Soaked and Brined Black Beans

It's been a long time

I shouldn't have left you

Without a dope read to munch to...

I've been busy procreating, ukulele'ing, moving, homeschooling (briefly), volunteering, childraising, PTO'ing, adulting, and mom'ing for the last couple of years and this blog has taken a back burner. I've got almost 10 or so recipes sitting in my draft folder but they are still gathering virtual dust. Sigh.


But-- 

I was struggling for a savory bean side dish for a communal burrito potluck for our annual campout. When/if I make beans, I go to animal fat for the flavor boost. Since our Holistic Moms chapter had Muslim families participating, I needed something halal so my go to lard and (Buddhist) duck fat were not going to make the cut. (And I didn't have time to run to the local halal butcher...)

Then I remembered...

Beans, beans the magic fruit, the more you eat....

Kombu which would give me a savory/umami boost as well as help breakdown the indigestibles (toot-source) like oligosaccharides and phytic acid. I am not even going there with the soak-no soak debate. I know what my gut feels like. Which my family has now dubbed mom bombs. Soaking is just better for me.

Along the way, I discovered brining for beans and of course, I am a big pressure cooker proponent. Because: from phrozen to Phở in under an hour is too damn easy. I upgraded to a Kuhn Duromatic 12 qt when I birthed the big little because that's a lot more people to feed and I was tired of having to make two batches of phở with the 6 qt because the bones take up half the pot. I still keep my 6 qt Fissler because I inherited it from my 

bà ngoại | grandmother and it's handy for grains, side dishes, and small quantities.

I pre-date the Instant Pot so I don't have a review or a rave, but believe me I am eyeballing it. I only have to babysit the pressure cooker for less than an hour at most, but the prospect of set & forget it is very tempting because I am very forgetful...)

Anyhow, I cobbled together a recipe from various ideas with Cuban inspiration. And it was like sooooooo good. 
I got rave reviews and recipe requests from folks, so... here's the recipe, Samrana! 
( I made 2.5 lbs for 30+ people including littles which left me with maybe 1/4 of a pot leftover, this is a reduced quantity). 

Some ingredient notes: my kid doesn't like the tannic-ity of olive oil, so I mixed it with avocado oil. I used a little fresh garlic that I had on hand, but mainly I rely on powdered or dried/minced garlic because I have issues with digesting fresh garlic unless it is cooked AF. I wanna say I got the kombu powder from Frontier, but I think they don't carry it any longer. You can substitute dried kombu instead or omit it. Um, I eyeball quantities, so adjust to taste!

We were camping there was no way to pretty stage beans.

BRINE BEANS
1 lb beans (I used organic black turtle beans)
3 tbs of sea salt
4 qts water

Soak 8 hrs to 24 hours. Drain beans.

Ingredients

EV olive oil + avocado oil
1 organic sweet onion, chopped
1 tsp organic garlic powder

1 tsp kombu powder or 4 inch strip of dried kombu

dash of Red Boat fish sauce

1 tsp organic cumin powder

2 bay leaves

2 qts water

chopped cilantro to garnish

Splash a super generous amount of oil in the pressure cooker. Sauté the onions and garlic until translucent. Add kombu powder, fish sauce, cumin and bay leaves and sauté briefly until aromatic. Toss in the beans. Cover with water, lid it, and bring to a boil. Cook at pressure for 4 minutes for soaked black beans (all other beans consult this chart for cooking time). Turn off the stove. Let it depressurize naturally, approx 10 minutes. Taste, add salt or other seasonings as needed. Top with chopped cilantro.

BOOM. DONE. 

Really, that is it. I love my pressure cooker! 

I have NO idea how long this takes in an Instant Pot. I know that it would take 3-4 hours in a VitaClay and that is why hands down, my pressure cooker is my go to because I suffer from the inability to meal plan.

[Full disclosure: I am now an Amazon Associate. Yes, I assimilated. All kidding aside, all my labor is unremunerated. Both as a mom and as cook. Don't get me wrong, I like getting paid in gratitude and sticky kisses from the littles, but it would also be nice to be compensated even a pittance for the fraction of the work I do IRL. I've made enough to buy coffee from individual affiliate links so it really is a bit ridiculous. And alot of the links I have are not remunerated, like Frontier or articles, blogs, etc. So for what it is worth, for less than the price of a cup of coffee, you can support my labor which is vastly undervalued!]

