Quick and EASY Pho

When we lived in Portland we fell in love with all the Pho and Ramen places; I never really thought I could make it at home and have it taste the same way, but I gave it a shot and it's awesome! Honestly, we wouldn't pay to eat Pho out anywhere else. I was surprised at how affordable it was to make and there's really not much leftover, which eliminates the waste. This isn't traditional Pho, which takes hours to make, but it's a great quick alternative with the same great taste.

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Servings: 4 bowls

Important: Special items you'll need:

--cheesecloth and butcher's twine for herb satchel

For the Pho Stock:

--2 TBSP beef bouillon +water to mix with

--1 TBSP fish sauce

--1 TBSP sugar

--one piece of ginger (approx 2") peeled and sliced into thin strips

--1/2 yellow onion, large diced

--pinch of salt

--herb satchel: 2 whole cloves, 2 whole star anise, 1 cinnamon stick

For Pho Assembly:

--1/2 lb thin rice stick noodles, rinsed (found in Asian aisle)

--1/2 lb THINLY sliced beef loin

--1 cup Thai basil (if you can't find Thai basil, you can use regular. I've had to)

--1 cup bean sprouts

--1/2 cup cilantro, chopped

--1/2 yellow onion, sliced paper thin

--2 jalapenos, finely diced (if you like a lot of spice you can add more jalapenos)

--1 bunch green onion, sliced thin

--1 lime, cut into wedges

--Hoisin sauce (found in Asian aisle)

--Sriracha, optional

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1. For your Pho broth: Add the beef bouillon and 1 qt of water to a 3 qt saucepan and bring to a low boil. Add the fish sauce, sugar, ginger, large diced onion and salt to the stock and lower heat to simmer. "Build" your herb satchel and add to the broth, simmer for at least 30 minutes, but no more than 45 minutes or the herbs will begin to break down and leave the cheesecloth.

2. After 30 minutes of simmering, taste the broth and make sure it's flavorful. Adjust salt if necessary and cook a few minutes longer if you don't feel the flavors have built yet.

3. Strain the aromatics (ginger, onion) and herb satchel from the broth, return broth to sauce pot and reserve for assembly.

4. If your beef is very thinly sliced you don't need to cook it; the heat from the broth will cook it. However, if you're someone that doesn't like rare-medium rare meat then you can cook your beef however you wish to. Just be sure you don't have large chunks of beef, that takes away from the broth; which is what the star is.

5. For the assembly: Bring broth back to a simmer. Bring a separate pot of water to a boil and quickly dip the rice noodles into the water until they are al denter, 10-20 seconds! This is important, overcooked noodles will be like glue. Strain the noodles of any excess water and separate into 4 deep bowls.

6. Each bowl can be assembled according to preference; ideally you would top the noodles with beeef, basil, bean sprouts, cilantro, jalapeno, green onion and onion; then ladle in enough broth to cover the ingredients. Garnish with lime wedge, Hoisin sauce and Sriracha, if preferred.

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