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Mama Miche's Lazy Phở

Michelle Lehman

Introduction

This is Mama Miche, and today in My Magic Kitchen: Pho

I was born in Vietnam. Technically, I am not Vietnamese. It's the place of my birth, but it's not my family ethnicity. Most people do not look at me and see a person with Asian features, but I swear on all that's holy, when I was growing up, and people would ask where I was born, and I would tell them, they'd look confused and then nod and say, oh yeah! I see it a little around the eyes. And then I'd roll them. My eyes, I mean. Like seriously? My ethnic look isn't Asian at all. Eastern European, Italian, Spanish, Greek, Jewish. I can play any of those roles if any casting directors happen to be looking. But, since the days of Rita Moreno playing an Asian in movies, and yes, she did. (Tuptim in the King and I), casting me as Asian is about as obvious.

Vietnamese food has gained in popularity since I was a kid in NYC. There were not that many Vietnamese restaurants, not like now. Their most well-known dish is probably pho, followed by Banh mi. I was fortunate enough to make a friend several years back who taught me her pho recipe, and it's a good one! I adapted it to the Instapot, and now it's ready in about 3 hours. Now, my whole famdamily prefers my pho to restaurants, and when we go out for Vietnamese food, we order dishes I don't make at home. Home cooking is always better because of the love ingredient! I am telling you, that's what makes anything taste better. 

Listen, I smoke weed and know things. Trust Mama Miche to make your kitchen Magic.

Tools

  • Knife

  • Cutting mat 

  • 10 qt stock pot

  • Instant Pot

  • Strainer 

  • Measuring spoons and cups

  • Spice bag (Note 1)

  • Spoon

  • Ladle

Ingredients

Makes 6 servings

  • 3-4 lbs beef and/or oxtail bones blanched

  • 2 med. Onions sliced in half 

  • Three healthy slices of ginger (charred with onion)

  • 4 whole garlic cloves

  • 5-6 after-star anise

  • 4 whole cloves

  • 6-8 peppercorns

  • 1-2 tsp coriander seeds

  • 1 cinnamon stick

  • Phò hōa (2 bags)

  • 2-3 heaping tablespoons of Cô’t phògl gà (chicken flavored pho soup base)

  • 1/4 - 1/2 cup fish sauce

  • 4 tbsp apple cider vinegar with mother

  • Kosher salt to taste

Directions

Prep Time: 30 minutes Cook Time: 3 hours (total)

Prep

  • Rinse oxtail and beef bones.

  • Bring stock pot of water to a rapid boil. Add oxtail and beef bones and blanch.

  • As you blanch bones and scoop scum off the top.

  • Char onion and ginger in Instant Pot while the bones are blanching

  • Add garlic to Instant Pot 

  • Prepare pho noodles by putting them in warm water for 60 minutes. Drain the noodles when ready to serve. 

  • Prepare the spice bag: add anise, cloves, peppercorns, and coriander seeds.

Cook

  • Take the bones out of the large pot, strain the liquid, and pour liquid into Instant Pot over the charred onions and ginger. 

  • Add the meat bones you blanched.

  • Put the other spices in bags or cheesecloth. 

  • Toss the spice bag in in (you can toast the spices first, or don’t; it's lazy pho, after all) I just let the cinnamon stick float around with the other aromatics that don't fit in the bag. Add fish sauce, apple cider vinegar, pho soup base, phò hoa and kosher salt to taste

  • Turn off sauté feature and close the lid, set for 45 minutes and natural release for at least 30 minutes.

  • After you open the lid, take out the meat, aromatics and all the bits, turn sauté back on to bring to a boil and add the meatballs (I like to cut them in half or quarters)

  • Put noodles and raw, super thinly sliced meats in bowl, and the deliciousness of the meat off the bones that flavored and gave its collagen to the broth; ladle hot soup with meatballs, and watch the magic happen (i.e., the raw meat cooks), add bean sprouts and the garnishes listed below. I add them all! You can pick and choose. 

  • Meats I use: (thinly sliced beef tenderloin that's been soaking in water to rid the blood from the meat) or get the shabu shabu or hot pot meats from your local Asian market

  • Meatballs with tendon

  • Chicken breast slices (cooked) or leftover rotisserie chicken

  • Condiments and Garnish: green onion, white onion, cilantro, bean sprouts, jalapeno, Thai Basil (substitute Italian basil if you want), fish sauce, Sriracha & Hoisin sauce.

Notes:

  1. I use spice bags I got from Amazon for the spices. 

  2. I've seen pho recipes that call for rock sugar. As you may already know, I don't cook with added sugar, and I do not miss this ingredient in this recipe at all.