Sunday, August 19, 2007

pho.noodle.soup

Dear reader:

The reason you are reading this, is because the blog has a name! yeii! So ‘eat your dinner’ is our name. Since both Ed and I are out all day, we only eat dinner together, which is the only meal I cook, except for weekends when I make lunch too. So ‘eat your dinner’ seemed appropriate, it should be ‘eat your dinner, and lunch too’ because I usually take leftovers to work, but that was pushing it, so ‘eat your dinner’ it is! Welcome!

Ok, on to today’s (I almost wrote show, haha, and we don’t even have a tv) recipe. It is my friend Yu’s birthday, and I am making ‘Pho noodle soup’ in her honor, she really likes it! Well, she loves any Asian noodle dish, but I am gonna go with Pho.

I am making my own version of Pho, for I am not Vietnamese, let alone Asian. Although I have to say, that during the last year and a half, I have been working with a lot of Asian women, all of them American-fill in the blank (Chinese, Korean, Singapore, etc) and one Thai guy, Gob, who just last week made a delicious green curry for us, and gave me his very HOT recipe, which he had to tame down for our wimpy palates.

Since we are on a Vietnamese theme, Yu and Kurt (her boyfriend) also introduced us, to Vietnamese sandwiches, they are so good! I had never tried them (I didn’t even know the Vietnamese had typical sandwiches). They were made with French bread (like our hot dogs, from the last post, I don’t know if that is the traditional way, or just convenient here in France) sliced pork, a spicy mayonnaise type sauce, thinly sliced carrots and cucumbers, and fresh cilantro. Do give them a try, they are delicious, we’ve made them at home a few times and really love them.

Back to my soup, I know this is going to sound like a lot to do, but it really is not, it didn’t take me that much time, really. While I had the stock simmering I prepped everything, and then five minutes before serving, I sliced the beef, cooked the noodles an assembled (strange word, but that is how this one works) the soup.

These are the steps, I sliced garlic and ginger, and slowly cooked it in olive oil. I then mashed some chili pepper with a little bit of oil and salt. Diced some scallions, and washed a handful of fresh soy beans, a handful of cilantro and one baby bok choi (I didn’t see this in any of the recipes I consulted, but I thought it would be nice, and it was). After, all that was left to do was boil and rinse the noodles, assemble a pretty plate, and pour the hot stock over it.


































R E C I P E

Stock

4 cups of water
1 bay leaf
½ unpeeled washed onion
1 clove of garlic
1 bunch of cilantro
1 cup of beef (any beef that’s good for soup) cubed (1x1)
1 teaspoon of salt
2 tablespoons of fish sauce

Place all ingredients in a big pot. Cook on high until it boils.

Lower the temperature. Simmer for 45’.

Strain the broth. Slice the meat thinly. Reserve.

Add the fish sauce to the broth.

Taste. Adjust salt.


Soup

1 baby bok choi
1 package Asian noodles (I used flat rice noodles)
3 cloves of garlic
1 one-inch piece of ginger
1 tablespoon of olive oil
3 scallions finely chopped
½ cup of fresh bean sprouts
1 handful fresh cilantro, without chopping
1 lime quartered
1 tablespoon of crushed chili pepper

* I made a paste with the chili pepper, crushing one tablespoon of chili pepper, with a drop of olive oil and some salt.

Thinly slice the ginger and the garlic. Place it on a cold pan with the olive oil. Stir. Cook on a low flame until the ginger and garlic are caramelized. Set aside.

Wash cilantro, bean sprouts, and bok choi in cold water.

In the meantime, boil some water. Chop the bottom part of the bok choi off, separate the leaves, and cook it in the hot water for a couple of minutes, rinse in cold water. Use that same water to cook the noodles. About 5’

Heat the broth. Rinse the noodles in cold water.

On a deep dish, place a handful of noodles. Arrange the rest of the ingredients one next to the other on top of the noodles. Pour the hot broth until it covers all the ingredients. Serve with a wedge of lime and extra chili pepper paste for the brave ones! (aka Ed)

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1 comments:

Gob said...

I love baby bok choi. I don;t care what everyboday says.

Your pictures look great! They make me *ungry.

GoB