Chả Lụa | Silky pork sausage

Chả Lụa is a classic & ubiquitous Viet sausage roll that is traditionally pounded into a silky paste, wrapped in banana leaves, and boiled. It's found in bánh mì | VN sandwiches, bánh cuốn | rice rolls, among many other dishes. Like deli meat it can be eaten as a snack; one of my favorite ways to eat it is a mini-sandwich with bánh dầy | mochi.

Typical store-made Chả Lụa has MSG/hydrolyzed wheat protein and potato-/wheat-/cornstarch (likely GMO) and they also wrap the roll with a final layer of plastic wrap  or aluminum foil before boiling or use nylon twine--all of which release toxins/carcinogens when heated. So Chả Lụa has been off my menu for several years now unless I've got my additive-busting supplements with me.

This was a team effort. My thoughtful husband made the first batch when I was enduring first trimester ravening hunger pangs. I made the next round.

Like many of these traditional dishes that seem so challenging, I found that making Chả Lụa itself was not hard, but it required time investment in the wrapping & cooking. Because I like my modern tools, I used a food processor to render the meat and fat into a paste (similar to what one would do for meatballs). It only takes 10-15 minutes to get through 3 lbs. Easy peasy. We tried the grinder and it was double the work to then process the grind, so skip that step altogether. 

The first round, my husband tried the recipe from Bach Ngo's The Classic Cuisine of Vietnam; he wrapped with one layer of banana leaf and boiled the 3-4 rolls for 40 minutes. We ended up with a lot of waterlogged rolls. It was a good effort, but even without the waterlogging, why add water to recipe and then starch to firm in the first place? Also it was not salty or flavorful enough but that could be the waterlogging issue. The next time, I eyeballed Charles Phan's recipe and considered it too plain (only 2 tbs of fish sauce?!), pork belly too fatty and more headcheese-like with pork belly skin-on, which is a different and also delicious variety of Chả Lụa  called chả bì. So I fused some of the simplicity of Phan (added salt, no water, no starch, no additional refrigeration) with Ngo's recipe (more fish sauce, baby!), and per my usual modus operandi, we used higher quality ingredients. I believe the quality of the ingredients truly makes or breaks a recipe. 

The trickiest part is wrapping it to make it waterproof. We can source fresh banana leaves in the Bay Area at Latino/Caribbean markets or people's gardens, but typically I buy the frozen imported kind at the Viet or Latino markets. The banana leaves need to be rinsed and wiped down to remove any chalky residue. My mom recommends blanching the defrosted banana leaves in boiling water to make them more pliable, less likely to tear. [2/1/2015 note: Mom also says use banana leaves from Thailand, not the Philippines and to cut off the rib for pliability.]

We are still working on wrapping technique; I used double or triple banana leaf layers and wrapped it like a burrito (i.e. rolled and tucked in the ends which are held in place by twine). I only used a single criss cross which was't snug enough; I would recommend the roast tying method. I also went with Phan's steam cooking to reduce the waterlogging though I employed my pressure cooker to shortcut the time.

I picked up nice country ribs (butt) from Whole Foods; this is a flavorful fatty cut from sustainably raised pork and in the bulk pack (3 lbs+) it's a reasonably priced $4.99/lb comparable to what one would get buying direct from the farmer. If you must use conventionally-raised pork, my mom recommends soaking it with lemon juice and water overnight to "sweeten" the meat before marinading. The acidulation helps to break down the tough meat fibers from of chemically laden, stressed out pigs.

If the banana leaves are too much for you, I suppose one could substitute parchment paper though I have never tried it. Also, you can shape these into 1.5 inch balls (invest in a cookie scoop!) and make Thịt viên | meatballs. Easy peasy lemon squeezy. Boil in water until cooked through before adding to soups, noodle dishes etc. Freeze the extras.

Ingredients

(Makes 3 rolls)

1.5 tsp unrefined sea salt (Celtic/grey or Himalayan/pink)

1.5 tsp fresh ground organic black pepper

1 tbs organic coconut palm sugar

1 tbs baking soda

6 tbs Red Boat fish sauce

3 lbs sustainably raised pork country ribs (butt), cut into 1.5 inch squares

1-2 tbs of fish sauce
1-2 packages of frozen banana leaves, cleaned, blanched, and wiped dry
kitchen twine (each strand should be 4-5 lengths of the roll)

In a  bowl, mix all the marinade ingredients together. Toss the cubed meat with the  marinade. In the ideal world, marinade for 4 hours. 

