How to make Vietnamese Pho Bo

every day millions of Vietnamese enjoy rice noodles in the form of a steaming bowl of beef noodle soup in the early morning hours on side streets and street corners pinoys hard-working cooks begin setting up their fuss stations a soup a meal a national treasure fuh is a widespread addiction many Vietnamese start the day with a steaming bowl of this divine noodle soup often mispronounced but immediately appreciated fuh is pronounced like fur with a soft R once the broth is prepared it takes only seconds to assemble and not much longer to eat truly fuh is a fast food that even a dietician can love the essence of fuh is a beefy consomme flavored with charred onions and ginger rock sugar and star anise when a customer places an order the simmering broth is labeled over rice noodles along with the diner's choice of thinly sliced beef meatballs or chicken scallions bean sprouts chilies and fresh herbs at a burst of fragrance and the layered textures that characterized the best Vietnamese cooking whether it's eaten indoors or on the street - the accompanying soundtrack of car honks and scooters fuh perfectly captures the genius of the Vietnamese kitchen back from their visit to Vietnam my farm and Unilever food solutions Executive Chef Steve Jill Oba demonstrate the finer points of recreating this invigorating meal in a bowl well I'm very excited about doing this dish because it's my personal favorite and I would eat it every day if I could a couple of things to remember it's it takes a while because we're going to simmer the broth and what we're going to start you can do this either with beef bones which is really traditional and much preferred in Vietnam because beef is a sort of a luxury meat and people love to go out and have fun but obviously you can also do this with chicken and we have a pot that right now so if you want to go ahead and put the knucklebones into water what what this process does is that it will clean clean the the the bones first so you want to blanch at the bone so I'm getting you some tongs here and we're doing it in boiling water we're doing boiling water and then we have another pot in the back here ready for you to transfer the bones so you want to put the bones inside the boiling water and bring it up to a boil again knuckle bones are good you can also use ox tails I like to use a combination but definitely the knuckle bones give a really wonderful it's real good flavor real wonderful a richness to it and this really goes back to classical way to make stock so let's come from I don't know where okay for I know those French in flip it it goes back to classical way of making stock uh-huh I'm going to turn the heat up a little higher because we put a lot of cool bones in there and a lot of what a lot of people don't don't think about one when you're thinking about foe and for that matter really Asian soups if it's the broth soups in Asian cooking it's very desirable and in fact it's really it's really where it's at it's in the clarity of the broth and so the broth should be very flavorful it should be beefy but it can't be you know dark and so you are it cannot be cloudy at all so after a while when it goes into the big pot where we will make our broth we're going to have to watch the fire in Vietnam the families would stay up all night right you don't want to make it let it boil no really the boiler not a vigorous boil that's what makes things that light simmer like bubbles and that's really what makes it's not cloudy so so definitely what you don't want to do with the bones is you do not want to Brown first in the oven and put it in here because that would be creating a very cloudy broth the idea is to basically blanch it clean it up or cleanse it a little bit up and remove any kind of scum and debris you we will still have to keep an eye on this pot here and we'll have to skim it off when we see all the foam that comes to the top keep skimming and that's what nice clear broth right you can put the meat in here too and what I like to do with the meat is a you know like a chuck roast would be really nice in Vietnam will use a brisket and yes it's a little bit fatty but you're only wanting the flavor much of the fat any of the fat that you see we can trim it off or we could skim it off from the soup pot later on right you want little tiny bubbles fat if I remember it's just a little bit oh they say like fish eyes just a few little things kind of a little bit of fun right because you have to remember that this is a meal in itself it's a it's a meal in a bowl and so this is this is all your eating this is all the meat you're eating and this is all the fat that you're going to consume for this particular meal and ends up a small amount of me a very small amount when you think about it okay so that's spoiling so you go ahead and I'll help you fish this out and transfer it over here and so it's not a particularly difficult dish to make Steve but there are a lot of little nuance nuances to it that you have to pay attention to should simmer for about so now that we have the bones in the broth right we're going to get ready and char some ginger some onions and some shallots as shallots because they're much more intense than onions and onions are nice because they give their really sweeten the broth they're really nice and this process you just basically achar them you could just uh char this right directly over the fire leave this very quick very quick very hot just leave it over here of course you can also use a screen if you're doing a larger quantity maybe that's so the what would be nice and we're just basically char them and the idea is not to cook through is just to create a little smoky flavor right at you know on the surface or so there's a lot