I posted about making Ramen fairly recently, and how much I enjoyed it - I've actually gotten it down to an art and that's when the really fun experimentation begins. But Pho is a whole other dish to conquer.
What differentiates the two dishes? I'm not quite a food historian, so rather than compile a full-proof list, here's a piece with more info. The difference in content itself is pretty drastic, though, with Ramen being a beef or chicken based broth, flavored with items like oyster sauce, fish sauce, and rice wine vinegar. Pho goes own a different route with the broth, with the broth being a rich bone broth seasoned with star anise, cinnamon, and cloves (simmered in the dish whole then removed). In addition, the noodles and toppings are rather different as well. Ramen is made with a wheat noodle and is topped with a soft-boiled egg, carrots, bamboo shoots, and bean sprouts, whereas pho is made with a rice noodle and often has green onions, culantro, cilantro, jalapenos and bean sprouts (commonality!).
The best flavor contrast I can describe it with personally is like Patsitsio is to Lasagna. Both comprised of pasta with a tomato sauce, the flavors are wildly different because the patsitsio has coriander and cinnamon, so anyone taking a bite expecting a traditional lasagna might be a bit daunted. I could also compare bolognese sauce to a meat chili; they're very different but start similarly.
Star anise is the flavor of licorice, and frankly, it's so mild in the few restaurant pho dishes I've had that I didn't pick up on it. Of course, I'm not a trained chef either, so some will notice more than others. I will say that after making pho at home and going to a brunch spot a week or so later, I was standing next to a pho restaurant and could distinctly smell the star anise from the building. Once you know, there's no turning back.
These are the rice stick noodles I picked up to use for pho; I now have a plethora of noodle varieties in my pantry after my Pad Thai, Ramen, and now Pho experiments. Not a bad problem to have!
I did not make a bone broth from scratch, but did want to let this slow cook, so I added the beef bone broth, sliced onions, galangal, and garlic into the crock pot with the broth so it could cook for about 2 hours. I had to leave the house during this, so the crock pot was my vessel of choice, however the stovetop on medium-low would do as well. I added a cinnamon stick, whole star anise and cloves, and ground coriander (due to lack of whole coriander at the time) to the broth and let it all just meld together.
I cooked the rice noodles on the stove, then added raw bok choy and carrot to the bowl. This is one of my favorite things about pho; I've paid attention at the restaurant I've frequented at their process, and the broth is kept hot, the vegetables and noodles are placed in the bowl, and the hot broth is spooned over it before the uncooked sliced beef is put in (note that chicken should be cooked first always!). The broth cooks the veggies in the bowl. In the case of ribeye, it is sliced thinner than a charcuterie board's meats, so it takes next to no time to cook. It's pretty fantastic.
For the meat, I used a ribeye steak sliced very thin lengthwise. This can be done with a mandolin slicer, but I just asked the butcher to do this for me when I bought the steak. Saved me the hazard of potential finger loss. However, if you choose to do this at home, you can put the meat in the freezer for 30 minutes or so to firm it up a bit and make slicing easier.
The toppings pile on last, with me using onion, bean sprouts, green onions, and culantro, then the whole bit is served with chopsticks and a spoon.
And just like that, I had HOMEMADE PHO!
Impressive first go around, if I do say so myself. One of my favorite things about pho is the toppings. I love love love piling them on and really filling up the bowl with lots of them. The way the hot broth cooks the vegetables just enough in the bowl is my favorite.. The contrast is so different than ramen; the seasonings really set this apart. The customization is endless, too, and that's another great thing about noodle dishes like this. You can take what you want, leave the rest, and wind up with your own standard for homemade pho!
Pho Recipe
Ingredients:
For the broth:
8 cups beef stock
1 large onion
1 one inch size piece of galanga (or fresh ginger)
1 tablespoon brown sugar
2 teaspoons fish sauce
3 star anise
4 whole cloves
3 cinnamon sticks
1 teaspoon ground coriander (or 1 tablespoon coriander seeds)
1 teaspoon salt
For the pho bowl:
3 cups cooked rice noodles (I cooked about 25% of the package)
1 bok choy (baby bok choy is best)
1 carrot
1/2 cup culantro leaves (if desired)
1 bunch fresh cilantro
1-2 green onions
1/4 cup bean sprouts (if desired)
1 ribeye steak, sliced thin
Instructions:
Slice onion and ginger into thin strips, setting about one quarter aside to use as toppings. Add broth, onion, ginger, brown sugar, fish sauce, star anise, cloves, cinnamon, coriander, and salt to a large pot over medium-high heat. Heat to a simmer, then lower heat and continue cooking for 30 minutes to an hour. Alternatively, place ingredients in a crock pot and cook on low for 1-2 hours.
Chop bok choy into pieces 3-4 inches in lengths. Chop carrot and green onion into thin slices.To assemble the bowls, add bok choy, carrot, and cooked noodles, then spoon on the broth. Add thinly sliced beef so that it is fully saturated. Top with culantro, cilantro, green onion, and remaining chopped onion as desired.
adapted from pho
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