Working with small batches, use a food processor or a very high powered blender to make a fine meat paste (approx 3 minutes of processing) and reserve in a large bowl. Add any leftover marinade juices and mix in. Work quickly to keep the paste cold. When it warms, the fat melts making it more difficult to roll.

Lay out the banana leaves on a tray or cutting board. You will need 2-3 layers of leaves. Use 1/3 of the meat paste and shape into a cylindrical roll. Use a silicone pastry brush and brush with fish sauce. Roll snugly in the banana leaves, adding more leaves to patch any tears. Fold down the ends and tie with twine using the roast method.

Steam in a pressure cooker for 40-60 minutes. Steam in a regular pot for 1.5 hours or boil for 40 minutes. (If you make smaller rolls, it'll need less cooking time.) The interior should be cooked through--that greige meatball color. Some pink is okay if you are using sustainably raised meat.

Slice as needed. Store uneaten roll whole in banana leaves in an airtight container in the fridge. Extra rolls can be frozen, banana leaves & all. Steam in the banana leaves to reheat.

Ăn Ngon Lành|Eat Delectably!

phở đuôi bò | oxtail noodle soup

Making breakfast magic with some pasture-raised oxtail and organic spices...

I completely forgot to get any herbs or steak but it was delish nonetheless.

My real food, real phở recipe over here.

Social history of phở over here.

Phở-natic confessions here.

Sprouted hummus recipe

[Caveat: Not a Southeast Asian recipe]  Like many urban West Coast folks, I love hummus.  Hummus became my go-to snack three years ago when I was trying to stabilize my blood sugar.  I found that store bought hummus (even the expensive artisanal, locally made hummus I got from Whole Foods Market) is too tart for my tastes from the efforts to preserve it with lemon juice or citric acid (which is not derived from citrus but is a chemically extracted corn product that contains free glutamates).  So I started making my own.  At first, I used tahini, but it required going to a Middle Eastern market not typically on my usual grocery run.  Since I had limited energy, I bought sesame seeds.*  It's not that much more work and it's cheaper.  I use organic unhulled sesame seeds which have a slightly bitter taste although my picky kid doesn't notice.  If you don't like that, you can try sprouting or toasting the unhulled seeds (I've never tried) or using hulled/white sesame seeds.

• 1 cup of garbanzos (aka chickpeas) soaked & sprouted or 1 can of organic garbanzo beans, drained & rinsed
• optional 1 inch of kombu or 1 tsp kombu
• 1 cup of unhulled sesame seeds or tahini/sesame paste.
• 1/2 cup or so of real olive oil (I use MoonShadow Grove Mission Estate Certified organic EVOO)
• 1 clove of garlic if you like it spicier, I use 1/2 tsp of dried garlic b/c my kid is sensitive.
• 1/2 to whole lemon juiced (to taste)
• grey or celtic sea salt to taste
• optional paprika
•  1/2 to 1 cup of water
• optional pitted olives

Soak garbanzos overnight in filtered water.  Drain and use the runoff water for your garden.  Leave in bowl or colander.  Rinse and drain daily until it sprouts.  It should sprout by day 3.  Cook garbanzos.  I put it in a pressure cooker for 10-15 minutes with 4 cups of water with the kombu (helps to breakdown the indigestible carbs that make us gassy) and let it naturally depressurize.   If you don't have a pressure cooker, you can boil them in 5 cups of water and kombu for 3 hours.

Add all the ingredients except for olives to a food process and pulverize until creamy.  Add water until the consistency is right for you.  Add olives and pulse until minced.

Makes about 2.5-3 cups.

Ăn Ngon Lành|Eat Delectably!

*You have to have a food processor or powerful blender to puree the sesame seeds. 

