Vietnamese Short Rib Pho- “Pho Suon Bo” Recipe
Authentic traditional style Vietnamese Pho- this family recipe is so comforting. My dad always loved using short ribs but I love these huge cuts of short ribs from my butcher at The Meat Wagon in Kingston.
This Pho uses oxtails, beef bones and short ribs to create a rich and luxurious stock. My dad loved using oxtails in his pho if it he could find it. Adding oxtails in addition to beef leg bones makes the broth really deep in color (a vibrant hazelnut color instead of a more transparent or clear broth) and it intensifies that beef-y broth factor!
There's a few tips to making great pho. So, what makes a great pho you ask?
1. The broth has to be really fragrant, gelatinous, flavorful with a little fat.
2. The broth should be clear and rich in color, velvety, glutinous like a rich bone broth BUT not cloudy.
Here are a few tips to make your Pho, the Trinh way:
1. Brush and wash your bones to get rid of any impurities and grit. Parboil your bones with a little vinegar and salt to clean your bones (doing this will help with a clearer broth).
2. Grill and char your ginger and onion to enhance the flavor of the aromatics in your pho broth and to bring that subtle smokiness to your broth
3. Leave your broth undisturbed while it's simmering, too much tampering and stirring of the pot will cloud your broth. When making the broth and simmering the key to a clear broth is to avoid stirring the pot and moving things around. Also keep it at a low simmer and remove as much of the top of the impurities as possible and this will also help with a purer broth. DO NOT let your pho come to a boil, this will make it cloudy and murky.
4. Add your dry spices in the very end for that subtle spice aroma!
5. Do no peel your ginger, the most fragrant oils are in the skins so it’s better to keep this intact for charring
*About the meats: my dad likes to freeze the eye round steak (or NY strip steak) for about an hour or so until it’s almost frozen so that it’s SUPER easy to cut ultra thin pieces of the rare sliced beef!
*You need about 2-2.5 lbs of beef bones per gallon of water.
*Parboil bones- clean, brush and par boil bones, this will release most of the impurities from the bones and will result in a clearer broth.
BEEF STOCK INGREDIENTS
5 lbs beef bones (Mixed bones, whatever you can get: shank bones, or beef bones, mixed beef leg bones, shin, knuckle (most preferred) and marrow bones, achilles tendon/foot, femur bone)
3.5 to 4 lb beef short ribs (3.5 lbs got me 3 big short ribs)
2 lbs beef oxtail bones (optional if you can find it and like oxtails)
*Few pieces of tendons / cartilage pieces (optional)
24+ cups water (~1.5 gallons)
2 tbs salt
2 tsp sugar
2 tbs vegetable powder
2 large onions (charred)
2 large shallot onions (charred)
4 thumb sizes of ginger (charred, rinsed off)
1 large piece of Daikon cut in two half pieces
*1 tbs Red Boat Fish sauce or to taste, see note below in step #9
DRIED SPICE BAG
(Use store bought spice bag or make your own below):
3 pieces (small 2" pieces)- asian cinnamon stick cracked in quarters or smashed (Chinese cassia bark)
1 thao quo: Chinese black cardamon
2 tbs fennel seed
3 tbs coriander seed
Six white peppercorns
Six black peppercorns
Five Ding Huong (Clove buds)
3-5 whole anise stars
PHO
1 bag vermicelli pho rice noodles
GARNISHES
Black pepper
1 bunch green scallions, chopped thinly
1 bunch fresh mint
1 bunch cilantro (large stems removed, chopped semi-finely)
*1 handful of thai basil leaves (optional, since these are seasonal and hard to find)
1 thinly sliced red onion (add 1 tbs of vinegar and lightly mix and put in bowl to neutralize the onion some)
1 bag of bean sprouts
2 limes, cut into quarter wedges
Red or green chillies/jalepenos, chopped (served on side, chili seeds removed)
Deep fried shallots (served on side)
CONDIMENTS
Hoisin sauce (served on side)
Fish sauce (served on side)
Sriracha hot sauce (served on side)
PREPARATION
1. Clean the beef bones, short ribs, and oxtails: bring a large pot of water (enough to cover bones) to a rolling boil and 2 tbs salt. Add beef bones, oxtails, short ribs and tendons and boil for about 4-5 minutes until all bones has released all its impurities and blood. Rinse bones under running water and clean using your hands to remove any grit off bones and set all aside in a bowl. Rinse and clean stock pot.
