan until soft to prevent any residual odour mixing with the main stock pot. When the tripe is tender, remove from heat and rinse in cold water to cool and clean tripe.
3. Skim of any residual fat and scum on the surface of the stock pot and add cinnamon sticks, star anise, cloves, crushed white peppercorn and coriander roots approximately 1 hour into the simmering process.
Tip: Gradually remove chicken bones as carcass disintegrates and softened coriander roots during simmering process.
4. When the beef brisket is soft, add beef tripe, pork meatballs and approximately 3 – 4 tablespoon of salt to the stock to taste.
Tip: Use small sieve to remove any remaining spice sediments which may be floating on the top of the broth.
2. Ladle the hot broth with brisket, tripe and pork meatballs onto warm rice noodles in serving bowl.
3. Garnish with fresh (or blanched) beansprouts, diced shallots, coriander, a sprinkle of white pepper, dash of fish sauce and a squeeze of lemon juice.
2. Adjust the taste of the dipping sauce as it should be gently spicy and sour, balanced by the savoury fish sauce with fresh fragrant aromas of the coriander.
Fish sauce
It is important to use a good quality fish sauce for this recipe because it determines the flavour and taste of the broth.
There are literally a few dozen brands of fish sauce in the market today.
Fish sauce is a by-product from the fermentation of fish in salt and other curing ingredients. The harvest or final yielding process for fish sauce is similar to the extraction of olive oil in its manufacturing process. The first press that yields the first batch of olive oil is generally referred to as extra virgin olive oil, where the product is at its purest form.
Similarly, the first batch of fish sauce that comes out of the fermenting drum can be loosely drawn in parallel equivalent to a good first press olive oil.
Viet Huong Three Crabs brand fish sauce
My choice of fish oil for cooking and for making side dipping sauces is the Viet Huong Three Crabs brand. It costs approximately A$7.50 – $8.50 for a 682ml bottle which is slightly more expensive than other brands.
However, it has a gentle balance of salty pungent aroma that is not overpowering and its savoury taste is also a lot more elegant and refined than other brands.
Cooked beef tripe cut cut into strips
Beef tripe that is prepared well will rid this offal of its sometimes overpowering odour. Cutting the tripe into long strips and then boiling it in a separate pot will control its final texture and prevent any odour from being mixed with the main broth for the noodles.
It is also important to rinse and wash the tripe in cold after it has been boiled to get rid of any remaining impurities.
Dipping sauce for Vietnamese pho
The fish sauce makes a big difference to dipping sauce and this dipping sauce of fresh chillies, coriander, fish sauce and lemon juice is such a great complement to the tripe, beef brisket and pork meatballs.
Vietnamese pho with beef brisket, tripe, and pork meatballs
So dear readers, which is your favourite pho restaurant in your city?
Click on any of the photos to view ChopinandMysaucepan‘s favourite recipes or simply click here.
For readers who were following my 3 slow baked turmeric chicken recipes in my previous blog post, the best tasting recipe was the second recipe which is the turmeric chicken with curry powder recipe. This recipe had the best aroma and taste because of the potent combination of turmeric and curry powder. I would make a further refinement by adding fresh curry leaves to this recipe to provide extra fragrance.
wow everyone is making pho!
ive only made it once in my life >.<
i agree with u.. viet huong is the best.. my mum use to use the one with the yellow lid and the young boy… long gone are those days! hehe
hope u enjoyed cooking pho
Oh boy oh boy! I love Pho! I eat it on a regular basis and my favourite pho place is Hung Vuong 128 Hopkins street, Footscray, VIC
I definitely agree with you that a good pho is a subjective matter but flavour depth of the clear broth is KING in any version of pho or noodle soups. Simple rice noodles adorned with the simplest of fresh herbs, a few slices of beef or chicken is brought to life by a great soup stock! Omg..I’m salivating just thinking about pho. I’ve made pho in the past but have yet to do a post on it. Shall revisit that after I make your kai si hor fun which is still on my to do list! LOL
I haven’t had pho in FOREVER but my roommate is a huge fan. Great guide to making it!
Thanks for the recipe! I’ve never made Pho but have eaten plenty of it!
Looks great! I agreed with you. A good bowl of pho comes from the depth of flavor you can taste in the soup.
As always your photos are so great and the food looks wonderful. Makes me hungry, even this early in the morning!
Pho is definitely my comfort food, I have it about once a week or two. I swear the broth has medicinal properties!
I’m SO impressed that you made your own Pho. My favourite place is Bau Truong in Canley Heights, its the first place I tried it and even though I’ve been to other places, I always end up back there.
This pho sounds so good prepared at home, thanks so much for sharing your excellent recipe!
When I was living far away from Japanese ramen noodle shop, I was lucky enough to live near Vietnamese noodle place, and I literary ate 2-3 times a week. I was in college and this was like the best dinner ever. LOL. I never tried to attempt to make them at home because I never make stock from scratch before….but it’s been my dream to make my own pho at home. Yours look fantastic and keeping this recipe in my folder! We plan to go to the best pho noodle place in SF tomorrow – what a coincidence!
I haven’t made pho before, but it’s delicious isn’t it? Thanks for the tip with the fish sauce too, I love it and use in a lot more than just asian recipes for a salty savoury twang.
This is an amazing recipe! It looks so yummy and it would be perfect in this cold weather! I also love the idea of having it without the rice noodles!
What a great recipe -I’ve always been too scared to try pho because of the raw beef but you’ve made me want to try some now!
Oh, pho! A true love of mine. I need to make my own too, I did it at a cooking school in Vietnam, must put that to good use!! Yours looks delightful.
Heidi xo
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