Pho Bo

August 07, 2023
Phở Bò is a comforting bowl of rich well seasoned piping hot beef broth ladled over rice noodles, thinly sliced beef and lots of herbs.

 Beef pho

 

What is Phở Bò?

Pho (pronounce as fə ) means rice noodles, and Bo means beef!

Pho bo is a Vietnamese dish, beef soup serve with flat rice noodles, thinly sliced raw beef and loads of fresh herbs.


What is pho bo made of ?

Making traditional Vietnamese beef soup can be a long process.
Beef pho is typically made of long slow simmering beef bones with spices over stove that can take up to 8 hours of slow cooking.

This long process that gives this pho, a rich beef soup flavour.

 Authentic beef pho recipe

How to make Pho soup?

A full list of ingredients to make beef pho as well as long list of instruction on how to make beef pho, can be found in the printable recipe card below.

 char onion and ginger

The must do steps to have that nice deep flavour pho broth is to firstly char the onion, garlic and ginger!
Remove the paper think onion skin and peel of the blackened ginger skin.
Set aside. You will be needing these ingredients for the soup.

 Spice bag

Second step is to make bouquet garni.
What is bouquet garni?

A spice sachet or bag consist of the spices listed in the recipe card to make pho soup.

 cooking chuck beef soup

Third step is bring the pot consists of chuck bones to a boil.
Let it boil for 5 minutes, remove bones to a bowl of cold fresh water.
This step is a must to remove the scum that will make our beef pho soup cloudy!

 removing scum in soup


Drain and wash the pot.
Fill up with fresh water.

 cooking beef soup

Add the chuck bones again.

Add spice bag, onion, garlic, ginger and spring onion

Bring to boil and let it simmer on low fire for at least 4 hours.

 How to serve beef pho

Which beef cut is good to make pho?

For the beef soup, I prefer to use chuck bones with some meat on the bones.

If there is barely any meat left on the bones, I would add some gravy beef.

As for the thinly sliced beef, I used the beef for Japanese hotpot or steam boat.
Best ask your butcher.
I know I will not be able to slice beef this thin!

How to serve pho?

Follow the instruction below on how to prepare rice noodles for pho.

I suggest that do single serving when preparing the noodles.

In a bowl, place cooked rice noodles, garnish with some beansprout, fresh herbs like coriander leaves (cilantro), mint, Thai basil.

Place thinly slice raw beef on top.

Ladle piping hot beef soup into the bowl.
The hot beef soup will immediately cook the beef .

Serve hoisin sauce, sriracha sauce and lime wedge on the side.

Enjoy the comforting bowl of Vietnamese Pho Bo, especially in cold weather!

 Ladle hot beef soup into a bowl of rice noodles

Other Noodles Recipes on this site 

Korean knife cut noodles
Malaysian Fried Noodles
Pan Noodles | Tear away noodles
Korean Pine Nut noodles
Rice Noodles




 A comforting bowl of rich well seasoned piping hot beef broth ladled over rice noodles, thinly sliced beef and lots of herbs.

Posted on 24th February 2010



Malaysia has 'Beehoon Soup' ~ vermicelli serve with beef broth, while the Vietnamese has Beef Pho, rice sticks (kway tiow) serve with beef broth as well.

The difference would be in the spices used for the broth. 

Vietnamese Beef Pho has the tinge of sweet spices in clear broth, tender chunky beef, the tangy lime juice and crunchy fresh beansprout... and not to mention the chilli paste..and the hoisin sauce.
Beef Pho will definitely whet our appetite....


Comments

  1. Ravenous Couple,
    Welcome to my blog... :)and thank you...

    Ms Red Hat,
    Chuck bones are 'spine' bones with little meat on.. its usually used for soup... its about $2-$3/kg. Good to check with your butcher...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Love pho! Never had a chance to make one myself yet!!

    ReplyDelete