Vietnamese Pho

I've made pho before, but it was with powdered pho broth and it wasn't very good at all. Then, I discovered a recipe from Cook's Magazine that cut down the cooking time to about an hour, and was delicious to boot. I did, however, have to pass it by my friend Michelle (author of the Mommy Misadventures blog) and The Hubs (tm), her Vietnamese husband.

Michelle loves to cook as much as I do, but when she saw the recipe, she winced. I could almost see it through the Facebook post.  "I gotta call BS on the fundamentals. I'm glad that it tasted good for you guys but I'm sorry, that makes my head spin on the the broth," she told me. "I can see that it's a shortcut recipe but OMG the cook in me is hopping up down saying, 'But, but, but that's not how you do it!' It'd be like making pecan pie with Log Cabin Syrup." She was right--I couldn't argue. The Hubs (tm), being a short-and-to-the-point kind of man, noted that since pho was the national dish of his home country, he was a little sensitive to how Western cooks "seem to love butchering ethnic dishes." Again, no argument from me (collard green eggrolls? Vegan soul food? I'm not too sure about that either...).

But being the generous person that Michelle is, she didn't leave me in the lurch. I was given a from scratch pho recipe to try. Her version makes about four quarts of stock. Both recipes call for meat to be boiled with the broth to give it that delicious meaty taste, but the only meat I had was the stuff I was saving for the pho itself. Not to be outdone, I grabbed my jar of Better Than Bouillon beef stock. As for the rest of the ingredients, you can find them at a specialty store or at a local Asian store. If you're really stuck, do what I did and do a Google search for them.

 I will say that this recipe will take about four to six hours to make, but It. Is. Worth. It. If you start it on a Saturday morning, like I did, you'll be able to set it and forget it, and take care of other stuff. Like laundry. And oven cleaning. And getting melted chunks of plastic off your cooking rack (don't ask).

2 lbs beef bones (you can probably get them from a good butcher, or even at your local Asian store)
1 lb brisket, cut into chunks (or 5-6 teaspoons of Better Than Bouillon beef stock)
1 onion, halved
1 4 inch piece of ginger, peeled
1 cinnamon stick
2 tablespoons yellow rock sugar (or one large piece of yellow rock candy, or two tablespoons of regular sugar)
6 star anise pods
6 whole cloves
Salt (skip if you used the beef stock)
1 teaspoon black peppercorns

Toppings:
1 package thinly sliced beef chuck (or another pound of brisket--see directions below)
1 package dried rice noodles
1/3 cup cilantro (optional)
Lime wedges
Onion slices
Hoisin sauce
Sriracha sauce

Bake the beef bones at about 425 for an hour until browned and charred. 

If you're using the brisket chunks for the broth, add a little oil to a non stick skillet and brown them well on all sides. Set them aside, leaving the stovetop on, and wash and dry the skillet. Cut the onion in half and char the onion and ginger on the stovetop (if it's electric, you'll want to cover your coils with a piece of foil). In the meantime, if you're using the brisket as a topping, place it in the freezer for about half an hour. Pull it out of the freezer and slice it as thinly as possible with a sharp knife, then place the slices on a plate and put them in the refrigerator to stay cold. 

Put the skillet back on the stovetop and toast the spices quickly until fragrant. 

Put the brisket chunks (or the Better Than Bouillon) into your crock pot or large pot and cover with water, roughly four quarts (filtered, if possible). Cover the crock pot and set it on high (or turn your pot on high till it starts to boil, then turn it down to low). Remove the meat after about 4 hours, if using; let the bones and spices continue to simmer up to another 2 hours for maximum flavor. Feel free to add more water if needed. 

Strain out the solids and discard, eexcept for the meat! Save that for the pho. If necessary, season the broth to taste with more salt, fish sauce  and sugar.

To serve as pho, follow the directions on the rice noodles to cook them. Put them into a bowl and add boiling hot broth to cover. Add a few slices of brisket, cilantro, lime, onion, and hoisin and sriracha sauce. Enjoy!

Pot Roast With Vegetables

My mom gifted me with a pot roast a few weeks ago, and I finally got around to cooking it. It wasn't as hard as I thought.


