Recipe - A Long Awaited Oxtail Pho
I have been waiting for a weekend that is silent, at a loose end, mundane and deliciously lonely to make this pho for myself...
I’ve been waiting for the perfect conditions to create this recipe. I have been waiting for a quiet weekend, ideally in early-Autumn (like now), when it is still sunny but something in the air feels… crispy. I have been waiting for a weekend that is full of nothing — no social engagements, no weddings, no parties, so that all I am tasked with doing is changing the bedsheets and watering the plants. I have been waiting for a weekend when all my housemates are at work (they all work in hospitality, at all hours of all days, except for me, who hasn’t really been working very much lately), so the house is still and I have no one to talk to except for the dog who won’t talk back.
Finally, this weekend came and left. Silent, at a loose end, mundane, deliciously lonely. So I have been in the kitchen, cooking up a long-awaited small storm.
In Episode 17, my guest Sophia Luu, who has Vietnamese heritage, spoke about the joy of taking her time to make herself oxtail pho, on which she would feast for days. Making food for one doesn’t have to mean being stingy with your portion sizes. Bulk cooking and freezing food for later, or making yourself lots of food for the week can also be a form of self care. This is my version of Sophia’s recipe, made in my own time, at my own pace, on my own and for myself (possibly I will share this pho with my partner and my housemates, but probably I won’t). Here you are:
Time: All day
Makes: I’d say roughy 6 bowls of soup. You can freeze some of it and the rest keeps in the fridge for 3-4 days.
Plant based options: A tricky one to achieve as the main ingredient is oxtail, but I have given options to make a mushroom version of this pho. You won’t need as long to make the veggie version.
Faff Level: The highest form of faff, just because it takes so long to make.
Ingredients:
For the broth:
1 kg oxtail (if you’re making this veggie, obviously leave this part out and add extra mushrooms)
7 l water
3 shallots, halved
2 thumb-lengths of roughly chopped ginger
Punnet of shiitake mushrooms (or try and find a seasonal assortment of mushrooms)
LOTS of fish sauce, I used about 5 tbsp
If you can get your hands on it, dashi powder, also 5 tbsp
Salt to taste
Spice bags (see below)
For the spice bags (which flavours the broth). Squash all of these, fry them dry in a pan until slightly browned and aromatic and put all, except for the cinnamon sticks, into 2 x tea strainers, or tie into two little bundles of cheese cloth/muslin:
3 cinnamon stick
8 whole cloves
9 star anise
9 cardamom pods
1 tsp coriander seeds
1 tsp fennel seeds
1 tsp peppercorns
Accompaniments:
Pho noodles or vermicilli noodles or packet noodles… or whatever really, I used pad thai noodles.
Bean sprouts
Thai Basil leaves
Lime wedges
Chopped spring onions
Chopped chilli or chilli crisp oil
Extra mushrooms or tofu if veggie/vegan.
Directions:
1. Seal the oxtail meat in a frying pan until browned on the outside. Do the same with the shallots, mushrooms and ginger, in a separate plan until quite browned.
2. Add oxtail to a large, deep pan and add in the water. Bring to the boil. You will see a lot of fat/scum float the the surface. Throughout the stewing process, keep scraping this off the top with a sieve so that the soup remains clear.
3. Once the water has boiled and the scum has been removed, add in onions, mushrooms, ginger and spices. Boil for a couple minutes more, then turn heat down to simmer.
3. Simmer for at least 5 hours, overnight is better. Make sure there is enough water in the pot at all times and that you keep scraping off any fat/scum. If you are making a veggie version with mushroom, you will only need 4 hours of simmering, then your pho is done.
4. Once the pho is ready, add in dashi powder and fish sauce. You can also add in salt and more pepper to taste.
5. Leave pho to cool. Strain through a collinder/sieve into an empty pot, taking out all the gubbins (spices, oxtail, mushrooms etc etc) so that you are left with a clear soup. I personally leave the very soft, flakey oxtail in because I like the texture, but at this point much of the flavour of the meat will be in the soup so many prefer to take it out.
7. In a separate pan of water, cook the noodles.
8. Serve and add accompaniments like bean sprouts, herbs, spices and condiments.