Daring Cooks do Pho

The October 2009 Daring Cooks’ challenge was brought to us by Jaden of the blog Steamy Kitchen. The recipes are from her new cookbook, The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook. We were delighted to learn that this month’s challenge was pho (even though we’ve been pronouncing it wrong all these years, turns out its 'fuh'. who knew?).

We made the Pho Ga essentially as described by Jaden.  A few suggestions – the recipe does not explicitly call for toasting the spices, so you’ll have to remember to do that before adding them to the broth. Also, if you put the spices in a sachet it’ll make it a lot easier to skim the broth – as we found out the hard way…

The broth was fantastic – fragrant and delicious without being overpowering - and the final assembled dish was very satisfying. In our customary pushing it just a little too far tradition, we also made some mini Imperial rolls to go with our chicken. (yum!!)  The Monkey even eschewed the Sriracha, which he usually adds liberally to his pho in restaurants!

Here are the flavorings, ready to go into the broth, and the broth being cooked:

Mise-en-place for the Imperial rolls, and the finished product:

Noodles, chicken and accompaniments, awaiting broth:

The finished dish:

Fried dessert wontons, a bonus challenge, to follow in a separate post…