of flavor right on the ginger skin a lot of vegetables and a lot of fruits the the the most intense flavor is right within the skin right similar yes exactly so that's what basically we're trying to do here turn this this is this is what you're looking for because it's remember it's going to cook for about four minutes okay that's that piece is good when I go I like lots of ginger there - right there do a little bit more of this shallots here this is all you're looking for not to be cooking it too long you know this is a really nice color using a little bit of colonization get some that sweetness out of that and and with this and it's sort of the essence of Vietnamese cuisine - you want nuances you want nice aromas you want layers of different fragrances not so intense if you were to burn this char this and it's all black it might be too smoky and therefore interfere right and interfere with the nice subtle flavor and it was a blend of flavors or kind of a symphony of flavors I they really blend it very well in your mouth I'm going to reduce this and before we turn that back you want to a roast okay so we got this we're going to add it to the soup okay now we are going to roast the spices will turn this down a little because this fire is really hot okay and you want to be able just to feel the heat a little bit but not not more than that because it could scorch very easily be doing it really bitter I'm getting better so you got your star anise your your cinnamon cardamon yes fennel fennel right and coriander seeds and some cloves if you see some cloves here right and the essence of Vietnamese folks who are in this flavor M star anise you and you definitely can can detect that and in the background you'll you'll be able to taste the wonderful subtle notes of coriander seeds a little bit of Vietnamese cinnamon this woman I don't know yes and we have a regular cinnamon yes oh good we can compare that you could use this and if you were using this kind of cinnamon I would use less just a very little this is much sweeter as a higher oil content can you it's very aromatic spruce hey no it's not this is very strong cinnamon so you shouldn't use that decrease the amount and I can feel that it's getting a little warm sometimes people don't know when if you start seeing smoke it's really too hard do you look for a tiny bit of a head to come out of it there's really becoming channel now yeah you can smell it now so if you want we can put this in and I have a little spoon over here where you can try to gather them up and put in are we gonna use all this yes we are for the one pot yes that's pretty amazing it looks like a lot but it's really not really well you know fermenting a little bit and trying to to make it but I didn't use this much okay twice at all so now I'm that's what the great lesson is all about great you do want to be careful that actually the the start at us sometimes can be very overpowering mm-hmm I personally like it on this kind of on the height spice side in in northern part we're in Hanoi where the dish originated people love to have their faux very subtle do you remember that when we were in Hanoi in that alley right where the family was making it was mostly a beef broth right and then I think that you said that you probably prefer the one in Saigon the one that we went to which has more or more spice more spice did yeah and here you go and you know that you could use this bags easy because you can fish the whole thing out or you just dump the whole thing and then strain it later on so we can do it and actually why don't we dump this into the pot whatever yeah right so I was right away yep no you can go ahead and add this right now okay you'd have that whole thing here you go my tongues it's okay because it's gonna cook so it's okay if I use my hands a little bit right and you know that I would probably not put the spice bag and you can put this in another spice bag and for four hours I like my spices and only for about two hours it's sort of my personal preference but I feel that when you put the spices in and it cooks for a certain amount of time it starts to dissipate and and the flavor will still be there but it not as vibrant it's more more homogeneous it's like blended kind of labor you believe in your philosophy and maybe not this is maybe overall philosophy that you kind of layer some spices in there sometimes yeah because I think one of those levels right one of the wonderful things about Southeast Asian cuisine and Vietnamese cuisine in particular is that it's very flavorful but yet it's not pungent and you do that by cooking cooking spices a certain way and don't put it in too much don't cook it too long they all become kind of a little bit overpowering sometimes a little bit too pungent a little bit too much homogenious it all tastes kind of blended whereas in Vietnamese cuisine we want to like one spike like spikes is maybe a bad word but you want different levels living levels all right yeah but it is kind of spiking little different things in your conten yeah yeah exactly so we're going to let this cook and it will start to boil and when it boils what we want to do is just keep skimming so in Vietnam people love to the family would stay up all night and they take turns watching it and what you don't want to do is don't want ever to for example traditionally is made over a wood fire and sometimes it just sparks and starts burning and so right and so that people always the folks always watching the fire for that reason because they don't want it to boil because that spoiled the whole pot and will spoil the old day's work for them so we're going to let that cook for about two hours and then later on we're going to add of the spices in there okay so get a little bit of scum