Basic Pork Broth recipe

Basic Pork Broth Recipe

Pork is a staple in Viet cuisine.  The word for meat thit without any qualifying adjectives usually signifies pork.  At the heart of many Viet noodle dishes and soup is a rich pork broth.  (FYI non-vinamese people, pho is the only aberration. Almost all vinamese noodle soups are made from pork bones even that wierdly named Bun Bo Hue|Hue-style beef noodles.) The basic recipe calls for pork bones or hocks, carrots, onions, fish sauce & sea salt.  To this base can be added the spices for the variations; for example, bún bò Huế (Huế-style beef noodles) calls for a paste of shallots, lemongrass, Hạt điều|achiote oil (aka annatto), garlic, & chilies.

(Note: Pork hock/feet will give you a collagen-rich broth that will congeal very nicely in the fridge; to achieve this, a longer cooking time is needed than with bones.  Neckbones in and of themselves will make a great bone broth though they are typically combined with meatier cuts like stew cuts, shoulder cuts, etc for a meatier flavor.  As always, organic, sustainably-raised, heritage breed meat just tastes better.  If you are using conventional/industrial farmed pork, my mom recommends that you acidulate the bones/feet & any meat overnight with lemon juice to "sweeten" the flavor, i.e. remove the stress hormones present at butchering and strip any chemical additives in the raising and processing.  If you are acidulating, ACV during the cooking process is not needed.)

Ingredients:

• 1.5 lbs pork hock/feet (cut into rounds), neckbones, and/or stew cut pork
• 5 qts of water
• 1 onion with skin removed, can carmelize but not necessary or 2 shallots
• 1 carrot
• 2-4 tbs fish sauce
• 1 handful of sea salt
• splash of apple cider vinegar (optional to demineralize bones)
• optional spices (ginger, gieng|galangal, keffir lime leaves, lemongrass, garlic, etc)

Rinse off the bones and place in the stock pot or pressure cooker.

If using a stock pot, bring to a boil and skim any scum.  Simmer at a low boil for 1.5-2.5 hours until the skin/collagen renders.

If using a pressure cooker, low boil for 1-1.5 hrs.  Skim the scum.

Add more fish sauce and sea salt to taste.

Today, I'm making khao soi--a north Laotian fermented bean paste noodle soup which I reverse-engineered and free-handed/improvised based on what I tasted at Vientiane Cafe using tương cự đà|Northern style fermented soybean sauce, organic fermented miso, and organic fermented natto.

Ăn Ngon Lành|Eat Delectably!

Confessions of a Phở-natic

Blasted blogger somehow overwrote my newer version with a draft so now I have to reconstruct.  Other recent blogs on the topic of Phở
Genealogy of Phở
Real Phở Bo Recipe

Real Phở Ga Recipe

So my foodie friend over at Streatery called my out on my claim to be "not zealous" and the lengths I am willing to go to acquire quality meat--organic, pasture-raised if possible, humanely butchered.

Yes, I have sourced sustainably-raised Sonoma Liberty duck legs to make bún măng vịt|duck bamboo soup (post forthcoming) after 3 months/attempts (and I'm not too proud to say I did it through a raw pet feed coop;  I've volunteer schlepped thousands of pounds of raw meat for two months to make good on this).

Yes, I have been an itinerant meat dealer slinging cryovac'ed cuts from a organic heritage hog (red wattle!), hustlin' all up in east Oakland.  Holla! (or if you're in Fruitvale ¡Hola!)

Meat Man
Head of State — MOVIECLIPS.com

Mangalista yummy!

And I have braved the mega-hipster crowd and hours long line at Pork Prom just to eat crumbs of the curly haired Hungarian Mangalitsa.

And I have divvied up 120 lbs of delicious organic hog and offal as it defrosted blood all over my floor.

But, I am not zealous.  I am enthusiastic.  I just like good food and good health at a reasonable cost.

So here are some confessions of a Phở-natic:

• My recipe is my own.  Of course I didn't invent it.  Over the years of trying to phở-ness (oh yes, I will portmanteau phở into every conceivable iteration) with advice from my mom, my oldest aunty, I cross-referred to existing recipes from cookbooks and internet for quantity because you know "add as much as you like to taste, I don't know how you like it" is not a valid measurement and rice bowls and soup spoons are not reliable measurements.  And although I did acquire a digital scale to ride this new foodie trend of weighing food, I still don't think in metric.  Sorry, American born.
• I don't eat beef.  I stopped eating it in on a regular basis in 2003 after noticing I was not digesting it very well and what's more, would develop boils after eating conventionally produced beef.  Eww! TMI I know.  I make beef phở on infrequent occasions and try to use only the highest quality beef, so boils are no longer a problem and I take enzymes to help me digest.  I make chicken phở far more frequently.  I gave up on restaurant phở last year not just because the broth was mediocre and masked by liberal use of nước mắm to cover up the lack of hours long bone extracting simmering, but also because the excessive amounts of MSG gave me severe intestinal cramps and prompted a bad metabolic crash.  And that's without slurping the broth.  I may make exceptions for Turtle Tower (SF) and Pho Nguyen Hue (OC) but probably only if I am carrying my supplements that buffer me from chemicals that my body finds toxic.  Otherwise I will violate the cardinal rule of eating at a phở specialty restaurant by ordering from the non-phở menu.  Can't go wrong with a grilled meat rice plate.  Cross my fingers.  Now that we are sourcing grass-fed/-finished, pasture-raised, sustainable beef, I've increased my beef intake with minimal repurcussions.  I like tripe in my phở but I've yet to source organic, non-chemically processed tripe and we're not ready to buy half a cow.
  
• When I am on a budget or cannot find time to source local organic, grass-fed beef or organic pasture-raised chicken--which is most of the time--I buy halal, that is, beef/chicken that is grown in accordance with spiritual strictures tastes better than meat grown for greed & environmental destruction.  And that is not just the Bay Area smug talking.  I'll post again about my local meat sources, but currently, I go to Indian Market and get their organic, halal Petaluma Poultry chicken for $2.29/lb.  It's really a marked taste improvement over supermarket chicken.  I had pasture raised chicken for the first time a few months ago and was really astounded by the flavor which blew my now-ordinary seeming organic halal chicken out of the farmyard.
• I put leafy greens in my phở.  No, I'm not talking about ngò gai, basil, and cilantro.  I'm talking raw baby power greens--chard, baby kale and baby spinach are my current faves.  What da phở?  Weo, I never claimed to be a purist about phở (ok, maybe I did).  I love my people's food, but here in the US, it consists of too much refined whites and too much meat.  I need greens with every meal to feel nourished.  I make sure they are cooked to reduce the oxalic acid in raw greens to which I am very sensitive.
• I don't like onions.  Although I faithfully follow my grandmother's method of carmelizing a whole onion, I've been allergic to onions ever since I can remember (yes, this is a real thing.  I would get rashes and have respiratory issues.) and rarely used it in the last two decades of my cooking experience.  However, my chiropractor recently cured me of this allergy (not just for backs, yo!) and now onions are back in my pantry.  Perhaps, this is the missing ingredient to make my phở taste like my grandmother's.  And indeed, it does make a difference to the color of the broth.
• Making my own brown rice phở noodles or substituting another kind of brown rice noodle is on my list of to-do's to try to make phở even more nutritious.  I am lucky enough to have a mother-in-law who grew up in a rural hamlet in the delta making everything from scratch so I pick her brain a lot and there's also my bro and Streatery's genius.  I had an epic first attempt fail with brown rice bánh xèo (a future blog post one day) but I'm not giving up just yet.  So until I master brown rice flour, I have been known to eat phở with brown rice; that's the actual rice grains.  It's... interesting.
