Original Pho and Mom's Old Cook Book

Last week, when i have nothing to do at home (coz i only have one class session in a week) so, i decided to read the cook book rather than read the material for my thesis haha :P Well, there are a bunch of  cooking books in the shelf, some of european stuffs, some indonesian, and this one is i like the most. Because its ASIA. I found lotsa good recipes here, and i am so proud that indonesia stuffs are a lot. 

I remember my brother ever asked my mom to make Vietnam's Pho. Honestly i never eat this dish before, but i know the taste will be a bit sour. Mom ever asked me to search in google coz she's a bit forgot about the recipe that she learned in Vietnam Embassy. So i watched youtube and googling but i need a cooking book to make it sure. So i grab this book and went to the vietnam section. Pho is a noodle with meat soup. This book gave me a super easy directions. Pho is simple even for a girl who never taste and cook it before.

Here's the recipe that written in The Complete Asia Cook Book by Charmaine Solomon (1977:Lansdowne Press) :

PHO (Beef Soup with Salad)

3 Kg beef rib bones
500 g gravy beef
2 onions, slice
fresh ginger (thumb size)
stick of cinamon
1 teaspoon of black peppercorn
salt
500 g fresh rice noodles or 250 g dried rice noodles
500 g fresh bean sprouts
6 sping onions
4 firm ripe tomatoes
2 white onions
500 g rump steak
fish sauce
lemon wedges
fresh red or green chillies (chopped)
fresh corriander leaves (chopped)

How to make?

(the soup)

Put the bones and gravy beef in a very large pan, add cold water to cover, sliced onions, scrapped and sliced ginger, cinamon stick, peppercorn. Boil it with a very low heat. Cover and simmer for at least 6hours (i boiled it less than 6 but its already good though) . Dont forget to add salt as you want to taste.

How to prepare?

Make sure u already soaked or poured the rice noodle or noodle in a boiling water. In here i used the noodle for kwetiaw (wider and bigger one than regular noodle) look out bellow. I found tis image from another good page :) thanks!

(left to right on my dining table: kwetiaw, a pack of bean sprout+chopped spring onions+basil leaves, lemon,chillies, and tomatoes)

Put the noodles in the large soup bowl with a ladle of bean sprout. Also a few slices of beef, tomato, and onion in  a large laddle, immerse in the boiling stock until beef begin to lose its redness. Beef should be pale pink. Pour contents of the ladle over teh noodles and bean sprout. Guests add fish sauce ( I used oyster sauce coz i run out the fish sauce and its taste good) lemon juice, chillies and fresh corriander (i used basil or kemangi coz my mom forgot to buy it haha, its same)

Nyoom meeeh! Its savory.. A bit of sour, hot, and yoom yoom :D Oh yeah, if fresh chilli is just too hot for you, u can add chilli sauce in the bottle as subtitute. I thought that it will be failed but guess what? My brother said its like a real pho! Yeay! An abstrack chef can cook a good pho with original taste :) You guys have to try it sometimes! 

Stinky-Bean Sandwich

Happy Eid Adha 1432 H! Well a late greeting but there's nothing too late right? hehe~ Idul adha kali ini di depan rumah saya ada yang berbeda. Its almost 2 week i have to deal with the stinky goats and cows but its cool. Because the end of the period i can eat those meat XD haha. Seperti biasa, mama masak makanan-makanan sakral hari besar. Opor dan teman-temannya memang enak, cuma kalau makan santan berlebih terkadang kita bosan juga, kolesterol bisa naik. Ditengah kejenuhan saya, terlintas lah untuk membuat makanan baru. Well, mungkin tidak bisa disebut dengan makanan karena tidak memenuhi kriteria, jadi kita sebut saja cemilan.

Cemilan ini dibuat dari roti tawar yang diisi dengan isian istimewa. Guess what is it??? Its a stinky bean a.k.a PETE a.k.a  Parkia Spiosa. Setiap hari besar, mama selalu membuat sambal pete udang. Its realy delicious coz prawn is good and PETE is awesome! Its always be my favorite dish on Eid Mubaraq! Karena ketertarikan itulah saya yang agak mulai jenuh dengan opor mengambil inisiatif untuk memepersatukan roti dengan sambal udang pete. Hasilnya? not bad! Kalau memang suka pete, pasti kalian suka ini. I forgot to capture this holy sandwich coz i'm just too bussy with my own creation haha :P Mungkin agak aneh, dan mungkin anda bilang saya norak, tapi saya tidak peduli. Karena Roti isi sambal udang pete dapat membuat mood saya kembali baik setelah dijenuhkan dengan ayam opor dan makanan bersantan lainnya :-)