A&A’s Sorta Pho
You really like soup. And now, because I like things you like, I also really like soup. Apart from, you don’t actually like what I thought soup was. I thought soup had things like potato and tomato and leek in it. This, it turns out, is gweilo soup. It’s the kind of soup you eat with buttered bread and, isn’t actually soup at all to you. Soup to you has things like medicinal Chinese herbs and jagged pork bones in it that scrape the insides of your mouth if you bite them at the wrong angle. And you definitely wouldn’t eat your kind of soup with a grilled cheese sandwich on the side.
But know what’s yours is mine and all that, and it turns out that soup, even without a grilled cheese sandwich is pretty great.
Pho isn’t really soup, I know, but it falls into the category of “soupy like things we eat a lot in winter”, and it has become a staple since I realized you can easily make a decent pho broth in the rice cooker. I imagine a Vietnamese person would wince at this in the way that Italians wince at prawn, potato and mayonnaise pizzas in Japan, but I’m not claiming it’s authentic. Just super easy.
The beauty, I think, of this is that you can make the broth taste very different depending on what you have to hand. Given how much chicken we eat, a chicken carcass always seems to make an appearance in the broth, but sometimes I’ll throw in beef brisket from Kiki and MiuMiu, or daikon or (recently) prawn shells from fresh deshelled prawns, which made an incredible savoury fishy broth. The spices too, are optional, but I find the ones listed below give the broth a good earthy pho-like depth, but which you can still use as broth for non-pho dishes.
The final plating and toppings are up to you, really. Sometimes you can make the final product more like a Cantonese beef brisket soup. Sometimes it becomes like a Japanese style prawn ramen. And occasionally it tastes a bit like pho if you plate it right.
At the end of the day, it’s really just really good soup. And, as we know, you like soup.
SHOPPING LIST
For the broth
Chicken carcass from a leftover roast chicken
A very large piece of ginger, sliced lengthways into rounds
3 spring onions
One onion, cut in half (skin on)
1 dashi packet
For the spice bag (depending on what you have, but I like these): 4 cardamon pods cracked open, a cinnamon stick, 2 cloves, 2 star anise, 8-10 whole black pepper corns and (if you have it) 2 black cardamon pods cracked open
Fish sauce
Optional: Pork bones, Prawn shells, beef brisket, beef bones, daikon
For the toppings (all optional!)
Rice noodles or whatever noodles you have to hand
Bean sprouts
Herbs like mint and coriander
Lime
Fresh chilli
Protein like dumplings, beef balls, prawns, fish, shredded chicken etc
HOW TO MAKE
Broth
1. Put all the animal parts (chicken carcass, bones, beef brisket etc) you are using into the rice cooker (or stock pot). If using raw pork or beef bones, boil for 2 mins in water then discard the water and wash before putting into the cooking pot/rice cooker. Add the spring onions, chopped into thirds.
2. Separately, if you are being fancy, heat a cast iron skillet and char the cut ginger and halved onion, so there are black marks on the outside, like at on a barbequed steak. Once charred, add to the stock pot.
3. Peel the daikon (if using) and cut into large chunks. Add to the stock pot.
4. Put whatever spices you are using into a spice bag/disposable teabag/sealed cheesecloth (if you have one), and add to the pot. Otherwise, just throw them in. Add the dashi packet.
5. Cover with water. In the rice cooker I usually go near the top mark (i.e. the mark to use 6-8 cups of rice). If using a stock pot, cover generously noting that it will boil down.
6. Boil for 3 hours on a hob or as long as you can muster on the slow cooker setting of the rice cooker.
7. Once done, extract any bits you want to eat from the cooked broth and set aside (e.g. daikon, beef brisket). Strain the liquid into a pan and discard everything else.
8. To the final liquid, add fish sauce and salt to taste.
Plating
1. Cook the noodles according to the instructions and put in the bowls.
2. If using protein that needs longer cooking (like beef balls), put in the broth. If using fish or prawns, cut the fish into bite size chunks (or shell the prawns) and, once the broth is at a boil, put them in the pot and take it off the heat immediately. Leave the fish/prawns to gently poach for 5 mins, by which time it should be perfectly cooked (unless you live in a freezer).
3. To plate, ladel the hot broth over the noodles and serve immediately with sides like fresh herbs, beansprouts, lime and chilli (so you can change the flavour of the broth as you go).