2. Roast spices: In a small frying pan roast all the dried spices until fragrant on high to medium high heat until fragrant and lightly smokey (do not burn spices). Shake pan occasionally to prevent any burning. Transfer to bowl and let spices cool for handling. Then place into a spice colander container or tea bag (tie tightly so the spices don't spill out loose in your stock).
3. Roast ginger / onions: peel outer shell of onions, in broiler grill the ginger and onion until it's charred on all sides (turn as sides are charred).
OR dry roast to frying pan on medium high heat. When the pan is hot add ginger slices and onions to slightly burned and fragrant (If you have a grill char it on a grill!).
4. Bring to boil about 1.5 gallons of water in large stock pot (you’ll need enough water to cover all your bones and meat). Add salt and sugar and Vietnamese vegetable powder.
5. Add washed bones, tendons, oxtail and short ribs; and roasted shallots/onions and ginger and boil for about 30 min (no lid) on high until you get a nice boil then bring down to a LOW simmer (uncovered). (Occasionally remove any scum or impurities from top of broth without stirring your broth).
6. Check your oxtails after 2 hours until tender and do not overcook or else they will fall apart in your broth (if you have different sized oxtails like smaller pieces of oxtail, make sure to take these out sooner as they will cook much faster than the very large pieces of oxtail, you want them super fork tender). Transfer oxtail after tender into a tupper ware or bowl and set aside in fridge.
*Remove all tendons and cartilage after 2 hour mark and boil separately in separate pot if they haven’t cooked tender yet (you can use a couple cups of your broth and a few cups of tap water to cook these down, cooking too much of the tendons in the pho broth will make it gelatine’y). Cook tendons just till they’re about soft enough to eat.
7. After 3-4 hours when your broth is super fragrant, remove the onions, daikon, ginger from your stock and discard. If you want a deeper, richer bone broth remove onions/daikon/ginger from stock after 3-4 hours and keep boiling bones up to 8-12 hours total. I like to put the broth in the fridge after day 1 (removing all daikon/onions), and one day 2 continue to cook broth then move on to step #8 below.
*Check the brisket and short ribs after 3-4 hours of it simmering. When the brisket and short ribs are super tender, remove, and let them rest at room temperature for at least 15 minutes (I like the short ribs still on the bone, so wait til it’s fork tender but not completely falling off the bone, of course you can also keep cooking and let it get more tender and off the bone as well). Then thinly slice brisket across the grain and place in a tupper ware and set in fridge.
8. When your broth is done to your liking add your spice bag and let simmer for 30 minutes then remove and dispose of spice bag after 30 min. Taste stock, and add sugar or salt to taste and add fish sauce at the very end before serving, or add into individual bowls.
9. Before serving, re-boil oxtail, brisket and tendons and ladle in some of your broth til covered and heat up until hot again for serving.
10. To serve: Plate in bowl a nice helping of hot cooked vermicelli noodles to center of individual serving bowls. On top of each bowl add bean sprouts, onion, brisket, tendon and a short rib or pieces of sliced short rib. Ladle in a few scoops of boiling broth from your large stock pot to generously fill the bowl with your broth. Add a little black pepper, fresh onions, scallions, cilantro and thai basil to garnish.
Condiments and extra garnishes: Serve with side of bean sprouts, lime, mint, thai basil, sriracha and hoison sauce.