Happy Birthday Taka!
January 2009 Archives
This seems like a good post for a -20 degree day. The car refused to start up this morning so I had to take the 15 minute walk to the bus stop. I had 5 layers on so I didn't get cold until I got off the bus three blocks from work, and that is only because the wind had picked up.
My recipe is adapted from the recipe that I found on Steamy Kitchen.
Broth Ingredients
1) 1 large onion cut in half
2) 4" of fresh ginger root cut in half lengthwise
3) 1 32oz. box of beef broth
4) 5 quarts of water.
5) Penzey's Beef soup base ½ - ¾ tsp. per cup of water (I used about 10-12 tsp total).
6) 1 cinnamon stick, 1 tbsp. coriander seeds, 1 tbsp. fennel seeds, 1 tsp. anise seeds, 1 cardamom pod, and 6 whole cloves - this was all tied into a square of cheesecloth to put into the stock pot.
7) 1 ½ tbsp Kosher salt
8) ¼ cup Fish sauce
9) 2 tbsp of sugar.
Bowl Fixings
1) Dried Rice noodles cooked in boiling water until tender, then rinsed with cold water to stop cooking. I used the medium sized ones (the different brands at United Noodles near Campus had S-small, M-medium, and L-large sized noodles).
2) Eye of Round steak sliced very thin. (Put in freezer and partially freeze to aid in slicing).
3) Basil, chopped
4) Cilantro, chopped
5) Jalapeno pepper, thinly sliced
6) Bean sprouts, washed
7) Onion, sliced very thin
8) Lime wedges
9) Hoisin sauce
10) Sriracha sauce (hot chili sauce)
Directions
- Put olive oil on the cut sides of the ginger and onion, place in oven and broil until golden brown, flipping occasionally, about 10 minutes.
- Meanwhile get the 5 quarts of water heating in a stock pot. Add the Penzey's Beef soup base once the water is heated, but before boiling.
- After the Beef base is added, add the beef broth.
- Once the ginger and onion is done then throw them along with items 6-9 from the broth list above into the stock pot, cover and simmer for 1 ½ hours.
- Stain broth to remove seasoning ingredients. Return some or all of the broth to a boil.
- Place Bowl fixings onto a platter.
- At this time each person can place their desired bowl fixing into their bowl.
- Finish by ladling boiling both over bowl fixings, this will cook the meat and other ingredients.
- Enjoy!
I opted to try making this from broth base and beef broth instead of using beef bones. The process would have definitely been longer if I had made it totally from scratch. I think that it turned out better then I thought it would. The Penzey's Beef base is very beefy, so the beef flavor was a bit strong. I would use less next time. The broth was also darker then I remember it being from the few times that I have gotten it from a Vietnamese restaurant near work. The spices though I thought were really close to how I remembered them. One of these days I will make it entirely from scratch to see how the bones make a difference.
Here is the soup right after I added the hot broth. You can see how the meat changed color. Almost there.
Here is my bowl ready for the broth. One of the things that I love is how the raw meat is cooked when you pour in the boiling broth.
Here is the broth boiling right before we put it in the bowls. The broth is darker than what I have had at Bona restaurant on the Minneapolis Campus.
Here is the thinly sliced beef, the bean sprouts, and the rice noodles.
On the plate is basil, onion, cilantro, jalapeno pepper, and lime. The red sauce is chili sauce and the brown sauce is Hoisin sauce.
Here are the ingredients for pho. I have to admit I keep drooling when I see the photos.
Today I am making Pho for the first time. I am pretty excited about it. I will take some photos and post them later. Yum, yum pho.
Part of this weekend is going to be spent trying to finish going through my photos, a process that I started a while ago but have yet to finish. Quickly glancing through the files I have decided that I have way too many photos, but yet I feel like I haven't taken enough. Go figure.
Yesterday Konrad came over and gave Taka a hand putting up the main furnace duct for our new furnace. It looks really good. They got a lot done. Taka was glad for the help and company as well. He said that if Konrad hadn't kicked him in the butt then they wouldn't have gotten as much done. Even with that done we still have a ways to go to get the new furnace fully functioning. One step done though.
The last few days have been spent repotting all of my house plants. Some of them were in desperate need of it. I really should have repotted them this fall, but other stuff got in the way. Many of them look much better now that they have been repotted. I have to say that it was a bit cold working in the basement, but now I am done and they should be good until next fall, depending on how much some of them grow this summer.
Here it is all finished and stirred to incorporate the sweetened condensed milk. The other great thing about this coffee is during the summer it is perhaps even more delicious served as an iced coffee. Oh so yummy!
This has become my favorite way to have coffee. Vietnamese style. It is not only fun to make, it is very tasty. Yum, yum, yum.
Close-up of the coffee along with the layer of sweetened condensed milk at the bottom of the glass.
Last night Taka and I met our new neighbor. His name is Travis. Single and working professional. Pretty much like Carl on the other side. He will be moving in over the next few weeks. Seemed like a nice enough guy. I am glad that there is no longer an empty house next to us.
This weekend we finally got to see Konrad and Deena. They came over for drinks. We hadn't seen them in awhile. It was good to have them over. Taka and I don't seem to see anyone anymore. I guess that everyone is just so busy. I know that people don't like to go out as much during the winter, but I still can't help but miss everyone. I have boxes of chocolates but don't know when I am ever going to see anyone to give them out. Normally I do it at New Year's, but this year was a quiet night at home. Maybe I will send out an email and have people meet up with me if they want their chocolates. I will figure it out.
Here is the video I shot of the goalie for my niece's hockey team.