• On the noodle tip, I prefer even-wider-than-fettucine-XL-sized bánh phở|noodles which seems to be a northern thing.  I've only ever seen wide noodles at the northern style restaurant Turtle Tower in the Tenderloin because they make their own noodles by hand.  So this means I choose the dried, made overseas noodles over the "fresh" regional-/California-made noodles which typically comes in narrower widths.  I also choose the dried kind because they don't use wheat/gluten or preservatives unlike the fresh ones.  But if I am willing to pay the discomfort with chemical preservatives and do choose fresh, I go for the wider hủ tiếu|rice noodles.
• Besides leafy greens, I garnish my phở with basil, cilantro, ngò gai (when I have it), occasionally blanched mung bean sprouts, Red Boat nước mắm
  ắm nhi
  ắm nhi
  , and lime/lemon juice.  Other than RB which is a recent artisanal product, that's how I've eaten it since I was a child and how I came to appreciate the nuances of broth unpolluted by condiments.  I still lift my bowl to slurp the last of the broth which btw is entirely polite in Việt etiquette.
• I have been known to substitute dried Italian basil when I don't have have Thai basil on hand.  What can I say, our herb garden didn't over-winter last year and I can't get to the Asian store that often.  Our garden this year had African basil and chocolate basil, not Thai basil, so that is what went in the phở.
• As I indicated as much in my flagship blog post, I am not attached to any "real food" celebrity or branded dietary program.  I finally watched Food, Inc for the first time a few months ago.  And I've yet to finish reading The Omnivore's Dilemma.  When I volunteered to table for my HMN chapter at the Wise Traditions WAPF conference last year, I had no clue who Sally Fallon is or why our chapter leader mom was so excited she punched me when she saw her; I was there to see if I could get discounted organic stuff in the vendor section (not so much).  I've only been to one foodie convening and really it was just something to do with my bro & his girlfriend when they were in town.  So I'm not really a convert to anything, just appreciate real food.
• I cheat time--though not nutritional value--with a pressure cooker.  I have a vintage Fissler Vitavit Royal that I inherited from my grandmother before she passed.  It must be rather fancy because replacing the aged gasket & valve set me back $30.  I can only cook family sized amounts in this one because the bones take up so much volume.  The provenance of this special pressure cooker was probably my gourmand fashion designer uncle turned gourmand friar-priest uncle when he entered the monastery.  He is probably also why my grandmother who couldn't read english was also in possession of Craig Clairborne's NY Times Cookbook which I inherited as well, though I donated/recycled it last year.  (Gasp!  What can I say, America's Test Kitchen is my go-to cookbook.)  This takes me from 5 hours with my cauldron to 1-1.5 hours with my pressure cooker.  An indication for me as to the quality is if the broth is gelatinous overnight in the fridge from the rendered collagen.
• I re-use the bones and that gets me maximum nutrient extraction and value for my dollar (or use-per-eat to paraphrase my girlfriend Tuyen's theory of economic consumer rationalization).  I make batches and freeze the broth because I am too lazy to can though I admire the efficiency and smarts of making shelf-stable canned broth.  I defrost weekly or thereabouts and everyone in the family sips a cup of broth on the daily for the mineral content immune boost.  Note that bones can be made for 2-3 re-uses but after that, it diminishes in beefy flavor so you'll have to add meat cuts.  The bones can then continue to be used for bone broth/hunter's tea.
• I met a Hawai'i-kine custom surfboard maker in Santa Barbara back in January.  He told me how he's been blackballed at the local phở joint for trying to mod his phở too many times trying to make it more like the saimin he missed (itself a fusion of local ethnic groups).  Maybe 5 years ago this might have prompted an one-sided traditionalist argument on my part (though I don't know that I'd even argue, if it wasn't for people mod'ing, bánh mỳ ổ|Vietnamese sandwich may have never come into existence and the world would be a sadder place for it), but I just shrugged and told him how to make his own phở and mod it however he wanted.  Some folks add carrots or daikon to the pho to sweeten it.  Others add pork bones.  I like my phở with kale and brown rice.  Who am I to judge?

