Recipe - Pho (Viet Beef Soup)

4 pound Beef shin with bones or 2
medium oxtails, cut up.
1 md Onion, unpeeled
5 Slices fresh ginger
1 Piece star anise
1 teaspoon Salt
2 One half tablespoon Chinese fish sauce
1 Bundle medium Chinese
vermicelli
Boiling water
One half pound Leftover cooked sirloin
(or beef tenderloin or
eye chuck), thinly cut or sliced up
3 Scallions, chopped
Fresh cilantro sprigs
Pepper
Fresh chiles, cut or sliced up

Boil beef (with bones) or oxtails in 3 qts cold water. Skim off foam and
fat. Cover and simmer for 4 hours. Broil onion until flesh is soft, turning
often. Peel. Add onion, ginger, anise, salt, and fish sauce to beef broth
just before it has finished simmering. Also just before beef broth finishes
simmering, drop vermicelli into a pot of boiling water. Cook 8 minutes,
remove from water, rinse in cold water, and drain. Divide vermicelli into
three equal portions and place in 3 individual serving bowls. Divide beef
into 3 equal portions and place on top of vermicelli in the bowls. Garnish
each bowl with scallions and 2 or 3 fresh cilantro sprigs. Strain broth,
reserving beef and flavorings. Pour one cup broth over contents of each
bowl. Sprinkle with pepper and chiles. Serve immediately. Reserved beef,
flavorings, and extra broth can be eaten separately.

From Gemini's MASSIVE MealMaster collection at www.synapse.com/~gemini