Beef Combination Pho

[jeff]

This recipe should feed a good 6-8 people. Lots of steps, all pretty basic but you do need to be around all day to watch over it.

1.5 lbs beef bones
1.5 lbs beef brisket
1 lb of eye of round beef
1/2 lb tendon
10 oz tripe
1 bag of pho noodles
3 white onions
8 shallots
1 green onion
handful of cilantro
6" worth of ginger
13 quarts water for broth + extra water for cooking the other items.
3 and 1/2 tsp salt
2 TBS and 1 tsp of fish sauce
3 TBS sugar
1/3 cup star aniseed
1 bunch of basil
1 jalapeno
1 lime
2 cups mung bean sprouts
Hoisin sauce
Red chili sauce

This recipe will be broken down into several steps, each part will have it's own ingredients list hopefully totaling to what is listed at the top of the thread.

First start by bringing a large stock pot with 6 quarts of water to a rolling boil. While the water is being heated, rinse the bones thoroughly. Add the bones, brisket and 1 tsp of salt. Reduce the heat to med and cook this for 2 hours. Occasionally skimming the top to remove any funk.

While you're waiting for those 2 hours to pass, bring another pot of water enough to cover the tendon to a boil place the tendon into the boiling water and 1/2 tsp salt, cover with lid, reduce heat to med/low, and cook for about 4 hours or until fork tender (add water if needed during the cooking process)

mean while.... back to the stock...

After 2 hours of cooking, remove the brisket from the pot and set aside. Mash all 6 inches worth of ginger, place ginger in the microwave and heat for 1 and 1/2 minutes. Turn the broiler on in your oven and place 2 onions (cut into half) and 8 shallots onto a baking sheet and broil till slightly charred, flip them over and char the other side, once done remove the skins, add 2 quarts of water to the stock and once again bring it to a boil. Then place the onion, shallots and ginger into the stock. Once it reaches a boil turn the heat back down to med.

After another hour, add 2 quarts of water and bring the stock to a boil. Roast 1/3 cup of star aniseed using a frying pan for about 1 minute then add it to the stock, and reduce the heat back to med.

Place the eye of round beef into your freezer, this will sit for about 1 hour to make it firm up a bit so you can easily cut it thin.

After another hour, remove everything from the pot, using a slotted spoon, remove all the big items from the stock pot, once that's done take another pot with a strainer and pour the stock into the strainer to remove some of the smaller particles, if you would like a clearer broth, line the strainer with cheese cloth. Pour the stock back into your stock pot and add another 3 quarts of water. At this point you can add the 3TBS of sugar, 2 TBS and 1 tsp of fish sauce, 2 tsp of salt. At this point give it a taste, if needed add more salt or sugar to fit your taste. Set aside til ready for use.

At this point if tendon is ready, strain and rinse the tendon with warm water then trim away the fat, set aside.

If you desire, trim the fat from the beef brisket, some people choose to leave it on, in the pictures we trimmed it. Then slice the beef paper thin, or however thin you're able to. set aside.

Take another pot of water and bring it to a boil, while that's being heated. Rinse the tripe and place on a cutting board, cut it 1/8" thick against the flaps, once water is boiling place the tripe into the water for about 1 minute then place it in a strainer and rinse with warm water. Set aside.

Cut the Tendon into 1/4" thick pieces, set aside.

Cut the eye of round steak into paper thin pieces, again do this as thin as you can get it. set aside.

Cut the cilantro, green onion, and 1/2 white onion into thin pieces. set aside.

At this point you can setup your sides that are served along side of the pho, on a plate place, basil, sliced jalapeno, lime, and mung bean sprouts. set aside for later use.

While you're bringing the pho stock to one last boil... Bring another pot of water to a boil, using a strainer, place about 1/4 of the bag of pho noodles into the strainer, lower and rise the strainer in and out of the water until the noodles just become soft. Let the noodles drain for a few seconds then place into a bowl.

Once you have your noodles in the bowl, start building it. Add the sliced cooked beef brisket, raw eye of round beef, tendon, tripe, white onion, green onion, and cilantro

Once the pho reaches a boil, turn the heat down and as its just coming off the boil use a soup ladle to pour the stock over the bowl of ingredients, as the hot soup hits the bowl, it will cook the raw beef. Place the bowl at the table and fix it up the way you like it.

Most of the time this ends up being fresh basil, jalapeno, lots of mung beans, and both hoisin and chili sauce.

Dig in!





NOTE, there's 4 pieces of tendon pictured, we cooked up 4 since it takes forever, 3 went into the freezer and 1 went into the pho dish. you do not use all 4 for this recipe.

[jeff]

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