After every holiday where we eat turkey – there is one tradition that happens a couple of days after the big meal —> making turkey pho!
Rather than making your standard turkey broth, we make a pho-style broth. Now I’m pretty sure that there are people who would argue that turkey pho isn’t real pho – but oh well! It is pretty easy to make, but takes a long time. Most of the ingredients can be found at a standard grocery store.
How we made Turkey Pho
Ingredients:
Turkey Bones
Daikon radish
Onions
Ginger
Salt – to your own taste. I put a few shakes in
Sugar – about 2-3 tablespoons
Pepper – to taste
Pho Spices (coriander, star anise, cardamon, cloves, cinnamon fennel) – try and find the spice pack! – if you don’t use the spice pack you need to put the spices in a mesh bag
Fish Sauce – 1/4 cup
Lime
Cilantro
Thai Basil (Thai basil NOT REGULAR BASIL)
Sriracha Sauce
Hoisin Sauce
Bean Sprouts
Method
Broth
1. Eat Turkey – keep all the bones
2. In a large soup pot (ours was bought especially for turkey pho, hehe) put the bones in and cover with water.
3. In the meantime, peel some ginger and then cut it length-wise. Also, cut some onions in half. In a pan, roast the ginger and onion until they are slightly charred. If you have a gas stove – great! Just char over the flame! When done, put in the pot
4. Make your spice bag – I use a special ‘pho pack’ of spices that can be found at T&T Supermarkets. I am certain you can find this pack at any Asian supermarket
5. Peel some daikon radish (lobok works too) and cut into large pieces – put in the pot
6. Add your fish sauce, sugar and salt to your tastes. Keep in mind that ‘real pho’ has tons of salt and sugar in it.
7. Bring to a boil. Then simmer. Broth should simmer un-covered for at least 5 hours.
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When you are ready to serve your pho you should do the following:
1. Boil Water and make your noodles
2. Boil the soup and keep it hot hot!
3. Once the noodles are done – place them in a large soup bowl (or salad bowls in this house)
4. Cover noodles with your raw thinly sliced beef and sliced onion. If this worries you – cook your beef first!
5. Pour broth over the noodles, onions and beef. Serve!
6. Allow everyone to put their choice of mixings: cilantro, thai basil, sriracha sauce, hoisin sauce and lime!
7. ENJOY
That’s an involved dish… I’d never make it
Myself but I love pho. Too bad.
It isn’t too bad after the first try – took me only about 15 minutes to get everything going. The longest part is the grocery shopping