off the top of there right yeah so you see it'll continue to to simmer and then as it simmers you smell this wonderful you're almost starting to come out there getting that beef aroma now yeah but you're also getting some some impurities out and so we want to make sure that we skim that off and this is really a the important moment in faux cooking and and something that you know faux cooks in Vietnam pay a lot of attention to and that is the way that this is probably a little bit even harder even a little too high so I'm going to turn it down a little bit you want it to bubble you don't want it to boil that's probably the right amount okay at this point you want to go ahead and put the spices that you first that you roasted earlier right so that goes in and you can put this in until the very end but like I said I like it kind of like at about two hours and so if you were to cook this pot for eight hours you would put the spice in in the last two hours I sort of a personal preference you could probably go up to three some people like it at four I don't know I my palate is such that I like to be able to discern all the different flavors in there the coriander the human and the cinnamon at this point we're going to put some fish sauce in there and you notice is that the brand that we're using is a Vietnamese brand and the Vietnamese style is much lighter much clearer much clearer and the Thai is more intense and for this particular dish it likes a very delicate flavor so we'll put some fish sauce into this moment we're gonna we're not going to season it totally because it's still got a ways to go but this gives it some body right now and you want to add a little bit of sugar and while you do a little sugar I'm gonna put a little salt in there only one we call a little more maybe a little bit more okay we'll check on yeah and then we're just going to let this go for a little while and then the next thing we're going to do is we're going to start our pot let's say if this is ready then you need to get your bowls ready to assemble it so in a in a college university setting where you have a bit maybe cooking exhibition style you take the pot that's or the broth it's already made out there keep it on a little low boil and then you have another pot with rolling boil you know really vigorous boil that's where you're going to dump your noodles so let's go onto that step okay great this is coming along really beautifully a water is boiling away there we have rice noodles if you're using dried rice noodles such as this one in the bag what what you can do for expedited yeah that's you can see here is a size medium or large here and actually this is large that's large if you kind of like a wider noodle linguini style noodle I probably like this a little bit smaller you know and here we've soaked it in water for at least 30 minutes and so what that does is that helps to cook it a little bit faster and take some of that excess starch in and it goes very quickly and I remember how over there it was only fresh noodles it was yeah everything is everything is fresh there so go ahead and just up yeah put a load now the proportion is very important you want to have one portion of noodles to four parts water so you want the bowl to be kind of filled to the to the rim almost with liquids so that's probably a good one this bowl yes is probably enough no more than that okay go ahead and put a little bit mean sprouts in we do this at the restaurant you don't have to do this and Vietnam they don't do it just do a roll on they put the bowl yeah we kind of I do it at the restaurant because I kind of like my noodles to sit a little bit higher and so that when I put the meat on top it shows off really well okay so now here's a trick that we always say you really need that stuff you have to kind of stir it around and what you want to do is basically washing the noodles cooking and washing and rinsing right at the restaurant at lemongrass restaurant when we do this we're at one of the things that I'm really a fanatic about is to make sure that you really rinse it well otherwise it'll dilute the flavor of the broth and you want it to be in the you know you don't want to do it too quickly because you you want to completely cook off on all the excess starch so when you bring it up make sure you do it like this like the way you do it in Vietnam is bang on the side so make sure that all the excess water is kind of like cooking pasta if you still have water in the pasta this sauce is not going to be that great right okay transfer that to a bowl right it's very important that the bowl is hot or preheated in Vietnam we kind of like pool the basket put it in the bowl remember how they loved it and they pour it back or back okay so you got your nice noodles in here okay so you want to do you want raw beef or cooked beef you probably want some cookies you probably won both so probably one combination okay go ahead and dust and that's what we had yeah yeah so go ahead so this is the beef that we cooked in this stop earlier right so you can use like a check yeah very small amount some onions I kind of like a lot of onions and and here it's very important that they're not cut no thicker than this they have to be paper thin right you want a nice sweet on to be good right right here I kind of like a lot of green ants it looks like excessive amount but it really isn't we'll go ahead and put the meat in here okay do you like some raw beef - a little bit okay a little bit okay so then we'll do that and whatever happens right right when we pour boiling rock on it it's going to cook the beat instantly right we got some that pop right here and also I noticed when we're over there - sometimes they put the raw beef in the little ladle and just sort of