5.0 Method

This recipe is no longer backwards

5.1 General Prep

1. Defrost your cuts and bones
2. If using bones, roast them to 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 30 minutes (after pre-heating the oven)
3. Defrost your steak or other cut of beef that you will use to cook in the bowl later on

5.2 Seasoning Prep

1. Peel all onions
2. Peel all ginger and wash it. it's ok if your peeling is imprecise (and some peel remains). Cut them into thin quarter inch slices.
3. Rinse the tsaoko cardamom, cilantro seeds, star anise, and cinnamon sticks and drain them to partially dry. Don't leave them dry for too long.

5.3 Seasoning Bake and Roast

1. Dedicate half of your onions to this process. Wrap them in aluminum foil housing (open top) and bake or roast them (on stovetop burner) until yellow.
• Among these onions, cut some cavities into them, without slicing them. I recommend thirds for smaller to larged sized onions, and quarters for extremely large onions. This allows onion-y steam to vent while baking them, but since they're wrapped in aluminum foil they will cook a bit more evenly with this onion-y goodness
• Optional: among half of these onions (so 1/4 total onions) you can slice them into thirds or halves and char/grill them face down like the ginger step below
• Onions are done when they smell nice, or
• They are soft and ooze juice (when additional cuts are made)
• They are charred evenly
• Scrape off the char, if any
2. Put ginger slices onto stovetop or face-down on a baking pan (wrapped in alum. foil)
• Do it until it smells nice. Scrape off charring with a knife.
3. Cilantro seeds are up first: since they are still wet, put them into a hot pan to roast on medium-high to high heat. Slowly turn down the heat once water beads start to boil. Stir them like crazy to avoid burning (about 5 minutes in and monitor closely following this moment)
• They burn easily
• They are finished when they are yellowed and smell nice. One or two may be burnt. They would be dry and crisp like potato chips.
• DO NOT BURN MORE THAN A FEW THIS WOULD GREATLY AFFECT THE FLAVOUR
4. Start a small pot of water, fill it to about 3/5 to 4/5 the cylindrical height (because roasted onions will offset the volume later) and then add the cilantro seeds.
5. The pan is now empty and now add the star anise, tsaoko, and cinnamon sticks into the pan for roasting.
• Roast cinnamon until light charring
• Roast tsaoko until the previously-shriveled spice is blown up and smoothened
• Roast the star anise until is slightly enlarged and slightly charred
6. Take out the tsaoko and smash it with a heavy object until it bursts open
7. Add these remaining spices into the water pot that was just created
8. Add the baked onions and roasted ginger into pot.
9. Begin a low boil (about an hour). Put a lid on top.

5.4 Meat Prep

1. Rub salt on the beef cut (can do bones if desired also) and then wash it off. Note that this is not a proper salt bath.
• OPTIONAL: If a proper salt bath is desired, rub salt onto the beef, at 1 tbsp of kosher or seat salt (do not use table salt) per half kilogram of beef. Place the beef on a rack and refrigerate it uncovered, sitting for about 2 hours. Pat it dry with paper towels.
2. Fill up a second pot with water (ideally an extremely large pot) with 90% of its max capacity minus the seasoning pot capacity
3. Add the uncooked onions to the pot (which will displace the water volume of the pot)
4. Cut the beef into thick 1-inch strips
5. Add the beef (don't forget the bones)
6. Boil on highest possible heat until a froth forms
• A thick froth insitgated by high heat (approx. 20-30 minutes) allows impurities in the meat, such as proteins and blood to coagulate
• Skim the froth with a skimmer, like a sieve
7. Lower heat to low and continue boiling for two hours or until the meat is soft (if you're using a soft cut like brisket, until the fatty bits melt in your mouth
8. While you are waiting for this pot to finish, continue to the next section

5.5 Combining Pots and Seasoning

1. At any point after the frothing exercise, add the initial seasoning, comprised of the following:
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 2 heaping tbsp salt MINIMUM
• 1 cube of rock sugar
• 4 dashes of fish sauce MINIMUM
• Optional: Chicken powder/MSG
• Black pepper, etc.
2. Stir, and then taste by design
3. Also, at any point following the frothing exercise, you can/MUST combine the boiled seasoning pot. However, you must strain the bulky organics out (only retain the liquid). Discard the solids
4. Continue boiling for 1.5h-2h (same step as in previous section)
5. Continue seasoning by design

Bowl and Noodle Prep

The broth is done at this point and now it is time to prepare the bowl and garnishes

1. Get a handful of pho noodles (rice vermicelli), one handful represents a serving. Two handfuls might be sufficient for one person to eat in a large bowl in one sitting
2. In your handful, rinse the raw noodles with cold water to get rid of excess manufacturing starch
3. Boil water
4. Drop in the handful of noodles and continue boiling for 5-8 minutes
5. Strain the boiling water and rinse it again in cold water to get rid of the excess starch
6. Dice finely some cilantro, at least 2 tbsp per bowl, and put it into the bowl
7. Slice a yellow onion into rings (and larger rings are halved) and serve them raw, put them on the side
8. Issue some salt, pepper, chilis, thai basil, sriracha, and hoisin sauce on the side
9. Cut thinly sliced green onion and put that into the bowl
10. Put the noodles into the bowl now that they are relatively dry
11. Serve broth into bowl and fill it up
12. With the remaining, unused, beef cut, slice thinly and place raw trimmings into the bowl and watch it cook in real-time
13. Continue garnishing with side items
14. Enjoy