What is Pho?
To that end, I decided to try and cheat and see if I could at least come close to Pho without taking the 12-16 hours needed to create the broth. Turns out, you can get pretty close by using a few of these simple short cuts. I use ramen soup as my base, it cooks up in 3 minutes and gives you just enough time to get the rest of the ingredients together. While the ramen is cooking, empty the flavor packet that comes with it into a bowl. Add hoisin sauce (available at most mega marts), some dried basil, dried mint and fresh chopped green onions. Drop-in some of your favorite meats that you’ve already prepared like, shrimp, beef, pork or cubed ham; anything quick and easy, but left over meats during the holidays would compliment your Pho as well. If you want to get fancy, use raw shaved beef, just make sure its nice and thin so the heat from the soup cooks the meat.