stirred it real quick okay yeah cuz they want to make sure that you know over there also because the beef is not as nice as one that we can get the beef oh there's kind of little tough and they want to make sure there's kind of somewhat cooking why grizzly that I know you said in your restaurant you actually use we use a New York New York Strip yes which this is and basically yes this is how you do it traditionally right so you help cook it a little bit just a tiny bit and actually and then what you do is you want to make sure that this this customer gets the real sweet broth right so here we go and usually when you do this you want to make sure you don't get any fat in the broth okay and usually when I pour it in I like to pour the sides I don't like to pour it on top because I like all the mages stay in one side so this is how it's typically served right you can do a little bit a black pepper this is how they do it in Vietnam you want to go ahead and traditionally in Vietnam it's served with some hoisin sauce mm-hmm really sauce sriracha sauce so you put that in here a little warning this is a personal thing I don't really like this very much in my suit because I like you see how know how clean right how clean that's gonna be you know like kind of right I kind of like like that with just a little bit a squeeze of lime just not a whole lot be very careful a little bit of that and you of course to eat you would shred you know all the four herbs in here right with your hands and by the time you are done prepping oh yeah put some of that solid away from it yeah Solly bourbon there and I'm kind of ready to dig in because my hands smell really good right and I'm gonna get you a little spoon okay just gonna push it down here this is a clean spoon so go ahead taste it yeah I'm gonna taste that with you too and if I want a little heat I could use a little bit actually I do like a heat I know you like a little you actually like a little more heat than I like a little bit a little bit okay yeah there you go so when I start turning red then you know I am i watch us put three rings on yeah that's probably my speed there is that nice it's really I mean just nice and smooth to get in the herbs the green onions the light beef notes I mean this for warmth the warmth of the spices right and the whole idea is when you're served such a big bowl we probably you know could put a little bit more broth in here but it comes so hot that you'll get all this steam and the steam sort of Rises and embraces your face and then your fingers smell all this wonderful fresh herbs and that's the true experience and I think that if you serve it that way you're giving your customers the full experience so very important everything is done very thin broth is very hot clear serve it in a bowl at a big bowl so you can keep the heat in there lots of fresh herbs if you can get it but if you let's say if you can't get the salty or try to get at least the Asian basil isn't very fun but you know I've been in places where you can't sometimes in the winter when it's a little bit hard to get Asian basil it's very delicious with cilantro and although remember remember though that in Vietnam in Hanoi where this dish originated people there are very much into what a bowl of pho is supposed to taste like and even though there are lots of fresh herbs in Vietnam and the people in the north amusing them no they didn't use because they don't want because they think herbs mask the flavor of this water of the richness of the beef that they that's like you know it's a sought-after piece of meat remember that one place that we went and they didn't have any herbs and but in the south the difference is in the south is that people love there is a regional difference people love their phone with fresh herbs lots of fresh herbs and in the southern part of Vietnam is where where you will find such an abundant amount server the table such as this you won't find this kind of amount served in the Central Park not as much and as you go further north you see that's less and less and less yeah because people really like the pure taste and actually less spice as you go up right and it's also because of the Chinese influence is much more prevalent in the north it borders you know China and we have a lot of steam food Storify foods and things that are probably more similar to southern Chinese being like Cantonese to cooking like Hong Kong style the Cantonese cooking that is so popular in this country but what a great early dish right and as you can see not terribly difficult to make but you kind of have to pay attention to all these little details that make a real big difference and you also told me that you could do it with chicken that's what we have actually you know there is such a thing as a combination and in this country customers love combination toppings and combination soup and salad but you can also put some fresh chicken in there if you like you can also do this with tofu you can make a nice vegetable broth and it was the same warming spices and so right if you do if you char the onions Charlie ginger make a broth similar to what we did but do with a vegetable stock you'll get a beautiful photo especially if you serve it with some mushrooms like shiitake mushroom to give it a little body right give some flavor right your tofu but okay fantastic

Channel: The Culinary Institute of America

Views: 3,758,572

Rating: 4.7621489 out of 5

Keywords: The Culinary Institute of America, CIA, Vietnam, Vietnamese cuisine, Vietnamese food, Vietnam documentary, Vietnam travel, World Culinary Arts, Unilever, Pho Bo, pho, Vietnamese soup, Vietnamese pho, John Barkley

Id: xxM4t8vP-0A

Length: 23min 35sec (1415 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 15 2014