Mum's Pho Recipe

“My mum’s pho is the best!” – is the phrase you will hear from every Vietnamese child when it comes to talking about their family’s own homemade pho. A statement which, to this day, myself and my siblings 100% believe in.

We are so proud of mum’s pho that we all take turns to call our closest friends over to share the joy we get when eating this delicious, world renowned dish. Growing up, it was the one dish I remember coming home to and instantly smelling the fragrant pho spices from outside. I would instantly get excited, because at that exact moment, I knew what dish was going to be served for dinner.

Every mum’s pho will always be the best, and that is what inspired me to create our pho spice blend - exactly how mum makes it. We have removed the hard work for you and have roasted our spice blend, so, all you need to do is bag the spices and pop it into your stock pot.

Making pho is relatively straight forward, however, it does take time for the spices to release their aromatics into the broth. If you follow our recipe below, we guarantee you will not be disappointed once you taste that first spoon of broth.

The recipe below is based on a 7-8L stock pot, which will make around 6L of broth. Double the recipe for 14L stock pot and use our 200g Roasted Pho Spice pack.

You can view our two part short videos here: Part One | Part Two

Ingredients

Broth:

1 packet My Kitchen Co 100g Roasted Pho Spice

2 large onions

1 large ginger

2kg beef marrow bones

1kg pork bones (or substitute with beef bones)

3 chicken frames chopped into smaller pieces (or substitute with beef bones)

1kg beef brisket

1kg thinly sliced raw beef for Pho (you can easily find this at Asian Butchers, otherwise you can buy beef tenderloin, part freeze and slice thinly. I have even used thinly sliced Waygu beef for hotpot in Pho, which also tastes great!)

1 tablespoon salt

2 tablespoons rock sugar

White vinegar

2 x 1kg packets of “Pho Tuoi” noodles

*If you do not have access to pork/chicken frames, using all beef bones is fine

Toppings (optional):

1 packet Beef Tendon/Meat Balls

Finely sliced onion

Beansprouts

Thai basil

Coriander

Shallots

Lime wedges

Fresh chilli

Hoisin sauce

Sriracha sauce

My Kitchen Co Chilli Oil (I have been told this by our customers!)

 Instructions:

Preparing aromatics and bones for broth:

1. Place onion and ginger (skin on) into a pan and cook on high heat turning every few minutes until it is charred and a bit soft. Once cooled, wash off char & peel off skin.

2. Put water and a good splash of vinegar into the stock pot and bring to boil.

3. Add bones and brisket and boil for 5 minutes or until you start to see impurities (I really call it the scum haha).

4. Rinse bones and brisket under water and set aside.

5. Empty out My Kitchen Co’s Roasted Pho Spices into bag provided and set aside.

Broth:

1. If you only have one stock pot, please ensure that it is clean before you start making the broth.

2. Fill half the stock pot with water and bring to a boil.

3. Add bones, brisket, onion, ginger, roasted pho spice, sugar and salt and return to a boil.

4. Once boiled, turn the heat down to a soft simmer. Remove any impurities that have floated to the surface of the pot. This will ensure a clear broth.

5. Simmer for approx. 2 hours uncovered and remove brisket (we like to eat ours tender but not fall-apart tender). To keep the brisket from drying and darkening, you can cover the brisket with cold water & a splash of lemon juice until it is cool enough to cut.

6. Simmer for another hour, remove chicken frames and top up the stock pot with boiling water to the rim.

7. Simmer the beef and pork bones for another 3 hours.

8. Strain broth into another pot and discard bones. Mum keeps the spice bag in the broth so that the spices keep infusing.

9. Season the broth to taste. Mum’s rule of thumb is, for every 1 tbsp salt, you need 2 tbsp sugar. You do not want the broth too salty as the more you sip on the soup, the more intense the flavour becomes.

10. If you are serving with Beef Tendon/Meatballs, cut in half, and put in broth to cook it.

Notes on the Broth:

• To ensure a clear broth, when you see impurities, skim it off the surface of the broth.

• Top up the stock pot (1cm from the rim) with BOILING water approx. every 2 hours.

• If you have a lot of time, we recommend making this dish in advance. We normally cook it for 3 hours the night before and then another 3-4 hours on the day we are serving up the dish to family and friends. This gives it the best flavour and all my fellow Vietnamese friends will know, Pho tastes better on the second day!

• DON’T skim off all the oil from the broth as this is where all the fragrance gets trapped and you want to add a bit of the oil to each bowl you serve.

 Assembly:

1. If you have purchased the raw beef pre-sliced – perfect. If not, place your beef tenderloin in the freezer for about 30mins, then cut as thinly as you can.

2. Cut the beef brisket into thin slices.

3. Wash and prepare all the herbs.

4. Remove rice noodles from package and gently fluff out the noodles so it separates. You can fluff out the noodles then run under hot water if you would like to remove the oil from the noodles.

5. Place a handful of noodles in a bowl and layer in the following order:

We really hope you enjoy our pho recipe! It really is a favourite in our household.

We would love for you to share any videos/photos of our pho dish on Instagram, just tag @myktichenco_ .