Crock Pot Pho

recipe and photo here

Erik taught us about pho, after learning about it from serving among the Hmong people in Central California. Pronounced "fuh", I also learned to love this Vietnamese Beef Noodle Soup especially on those wet and cold days here in the Northwest. Last year I went with a local Hmong lady (who helped teach Erik the language in Merced), to some Asian markets to find the ingredients. She taught us how to make it along the way. Did I write it down? no, silly me. Have I made it? yes, winged it! Ian said it wanted to have it again, so I'm checking out this recipe online. I'll try to mesh it with what I remember and hopefully enjoy it after work tomorrow, if I can get the prep work done today!

Crock Pot Pho

This is a recipe for a 6.5 quart (or larger) Crock Pot. Any smaller really isn't that great - you won't get enough stock out of it...because the beef bones are really chunky and big. The thinly sliced meat for the bowls may be easier to slice if you freeze the chunk of meat for 15 minutes prior to slicing. You really want them as thin a possible. You can also do what I do - palm your butcher a $5 bill and he'll slice the meat for you on his fancy slicing machine.
[notes from author at Steamy Kitchen. It's a pretty funny read!] 
Servings: 4

For the Pho Stock:
4 pounds beef bones*
1/2 onion
4 inch section of ginger, sliced
1 package Vietnamese Pho Spices (or as many of these spices as you have: 2 cinnamon sticks, 2 t. whole coriander, 1 t. fennel, 3 whole star anise, 3 whole cloves, 1 cardamom pod) *
9 c. water
2 1/2 T. fish sauce or to taste
1 t. sugar

For the Pho Bowls:
16 oz. fresh or dried rice noodles
1/2 lb. flank, london broil, sirloin or eye of round steak, sliced as thinly as possible.*
11 oz. Vietnamese beef balls, cut into half*

For the table:
1-2 limes, cut into wedges
fresh herbs: cilantro, Thai basil, mint
2-3 chili peppers, sliced
2 big handfuls of bean sprouts
Hoisin sauce
Sriracha hot chili sauce

1. Bring a large stockpot with water to boil over high heat. When it comes to a rolling boil, add the beef bones and boil vigourously for 10 minutes.

2. In the meantime, heat a frying pan on medium-low heat. Add the Vietnamese Pho Spices and toast until fragrant, about 2-3 minutes. Dump the spices to the empty Crock Pot or slow cooker immediately. Return frying pan to medium-high heat and add 1 tablespoon of oil. When the oil is hot, add the ginger slices and the onion half. Cook until the ginger is browned on both sides and the onion half is nicely browned and softened. Add the ginger and the onion to the Crock Pot or slow cooker.

3. When the bones have been pre-boiled, drain, discard water and rinse bones briefly to clean them. Add the bones to the Crock Pot or slow cooker. Fill the Crock Pot with fresh, clean, cool water to just 1-1/2 inches below surface, add the fish sauce and sugar. Cover and set the Crock Pot or slow cooker to cook on low for 8 hours. Taste and season with additional fish sauce if needed.

4. When you are just about ready to eat, you'll prep the rest of the ingredients for the Pho bowls. Bring a pot of water to a boil. Add the beef balls and cook until heated through, about 2 minutes. Remove the balls, keeping the water boiling and now cook the noodles according to package instructions. If you are using fresh noodles, all they need is a couple of minutes. Drain immediately.

5. Strain the stock with a fine meshed sieve. Discard the solids.

6. Line up 4 large bowls on counter. Distribute the noodles, beef balls and thin steak slices evenly amongst the bowls. Ladle the hot Pho stock into each bowl. The hot stock should cook the thin steak slices. Serve with lime wedges, fresh herbs, chili peppers, Hoisin sauce and Sriracha hot chili sauce at the table.

These were the broth ingredient packages Yia said to get.
The orange has ground spices in a little bag (two per box).

* Dee notes: 

1-When shopping for bones, this was the part that took the longest.
We went to three markets. Yia (the Hmong friend),
just kept shaking her head and saying no.
She finally settled with some beef neck bones,
but I don't think they were exactly what she wanted.
Lost in translation I expect.  We did buy flank steak.

2-When I made this last, the final tasting broth wasn't
as tasty asI remember from all the times I've had it.
I did by the spice packets at the Asian market that Yia recommended,
 but maybe the instructions in the recipe online about toasting the actually spices—which I didn't do—would make the difference.

3-I don't care for the meatballs.

4-After trying this recipe, we were underwhelmed. The broth is not as tasty as it is in the restaurant. Maybe roasting the spices instead of using the orange boxed spice packet would help a little, but it's just not beefy tasting enough. Maybe a lot more beef bones than I used (just a couple smallish ones), and cooking it for longer. Also, the flank was tough, I had boiled it in the water for the noodles, as it was a bit thicker than I expected would go from raw to cooked enough with the pho broth in our bowls. I think the only answer may be regularly going out to get pho. There is a Thai cafe going into the shopping corner closest to our house, and pho is on their menu. It was supposed to open in September. My friends and I have been waiting impatiently. Walking for Thai. MMMmmm!