Ever since I visited South East Asia on my after uni gap year (nearly 8 years ago – god I am getting old), I have been looking for a good pho recipe. Finally, I have found one in this Waitrose dish.
Ingredients – serves 2
- Bunch of salad onions, sliced
- Small piece of root ginger, peeled and chopped
- 2 whole star anise
- 1 lemongrass stalk, finely chopped
- 750ml beef stock
- 100g rice noodles
- 200g lean beef rump steak
- 150g beansprouts
- 1 pak choi
- ½ tbsp Thai fish sauce
- ½ tsp light muscovado sugar
- Juice of lime, plus wedges to serve
- ½ red chilli, seeded and sliced
- Coriander leaves, to garnish
Method – takes approx 30 minutes
- Set aside some green salad onion slices to garnish and place the remainder in a large saucepan with the ginger, star anise, lemongrass and stock. Simmer for 10 minutes.
- In the meantime, place the noodles in a heatproof bowl, cover with boiling water and cover the bowl with clingfilm, leave to soak for 10 minutes or until tender.
- Heat a frying pan until very hot and cook the steak for 2 minutes on each side until nicely browned but pink the centre. Transfer to a plate and leave to rest for few minutes.
- Place the beansprouts and pan choi in a large saucepan and pour or strain over the hot stock. Bring to a simmer, add the fish sauce, sugar and lime juice to taste.
- Drain the noodles and divide between bowls. Ladle over the broth and vegetables then thinly slice the steak and place on top. Scatter with reserved salad onions, chilli and coriander leaves and serve with lime wedges on this side.
