Vietnamese Beef Ball Rice Noodles Soup (Pho Bo Vien) Recipes

Pho is a Vietnamese Rice Noodle Soup consisting of broth, rice noodles, herbs, meat (beef balls, thinely slice beef round-eye, chicken ect...), top with a good squeeze of lime juice, hoisin sauce and of course sriracha, and of course, it is my family all time favorite.

Pho is a very popular street food back in Vietnam and most likely in any Vietnamese restaurant around the world. Once you have a taste of it, Pho will sure make you come back for more. And this is my deliciously simple/easy version of pho that you can make at home.

In this cooking recipe post, I am mixing my own spice. But if you are trying to make it for the first time and don’t want to have to buy too much of the spices because they do come in big sizes; I suggest buying the spice packet which are sold at many oriental food market that come with mesh bag and they cost less than a dollar. For the broth, I am using oxtail and sometime beef ribs. I find them less fat and with the long hour of simmer. It gives you a clear and sweet flavor to the broth and the oxtail are so tender which I love to eat.

Ingredient:

For The Broth-

3 to 3½ liter water (for the broth soup)

2½ lb beef oxtail

1 medium onion, halved,

1 medium ginger root, halved lengthwise

Beef balls(halved)

Salt, Sugar, Granulated chicken mixed based soup

 For Pho Spice

2 cinnamon stick

3 cardamom

4 star anise

2 tsp coriander seeds

1½ tsp cloves

2 tsp fennel seeds

Toasted for a minute or two, remove from the heat, let it cool and place in a mesh bag. In the case, I don’t have a mesh bag so I infuse the spice on low heat in a small saucepan with some of the liquid broth when the broth is half way done. Once the broth is ready, I strain the infuse spice liquid directly to the soup broth. As shown in the picture above.

To Serve

1 lb medium size rice noodles (banh pho)

Basil, Bean spout, Limes,

Sliced  Thai chili or Jalapeño, Sriracha and Hoisin sauce.

Charring Onion And Ginger

Char the onion and ginger over an open flame stove for a good 3 to 5 minute on both side. Or put in the oven under broiler would do just as good.  Clean well under tap water; soup are the main ingrdient of this dish. And so we want to have as clear and clean soup broth as possible that contain pack of flavor and the aroma of char ginger and onion.

 

Parboiled Oxtail

To clean the oxtail well before put into the soup, bring a pot of water to a boil, add in the oxtail and boil for a minute or two. Drain and rinse well under tap water, one by one.This is another step of process to succeed a clean/clear broth that should not be skip through.  Set aside.

***

Bring 3 to 3½ liter water (for soup broth) to a boil. Add oxtail, char onion and ginger. Skim out the scum well, cover the lid and let it simmer away on a medium low heat for at least 2 to 3hrs. 

Once the broth is ready, skim out any scum and fat once more. Drain infused pho spice to the pot. Add beef balls and season it with 3tbsp beef or granulated chicken soup base mix, 2½ tbsp sugar, 3tsp salt. Add the white part of scallion (optional). Bring a boil and cook 15 to 30 mins. Meanwhile, bring a pot of water to a boil and cook the soaked rice noodle for 2 to 3, drain and rinse under cold tap water for 30 sec., then under hot tap water for another 30 sec., let dry a little then add among in individual serving bowl along bean sprout. Ladle hot broth  and beef ball into each bowl, add a squezze of lime, fresh basil, thinely sliced scallion, hoisen sauce and my favorite of all sriracha. There you have it, a delicious homemade bowl of rice noodles soup (pho bo vien). Enjoy!! 😉