Pot Roast with Vegetables


1 2lb pot roast

1/2 cup water

1 squash, cut into sticks

2 zucchini, cut into sticks

1/2 cup olive oil

1/4 cup garlic powder

1/4 cup onion powder

Salt and pepper to taste


Combine spices in a separate container. Season the pot roast with 1/2 of the spice mix. Brown on both sides in an ovenproof pan and add water. Cover roast and place in oven at 350 for an hour. When 30 minutes are left, season vegetables with the rest of the spice mix and add the oil. Toss well. Place next to pot roast in oven and bake for 30 minutes as well. Serves 4-5, perhaps with leftovers.

Shrimp with Garlic Pasta and Sausage

So yesterday, my fiance was kind enough to cook dinner, since I was too exhausted to be bothered. Probably better for both of our health anyway. He made this dish, which was surprisingly good. I just wish he hadn't used the shrimp I was saving for his birthday, which was today...


Shrimp with Garlic Pasta and Sausage


4 cloves garlic

1/2 box pasta

1 package raw shrimp

2 sausage links

1 teaspoon lemon zest

Salt and pepper to taste


Boil the shrimp thoroughly until well cooked.Drain the cooking water, then rinse them off (this step is for people who are allergic to shrimp's high iodine content). Shell the shrimp and set them aside.


Either pan fry or microwave the sausage till done (tastes better pan fried). Slice into small rounds and set those aside.


Follow the package instructions for the pasta and cook till al dente.


While the pasta is cooking, zest one lemon and juice it. Mince four cloves of garlic. When the pasta is done, drain it and mix it with the rest of the ingredients. Serve warm. Serves one hungry writer and her considerate mate.

Boeuf Bourguignon

decided to tackle a Julia classic, just to see if I could--Boeuf Bourguignon. Sounds super fancy, doesn't it? Truth is, it's just beef stew. And just like the American version, there are a BUNCH of different ways to make it. In fact, Julia's co author, who was born and raised in France, had a problem with this recipe originally. Julia simply reminded her that she wanted to make it accessible to Americans. And that was pretty much that.


There are at least three different components to this recipe that you have to cook separately in order to make this dish the way it's written, so I'll just give you a link to it:


http://cooking.knopfdoubleday.com/2009/07/13/julia-childs-boeuf-bourguignon-recipe/


It even has PDFs for easy access. One word of advice: READ THE RECIPE ALL THE WAY THROUGH BEFORE YOU START. If you don't, you will kick yourself when you get to the meat browning section--and realize you should have sauteed the mushrooms first.


Another warning: This recipe took me about three hours from start to finish, and I did pretty much everything as efficiently as possible. You can make it over two days, or you can start it early in the afternoon.

Fried Chicken and Acorn Squash

I cane home exhausted today and too tired to do any major dishes. Then I realized I had a chicken defrosting in the refrigerator, so I decided to do a repeat of the fried chicken I'd done at my friend's house. It turned out OK, but this time, one piece was undercooked. Well, at least it was only the one. It was quickly remedied with a 2 minute visit to the microwave.


Fried Chicken

1 whole chicken, cut into pieces (remove bones from breast meat)

1-2 inches hot oil

Salt and pepper to taste


Pour the oil into (ideally) a cast iron pan, then heat until oil is suitably hot. (A drop of water should crackle in it.) Meanwhile, season the chicken. Once oil is hot, place chicken in pan, drumsticks facing toward the center and thighs right next to them. If there is room, breast pieces should be on the outside. Fry chicken for up to ten minutes on each side. Remove and drain. Serves three to four, depending on the number of pieces per person.


I am a firm believer that a cook should know how to use a slow cooker and a microwave with equal skill. And yes, I can do both. When I looked at my original acorn squash recipe and realized it took an hour and a half to cook, I decided I needed to microwave it instead. All the goodness, very little of the waiting.


Microwave Acorn Squash


1 acorn squash, split in half, seeds removed

3 heaping teaspoons brown sugar

1-2 tablespoons butter, cut into small pieces

1/2 cup water


Spread a few chunks of butter around the cut edges of the squash halves, then mix the rest with the brown sugar and put into the hollows of each half. Place halves in a microwave safe container, add water, cover, and microwave for 8-10 minutes or until fork tender. Let cool slightly and serve. Serves two.