Vietnamese Beef Pho

When a friend, who lived in Vietnam for a while, said she was making a Beef Pho I thought this was something I had to try for myself particulary as I had a little rare beef left from a roast.  She texted me a couple of photos of recipes from two recipe books and I muddled through from there.

A lot of 'proper' Vietnamese recipes instruct you to roast beef bones and make your own stock.  Don't bother!  I came across beef bones by chance (I buy chicken carcasses weekly to make stock for Watercress Soup that I sell to a local farm shop) but it was a long, steamy, and ultimately greasy task.  And I think I'll stick to organic beef stock cubes in future.

Serves 2

200ml wide rice noodles
500ml beef stock
1 star anise
3cm root ginger, shredded

3 bunches bok choy, shredded (I used equivalent amount of sugar snap peas, baby corn, spring onions)
Thinly sliced red onion
Handful thinly sliced raw or rare beef
Half a large bunch of coriander
2 tbsp chopped mint or 1 tbsp dried mint
1/2 tsp hot chilli flakes

Fish sauce and lime or lemon juice to serve

Prepare the vegetables, onion, beef, coriander and mint first.  Bring the stock to the boil and add the start anise and ginger and simmer whilst cooking the noodles according to the packet's instructions.

When the noodles are cooked, drain and divide between two large bowls.  Quickly divide all the other ingredients and place vegetables, onion, beef, and herbs into the two bowls and pour over the simmering stock.  Add fish sauce, a squeeze of lime or lemon juice, and chilli flakes before eating immediately.

 Twitter: Leesa@sunhillcurry