This is a Pho recipe from my mom. 

Vietnamese Beef Pho (5 servings)

2 lbs of tender beef

1 pkg rice stick

5 lbs beef bones or ribs

Ginger (4 fingers)

5 flowers of Dried Aniseed 

7 dried cardamon 

2 teaspoon dried coriander

5 shallots

Fish sauce, salt, black pepper, chili sauce

1 bunch Green onion

1 bunch Cilantro

Directions:

Boil the beef bones or ribs. Discard broth (This is very fatty). Wash the bones so that you a cleaner broth. Put the bones back to the pan and add 13 cups of new water. Bring to boil. After water is boiled, lower the heat to cook the bones and extract the taste from them.

Grill shallots and ginger the same way as in preparing the chicken pho. You need to grill the shallots and ginger until it’s cooked (no longer raw). The color of the shallots will be slightly brown and they will have a good smell. Same with ginger. Use a mortar and a pestle to beat the ginger after it’s grilled. Put shallots and ginger to broth. Add cardamon, aniseed, coriander.  Boil for about 2 hours in low heat. After you sense a smell, add fish sauce and salt to taste.

Cut the beef into thin pieces. Use another small pan to boil water. To cook the beef, wash the beefquickly in the boiled water. Take out the beef and put it on a plate.

Prepare the rice stick in the same way as for the chicken pho. Serve the beef pho the same way as the chicken pho. You need to boil another pan of water for the rice stick. Bring water to boil. Take out the rice stick from the cold water and put it in the boiling water. Stir until the rice stick becomes soft (3-5 mins). Take the rice stick out and sprinkle with cold water.