“What is your favorite thing to cook?”
As a chef, I get this question a lot.
My answer is always the same. I love to cook everything. Whenever I cook a dish from another culture it is as if I am traveling through time and space and teleporting into India, Thailand, China, Colombia, Peru or Mexico.
However, my absolute favorite thing to cook by far is my 36 hour, hyper immune boosting beef and pork spicy Vietnamese Pho. Or as the locals in Vietnam call it, Bún bò Huế or bún bò.
Bún bò Huế is a popular Vietnamese soup, originating in Huế. Huế is located in central Vietnam and their cooking style is associated with the cooking styles of the formal royal court.
If this dish is fit for a king, then it must be fit for all of us who are trying to live long, healthy and prosperous lives!
If anyone has been to a Vietnamese restaurant, you more than likely know what Pho is.
But you must remember, it is pronounced as “PHAAAAAAAH”.
So why is this my favorite dish to make?
I think the real reason is that it is the gift that just keeps on giving. I can make a pot of Pho for $36 and it can feed upwards of 65 people. All you just need to do is continue to add water and the other ingredients to the broth as it continues to feverishly boil.
As I have aged, I have learned to be modest and respect others. Hubris is not an attractive trait and it can often time be the downfall of the protagonist in many legends and stories throughout history.
However, I will go to my grave claiming one thing. I will claim that I make the greatest pho that I have ever tasted. (To be clear, I said …that I have ever tasted). I have traveled the world and have been to pho restaurants in many countries, and on a handful of continents. The best pho I have ever had in my life, other than mine, is from Hanoi House in Manhattan on the corner of 9th st and 1st ave. They serve bones sliced in half with the most decadent bone marrow that is truly out of this world. What makes them seal the deal is that they have this rendered beef that is cooked down with charred scallions that actually changed my life. Eating pho for me is almost a religious experience. It is truly a culinary art form.
Making pho is a labor of love, but with the emphasis on love and not the labor. A half-assed beef pho broth takes 8-10 hours. My pho cooks from anywhere from 36 hours to 60 hours. That’s right, 60 hours!
Pho also happens to be one of the healthier things that I like to eat. I actually opt out of the noodles and choose to have extra bean sprouts, or my favorite, fresh watercress as a replacement! I can have 2-3 bowls of pho in a sitting when I do not use rice noodles. It fills me up! It fills my soul! And it is absolutely delicious and so, so healthy for you!
Why is pho such a healthy treat? It is essentially beef bone broth. What are the benefits of beef bone broth you may ask?
Benefits of Beef Bone Broth:
Bones themselves are extremely nutritious and rich in vitamins and essential nutrients. Beef bones alone have high amounts of calcium, magnesium and phosphorus. But when you add in the healing properties of bone marrow into your stock, or pho, you are literally dumping vitamins into your meal.
Bone Marrow contains:
Iron
Fatty acids
Selenium
Vitamins A, K
Zinc
Maganese
Bones also contain a magical healing food product, collagen. When you heat up and cook collagen, it turns to gelatin (that is why bone marrow almost has a JELL-O texture). This gelatin provides the body with proteins and essential amino acids that are important building blocks for proteins which aids in building muscle.
For those of you who missed the collagen craze while people were dumping collagen in and blending it with their Bulletproof Coffee, collagen is a classified superfood amongst biohackers. Collagen happens to be the most abundant protein in the human body. It is found in your bones, your muscles, skins and tendons.
Fast facts on collagen:
(*from Medical News Today)
“Collagen occurs throughout the body, but especially in the skin, bones, and connective tissues.
Some types of collagen fibrils, gram-for-gram, are stronger than steel.
Collagen production declines with age and exposure to factors such as smoking and UV light.
Collagen can be used in collagen dressings, to attract new skin cells to wound sites.
Cosmetic lotions that claim to increase collagen levels are unlikely to do so, as collagen molecules are too large to be absorbed through the skin.”
Bone broth is known to promote gut health, improve sleep and cognitive function, and aid in weight loss. I can say from personal experience, it does wonders if you are trying to lose weight.
For those of you who do not know my whole story about my weight loss and disordered eating journey, eating pho was the major factor that contributed to me losing close to 120 lbs in less than a year. I gained 100 lbs in college because of a toxic relationship I was in. I was dating a chubby chaser. For those who are not familiar with my story, you can read it here. In short, I got on the beef bone broth trend before it was popular. In 2013, I would eat pho everyday for lunch when I worked with the Wizards. I lost 70 lbs in 4 months. I would order a giant bowl, extra broth, I would add chicken and ask for extra vegetables. I would ask for no noodles. That was my dinner. I would be intermittent fasting before that became popular as well. I would eat at 4:00p everyday. I would take my lunch break and be back in 30 minutes and finish up the workday. I would not have to eat until 4p the next day. I was essentially in the beginning phases of ketosis.