 So there you have it.  Keepin' it phở real.

Ăn Ngon Lành|Eat Delectably!

Real Phở Ga Recipe

I'm cleaning up the blog a bit, so more on the cultural history of pho over here and my phở -natic confessions.

Real Phở Ga

Vietnamese chicken noodle soup

Use organic, sustainably-raised ingredients when possible.  Grass-fed or pastured beef/chicken really taste soooo much better.  At the very least, get halal chicken which is raised humanely and without antibiotics.  Next up, try organic, free range.  And the top tier is organic, pasture-raised, grain-free chicken which has incredible flavor.

BROTH

• 1 whole organic chicken, unwashed
• 1 organic sweet onion or 3-4 shallots, carmelized
• 1 whole fresh ginger
• spice: 10 star anise
• small handful of cloves
• two 3-in stick of cassia (saigon cinnamon)
• handful thảo qua/smoked cardamom (can find in an Indian or Southeast Asian grocery)
• handful of coriander seed (aka cilantro seed)
• sea salt to taste
• 1/4 cup Red Boat fish sauce (do not mess with any other fish sauce)
• raw organic apple cider vinegar (with the mother)

FIXINGS

• 2 bags of med-large size  bánh phở/thick rice noodles/pad thai noodles. (I use dried gluten- & preservative-free noodles.  I like the Ba Cô Gái|Three Ladies brand).
• shredded chicken meat & offal
• mung bean sprouts
• cilantro
• thai basil
• limes
• ngò gai/rice paddy herb (optional)
• fresh chile or chile paste (I get mine from my mother-in-law)
• Red Boat fish sauce

If you are using whole chicken, low boil with innards and spices for 30 minutes in a 5 qt stockpot until it is cooked (if you cut it up it’ll be a little faster).  Skim any scum that comes to the surface.  Remove the chicken from the broth and allow to cool.  Then shred the meat.  (This can be done the day before.) Put the bones back in the soup with 1 spoon of raw apple cider vinegar and bring to a low boil for 1 hour. If you are using a pressure cooker, reduce times by 30%.

 If you are using mainly bones from 1-2 whole chickens, roast them for 15 min.  Low boil for at least 1 hour with a spoonful of apple cider vinegar to allow the bones to release the minerals.  You’ll still want to add some raw chicken pieces (neck, backbones, leg quarters) to enrich the broth flavor. (Remove the leg quarters when cooked if you plan on eating it, otherwise all the flavor will get extracted.)



Ăn Ngon Lành|Eat Delectably!

Real Phở Bo | Vietnamese beef noodle soup recipe

I'm cleaning up the blog a bit, so more on the cultural history of phở over here and my phở -natic confessions.

Real Phở Bo Recipe

Vietnamese beef noodle soup (feeds 5-8)

This recipe endeavors to take phở back to its homemade, slow cooked, nutrient-dense roots with whole food ingredients without chemical additives and without the corner-cutting cheats found in a fast food restaurant environment.  It goes without saying, use organic, sustainably-raised ingredients when possible.  Grass-fed and/or pastured organic beef really tastes soooo much better. A second best choice would be grain-fed halal beef which is more humanely raised (no antibiotics) & slaughtered than conventional beef. This is a Northern style phở recipe which is less sweet and uses less condiments than its mainstreamed Southern counterpart that is typically found in most restaurants.  There are tips on how to make it more Southern-style if you prefer a sweeter broth.  This homemade phở is more nourishing and wholesome than most, if not all, restaurant phở, and a different culinary experience.  You can read a little more about phở here.

If you like that sweet, southern style of pho (I am a northerner, I do not like it) once the broth is done, add an unpeeled daikon and simmer to release glutamates. This replaces synthetic MSG which is the source of sweetness and the laxative-effect in restaurant phở.  Remove when it is soft enough to poke with chopstick.  If you leave in too long, it becomes starchy & breaks down and the broth will be ruined.

BROTH

• 3 lbs  knuckle, marrow bone, feet, or shank (or soup bones) and/or oxtail and my new 2017 fave short ribs (not the Korean kind)
• (optional for a meatier flavor: 1 pound piece of beef chuck, rump, brisket or cross rib roast, cut into 2-by-4-inch pieces)
• raw, organic apple cider vinegar or lemon juice
• 1 organic, sweet onion or 3-4 shallots
• 1 whole fresh organic ginger
• spice: 10 star anise
• small handful of cloves
• two 3-in stick of cassia (saigon cinnamon)
• optional handful thảo qua/smoked cardamom (can find in an Indian or Southeast Asian grocery)
• handful of coriander seed (aka cilantro seed)
• sea salt to taste (I use grey sea salt)
• 1/4 cup Red Boat fish sauce (do not mess with any other fish sauce)

FIXINGS

• 2 bags of med to extra large size bánh phở/thick rice noodles/pad thai noodles. (I use dried gluten- & preservative-free noodles.  I like the Ba Cô Gái|Three Ladies brand).
• 1/2 lb thinly sliced beef eye round, filet mignon eye of round, sirloin, London broil or tri-tip steak (If you are using a whole piece, freeze for one hour and then slice thinly.)
• mung bean sprouts (optional)
• cilantro
• thai basil
• limes
• ngò gai/rice paddy herb (optional)
• sliced fresh chiles/jalapenos or chile paste (I get mine from my mother-in-law)
• Red Boat fish sauce (accept no substitutes)
• optional apricot or prune syrup

Equipment: pressure cooker or 8 qt stockpot, pan, baking pan/aluminum foil, spice bag, ladle
If you are using a pressure cooker, expect 1 hour cooking time.  If you are using a stockpot, expect 3-5 hours cooking time.

