Faux Pho

Two posts in two days!!! Don't worry, it's gonna slow down again after today.

As amazing the pizza leftovers were yesterday, it was definitely time to eat something on the light side.  Eric mentioned soup so I started brainstorming.  For some reason lately, I've been craving Asian soups...maybe b/c I'm Asian? But really, I think it's because they're light and not cream based so when I want something light it does the trick.  I decided to make my version of pho/ramen.  I never like pho when I get it at restaurants b/c of that weird extra feet flavor that always seems to be involved.  However, I do love a good bowl of Asian noodle soup (i.e.: Ramen, Udon).  So I figure, why can't I just make it at home and hopefully not feel like I'm drinking someone's foot bath?  I decided to make beef pho.

To start, I bought a steak and marinaded it in some hoisin and miso paste.  This sat in the fridge for about 3 hours before I took it out to rest before grilling.

To make the broth, I didn't have time to go through the whole oxtail/beef knuckle process since by the time I decided to make this for dinner it was already past 3:00.  So instead, I used:

chicken stock

vegetable stock

star anise

cinnamon

garlic

salt

pepper

cloves

fish sauce

sugar

I let that cook a bit and once the spices all seemed to come together, I strained the broth to remove the bits and pieces that no one really wants to eat.  To that I added some veggies, which makes this more like ramen than pho.  You can add whatever you want really but I chose:

shitake mushrooms

baby bok choy

onions

I let the broth come to a boil and then I just let it simmer until it was time to make the noodles.  The noodles we had were instant noodles that somehow ended up in our pantry after a trip to the Asian market.  They only took about 4-5 minutes after the water boiled so I made them last.  In the meantime, I made the steak.  I recently purchased a stovetop griddle that's grill on one side, griddle on the other so I've been able to grill a lot of things now that it's freezing outside which is exciting.  I grilled the steak, just until it was rare almost medium rare b/c I knew it was going to continue cooking in the broth.  While it was resting, I made the noodles.  

To assemble, I put some noodles in a bowl.  Poured some broth over them and then put the veggies on top.  Then cut up some steak, and placed it on top.  Even though it looks pretty rare, it ended up being more around medium rare/medium by the time it was done "cooking" in the broth.  Since we don't like cilantro or bean sprouts, I served this with jalapeños, hoisin, and sriracha.  

I feel like this hit the spot.  We had gone to get some ramen a couple of weeks ago and even though it was good, I just wanted more.  Probably b/c it's been so cold out lately.  This was a perfect light meal that was filling and comforting.  

That's Amore!

Hello blog world people! It has been a LOOOONNNGGG time since last post.  Things have been busy....and lazy all at the same time so cooking has definitely not been something that I've been doing.  Well, not cooking anything new at least that's worth posting.  Through this blog I've found that after so many recipes, you start to run out.  Not so much run out of different things to make, but different things to make that I really want to eat and put the effort into.  However, for Super Bowl sunday I made some pizza rolls that involved also making my own sauce.  Since there was so much sauce leftover, I thought it would be a great idea to make some pizzas! Things got a little out of control....

I didn't take any pics of the sauce b/c I didn't really think about it.  I was in a little bit of a hurry and just threw it together.  I'll still share the process though in case you ever want to make pizza sauce from scratch.  The ingredients were:

olive oil

1 onion

3 garlic cloves

16 oz tomato sauce

6 oz tomato paste

5 tbsp parmesan cheese (I used shredded but you can use any..it just melts anyway)

2 tsp dried basil

2 tsp dried oregano

a big pinch of salt

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp pepper

3 bay leaves

2 tsp fennel

This process is pretty easy.  Pour some olive oil into a pot and let it heat up.  Once it's hot, add the garlic and onion and cook them for a bit until they smell yummy.  Then you basically just dump everything else into the pot and stir it together.  Once it comes to a boil, turn it down and let it simmer, the longer the better.  Mine cooked for about 2 hours.  This sauce does become pretty thick so it may not be for everyone but I liked it. 

Onto the pizza! I decided to make 2 different kinds.  One was the "healthier" one of fresh mozzarella, san marzano tomatoes, basil, salt, pepper, and olive oil.  I bought my crust and just used thin crust Pillsbury.  My layers were: sauce, a little shredded cheese, mozz, tomatoes, chopped fresh basil, salt, pepper, olive oil.  Final out of the oven version looked like this...

The 2nd pizza was what my friend Whitney has started calling the "Christe Pizza."  I started eating my pizzas like this about a year ago and apparently lots of people like the mixture.  I meant to add onions to this one but forgot until after the pizzas were done :( This pizza includes: pepperoni, mushrooms, sausage, and banana peppers.  I layered sauce, shredded cheese, and then the rest of the toppings.  I put the pepperonis and mushrooms down first, followed by a small layer of cheese again, then sausage and banana peppers, with another small layer of cheese...just to hold everything in place.  The sausage I used was mild Italian.  This was made on Pillsbury classic crust.  Final product:

I wish you could see the size of these things.  I get that they're in a 1/4 baking sheet so they're not HUGE looking in length or size, but I'm pretty sure each of these weighed at least 5-8 pounds each.  It was pretty intense.  They both ended up being about 3 inches in height and looked more like deep dish pizzas than "thin crust."  These pictures really do them no justice. 

These pizzas were great and it's amazing how much less money you spend when you make them at home!! We love our favorite pizza place so it's not like we will stop ordering out but both of these pizzas were made for the cost of less than 1...or less than 2 from some place like Dominos.  If you have the time, I would definitely suggest trying to make your own pizzas!