So pho is not just one of my favorite dishes to make, but it also has sentimental value for me. Whenever I make a big pot of pho, I know I am taking myself, my roommates, and my neighbors on a healing journey that will feed us for days!
Pho is not just fun to make, it is also one of the easiest dishes to make, and if you follow my directions, it is VERY hard to screw up!
Here is what you will need in your kitchen before you even have to worry about gathering your ingredients: A BIG SOUP POT. I cannot stress this enough! You will need a giant pot in order to make your pho dreams a reality.
Now, for the Ingredient list:
*Feeds 8, for a few days :)
For Stock:
Note: more bones the better
Scallions (3 bushels)
8 yellow onions
4 stalks of lemon grass
Beef bones, with marrow
2 lbs ribeye
2 lbs pork, or pork belly
2 lbs of bone in oxtail
2 lbs of short ribs
A whole bottle of fish sauce
3 cups of cinnamon sticks
3 cups of star anise
Spicy Peppers
1 whole piece of ginger
A piece of fish or seafood of your choice (*Optional)
As a Garnish, and Noodles:
Rice noodle of your choice (*Optional)
Thai basil
Daikon
Thinly watermelon radish
Fish sauce
Spicy chili oil
Hot chili peppers
Lime
Bean sprouts
Cilantro
Rare beef (thinly sliced ribeye)
Soft boiled egg (1,000 year old spicy pickled egg)
Chili oil
Black vinegar
Chilis
Scallions
Hot peppers
Sesame chili oil
Soy sauce
The ingredients are simple, easy, and almost thoughtless. It takes me less than 10 minutes to get everything at the grocery store.
The steps are almost easier than the ingredients.
Directions:
So you want to get a pot of water boiling. A GIANT pot of water.
Preheat your oven to 500
Peel your ginger with the back of a spoon. Trust me. Thank Nana (Ruth Sidransky)
Get a baking sheet out.
Quarter 5 onions and loosely chop the scallions.
Put onions, scallions, ginger, and lemon grass on the baking sheet along with all of the meat you have.
Place in baking sheet with veggies in oven so you get a nice char on the scallions, onions and meat. (This is to make the broth more rich and it gives the stock a caramelized flavor).
8.) Place the contents of the pan into the boiling pot of water.
9.) Add the star anise and the cinnamon and let the broth continue to boil.
10.) Continue to watch the pot, and continue to add water to the pot to fill it up. Try not to let it spill over, it will be a bigger mess for you to clean up later
11.) Go to sleep and leave on low or turn off.
12.) First thing in the morning turn the stock back on to a raging boil.
14.) Continue to add more water, and add more star anise, cinnamon, onions and scallions.
15.) 20 hours later, serve hot.
16.) Add 1/2 bottle of fish sauce to stock.
16.) Add fish sauce to each individual bowl (about 3 tbsp) upon serving.
Garnish:
1.) Follow instructions for your noodles of choice.
2.) Set a plate up of:
Thai basil
Sliced daikon or watermelon radish
Lime
Sliced jalapeños
Bean sprouts
3.) Make a 1,000 year old egg in a bowl and let sit for 20 minutes
Soft boiled eggs
Cook an egg for 5 minutes and 50 seconds exactly.
Diced scallions
Finely chopped ginger
Fish sauce
Chili sauce
Chili peppers
Chili Peppers
Soy Sauce
Black vinegar
4.) Now you have to make the shaking ginger beef.
Thinly slice ribeye and grate fresh ginger all over it and spank it with the ginger grater.
5.) Place the shaking beef in the pho only if it is PIPING hot, so it can cook the beef before you eat it.
6.) Assemble at will!
Now that you see how easy it is to make pho, I implore you to make it for your family, or neighbors, and for yourself. This is one of the most healing treats you can give yourself and your community. And as I said, if you continue to add more water to the stock, you can let the pho feed your family for a week! My pho works for me and my roommates for up to 60 hours.
Food is medicine.
Now feed your family, nourish your community, and heal your loved ones with this amazing gift of PHAAAAH!
ENJOY and please take pictures and tag Chef Misha (me) on Instagram at @thehealthwarriorproject
Here is a video of me making, and prepping Pho for my community and my Omies.