BONES PREP THE NIGHT BEFORE

1) Acidulate bones overnight by soaking in water with 1 cup of apple cider vinegar or lemon juice.   Acidulating helps to render the collagen and calcium and release the minerals.

BROTH

2) Drain & rinse the bones.  Then parboil the bones.  Put bones into pressure cooker/stockpot.  Cover with water and bring to a boil on high heat.  Dump it all out into a metal colander and scrape off sides of pot to get rid of the scum.
3) While that is going, char a whole onion (or shallots) to release carmelizing sugars in oven or on grill. Open all your windows, ventilation fan, close all bedroom doors.  Remove outer onion skin, then put on foil in a baking pan (will release liquid) in the oven to broil for 5-10 minutes until blackened or translucent.  Scrape off most of the black and drop in the pot.  The carmelized onion is what gives phở it's color.

4) Char ginger.  No need to peel the skin.  Slice in long thin slices (length of ginger is fine).  Then panroast on a dry unoiled pan on high heat or over open flame.  You can either throw it in pot or add to spice bag.
5) Toast the remaining spices and add to the spice bag.

6) Pour in new water (approx 6-8 qts) with the bones.  Add spices to spice bag and throw in the pot.  If you are adding any tendon or tripe, that goes in now.  Bring to a boil then reduce heat to a low boil for 3-5 hours until the collagen renders. For a pressure cooker, when the indicator pops up, reduce heat to low.  Low boil for at 45 minutes to an hour. (*9/25/2017 I've upgraded to a Kuhn Duromatic 12 qt pressure cooker. I can make 12 servings of pho in under an hour! Yasss!)
7) If you like that sweet, southern style of pho, add an unpeeled daikon and simmer to release glutamates.  Leave whole or whatever chunks fits in the pot.

8)  Broth will taste plain until you add lots of seasalt which will bring out the flavors.  Add sea salt to taste (1/8-1/4 cup) and fish sauce (approx 1/4-1/3c).  You want to make it towards the salty side because the rice noodles and sprouts water it down.   Skim as much rendered fat & collagen off the top of the soup as you prefer or not.  It's more nourishing to eat it.  Nowadays, I leave it in.  If you prepare this the day ahead, refrigerate the pot and if you prefer a less nourishing broth, skim the congealed fat off in the morning.  The broth should be gelatinous after refrigeration from the rendering of collagen in the connective tissues; this is the gold standard for a nutrient-dense broth.  Note that restaurant phở never congeals.

NOODLES & GARNISHES

9) If you are using dried noodles: soak dried rice noodles in room temperature water for at least 15 minutes to reconstitute. Bring water to a boil. Drop in noodles and use chopsticks to separate. Cook until tender approx 2-5 minutes. Drain & rinse out starch with cold water.  If you are using fresh noodles, they just need to be heated up before you add the broth (otherwise they cool the broth down).  

10) Bring broth back to a boil before ladling into the bowl.  Put noodles & mung bean sprouts in the bowl. If you like your meat well cooked, you can either cook it in the broth pot first or put it in the bowl before adding broth.  If you like it rare, add meat last.
11) Garnish to your preference with the fresh herbs.

I personally do not garnish phở with anything other than herbs, fish sauce and lemon.  Hoison sauce or "plum" sauce is a popular southern garnish and is comprised of refined sugar, gluten, starch and food coloring and nary a plum to be seen; IMHO it has negligible flavor.  However, for those folks who like hoison sauce in their phở and are looking for a gluten-free/additive-free alternative, I suggest blending organic prunes or unsulfured dried apricots or with water to a thick consistency as a substitute.  If it's just a sweeter broth you are looking for, you can add carrots to the broth making.

Leftover broth can be frozen in 1 cup amounts or left in the fridge for a few days. 


Ăn Ngon Lành|Eat Delectably!

This could probably be made in a slow cooker, but I've never tried.  Leave a comment if you have tried it and let me know how yours turned out.

If you are using organic bones, you can reuse them a few times with new water and seasonings before throwing them away.  That next batch will taste slightly like pho even without the spice bag though.

Shake that thing baby baby

Gelatinous broth