Pho Gai

In the past few weeks I have made a go at a few Pho Gai’s and actually commented to Jo after the last one that I would like to find a good recipe to really nail it and I have come pretty close tonight with this dish.

Pho Gai for the uninitiated is the Vietnamese equivalent of chicken soup, pho meaning soup and gai chicken, bo is beef and thit cho, dog meat, good one to avoid, though I know a dog close by that I would like to put in a pot of broth!!!

I found the recipe whilst looking for the actual recipe Bella wanted yesterday, which I am still to find, and found it like last night’s recipe on the junior masterchef site.  I find that a little funny because I am a big MC fan, but did not watch much of the junior series as I don’t think kids that young should be in the kitchen and put under so much pressure, let them be kids for God’s sake I say!  But here we are and I have now had two fantastic recipes from the show, two nights running, so it might be worth having a little bit more of a look see, maybe it is that these kids were cooking a little closer to my level!

Anyway back to the pho, I was really wrapped with it, the flavours were absolutely spot on, and as Jo said with her first mouthful, “that just took me back to Ben Thanh Markets in Ho Chi Min City”, the only thing missing was the humidity, the noise, the smells and the beggars!  But it was nice to back there, even if only for a fleeting moment in our memories!

This was a bit more effort than what I have gone to in the past few weeks, having started the chicken stock from scratch, but it was great to put it together and see where and how these fantastic flavours come from, though for when I want to come on a week night and make a quick bowl of Pho Gai, I intend to make a mega proportion of the stock next time and freeze until it is required, then it will be just a matter of throwing a few vegies and noodles in a bowl and ladling the heated stock over the top, now that’s an easy mid week meal!