Vietnamese Pho and Nong Hiang

I tried making Vietnamese Beef Pho yesterday. I did try it once and it was a failure, didn´t even eat it. But I figured that since I have all the ingredients required for this dish, I should somehow try it again. Thanks to the encouragement from Gerline, who herself tried out this recipe and sent it to me, I embarked on the tedious process to prepare the soup base from scratch again.

This time, I thought that it would turn out to be a failure again, cos the smell just didn´t seem to come out and the taste of the soup base was somehow not-here-not-there (in singlish). Only until I added the spring onions, chilli and lime, did the smell and taste come out. By this time though, the soup base was a bit spicy, cos I added quite a bit of pepper in my bid to save my soup. Stephan was spared naturally, cos I only experimented with the soup after removing his portion of the noodles.

I was so happy that I couldn´t believe it! After 3 hrs of cooking and not having the smell, I was beginning to give up hope already.... The next time I will want to try it out with coriander and mint leaves too, to see if it makes a difference. Oh, I will add more meat too, cos the beef kinna shrank after cooking and there was so much fats....

The best part is that Stephan really liked it! He said that it smelled so much like Singapore, albeit like the beef brisket that he ate from hawker centres. I was so happy, cos its always nice to be able to cook food that taste of home and which also appeals to the tastebuds of my beloved hubby.... Oh, its also our second year wedding anniversary today. So happy! Will blog about it with photos later......

The soup in the pot, looks quite authentic right?

My home-made Vietnamese beef Pho

All that marinating was so worth it!

Only drawback, the beancurd skin was so hard to control!

My yummilicious Nong Hiang! It tastes just like how my mom used to cook it!