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.
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