Nourishing Beef Pho

Using Carol's Beef Bone Broth takes all the time out of preparing this delicious, but still nutritious, Beef Pho dish.

Ingredients
1l Beef Bone Broth
2 small Onions, peeled & quartered
Thumb-size piece Fresh Ginger, thickly sliced
2 cloves garlic, lightly bruised
2 tsp Chinese 5 Spice
2 Cinnamon Sticks
1 ½ Tbsp Soy Sauce
1 Tbsp Fish Sauce
200g Rice Noodles
2 Sirloin Steaks
2 Medium Soft Boiled Eggs
2 Spring Onions, sliced
1 Red Chilli, sliced
2 stems Fresh Thai Basil (or regular Basil)

Serves
2

Method
Heat a large pot over medium high heat then drizzle very lightly with rapeseed oil, or similar. Add onion, ginger and garlic and cook for 4-5 minutes to get a bit of colour on the ingredients. Stir occasionally to avoid burning.

Meanwhile, toast Chinese 5 spice and cinnamon sticks in a small dry pan over medium high heat. Shake the pan from time to time to agitate the spices so they don’t burn.

Add the toasted spices to the large pot with the onion, ginger and garlic, then pour in beef bone broth. Bring to a boil then lower heat to medium low and leave to simmer for about 10 minutes.

Pho is traditionally served with thinly sliced raw beef which is cooked from the heat of the broth, but if you prefer, sear the steak until medium rare to medium, then slice thinly. If serving with raw sirloin, use a sharp knife to thinly slice the steaks. Tip: for easier slicing, wrap the steaks tightly in clingfilm then freeze for about an hour to firm up. Remove clingfilm and then slice.

Just as the broth is done simmering, cook the rice noodles according to the package instructions. Drain and set aside.

Place a fine mesh sieve over a large bowl then pass broth through the sieve, discard the ingredients left in the sieve. Season remaining broth with soy and fish sauce.