Pho was one of my favourite meals while we were in Vietnam. I ate it every day and couldn’t get enough of it. Even when it was 40+ degrees outside.

I tried making my own pho a couple of years back and the end result was a watery, flavourless broth. Luckily, this one turned out well and had loads of flavour. The pressure cooker made this a speedy process too.

You can also do this in a soup/stock pot and just adjust the time so that it sits for a few hours.

This makes a large amount of broth. I froze some of it in batches and then it can just be pulled out of the freezer, heated up with some noodles and herbs and you have yourself a lovely bowl of pho!

Ingredients 

Serves 8

Broth

• 4 star anise
• 8 whole cloves
• 1 tbsp coriander seeds
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 cardamon pod
• 2 onions – chopped in half.
• 3″ piece of ginger – chopped in half. Don’t peel.
• 1.5 kg beef bones
• 500g beef brisket
• 2 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp sugar

To serve

• 500g good quality meat, thinly sliced and or beef balls (you can find these at an Asian supermarket)
• 1 packet rice noodles
• 1/4 cup fish sauce
• chopped coriander
• spring onion
• 1 fresh lemon, quartered
• thinly sliced brown onion
• sriracha
• hoisin
• mung beans

Method

1. Place all of your bones in the pressure cooker and cover with water. Bring to a boil and then drain the water and fill the pot with 4 litres of water. (The purpose of this is to remove all of the scum that you get when you first boil the bones – you want your pho to be really clear).
2. Heat a pan to medium and add a little olive oil. Lightly roast all of the spices. Add to the pressure cooker.
3. Char your onion and ginger over a naked flame until nice and brown. Add to the pressure cooker.
4. Add salt and sugar to the cooker and then close the lid and turn on.
5. Once the pot has full pressure start the timer for 60 minutes.
6. At the end of the 60 minutes turn off the heat and let your pressure cooker release naturally.
7. Remove the brisket from the broth and set aside. You can either use this in your pho or use the shredded meat for another dish.
8. Refrigerate the pho overnight. This allows the fat to congeal so that you can scoop it out the next day (or a few hours later). Once you’ve removed the excess fat your broth is ready.
9. Add fish sauce to the broth.
10. Heat your broth and serve over bowls of rice noodles and rare beef then garnish with spring onion, onion, coriander and mung beans. Add sriracha and hoisin to your dish as per your own tastes and serve with a wedge of lemon.

Pressure cookers have the potential to be dangerous so make sure you read the instructions before using.