Viet World Kitchen

Sriracha Chile Sauce Recipe (Tuong Ot Sriracha)

Once I’d tasted a number of Sriracha chile sauces from Thailand, the U.S., and Vietnam, I wondered if I could make my own. Why make it yourself when Sriracha costs less than $3 a bottle? I wanted to understand how the flavor of Sriracha came together. Additionally, I wondered if I could use readily available ingredients to make an excellent homemade version of the hot sauce? Huy Fong’s Rooster brand of Sriracha employs American ingredients so why can’t I?

My aim was to come close to replicating the nuanced and well-balanced Thai Shark brand of Sriracha, which my friends and I all gravitated toward liking during the Sriracha taste off. The ingredients listed on the Shark bottle were pretty straightforward: chiles, vinegar, garlic, sugar, and salt. (No preservatives please!) Most Thais buy Sriracha so there aren’t many published recipes, especially in English. However, I remembered tasting Chef Robert Danhi’s version of Sriracha that he made from scratch. I looked in his densely packed cookbook, Southeast Asian Flavors, and found it on page 133. Robert’s Sriracha recipe came in two versions: quick (I call it fresh here) and fermented. He’d researched it from going to the actual town of Sri Racha in Thailand and analyzing both Thai and American sauces. I tried both of Robert’s versions.

Advanced Pho Cooking Secrets and Techniques

I learned to make pho from eating it, talking to good cooks and reading lots of cookbooks. Over the years, it's clear that there's no definitive way to do it. Each cook expresses his or her personal flair in a bowl of pho beef noodle soup. Along with Basic Pho Secrets and Techniques, I've added some more for your consideration: 

Toast the spices. Though I don't think this makes a huge difference because the broth cooks for so long, some cooks toast the spices before adding them to the broth. For this approach, use a skillet set over a medium-low flame. Once the star anise, cloves and cinnamon are fragrant, remove them from the heat. Lightly crush the spices using the flat side of a knife or mortar and pestle. Encase them in cheesecloth or a mesh spice/herb ball and add to the broth.

Beef Pho Noodle Soup Recipe (Pho Bo)

Who doesn't love noodles soup? In the Vietnamese repertoire, beef pho noodle soup is a classic. In fact, it's practically the national dish of Vietnam. Below is my family's recipe for the quintessential Vietnamese food -- pho noodle soup. You may have had bowls of pho in Vietnamese noodle shops, in Vietnam and abroad. but have you made some yourself? Before  leaping into this beef pho noodle soup recipe, check out Pho Secrets and Techniques post for a primer on bones, charring the onion, saving some fat, etc. Also, read about the history and evolution of pho in Vietnam and America. Making pho noodle soup takes time but most of it is passive cooking. And remember, you can freeze pho broth for future bowls of steamy hot pho noodle soup!

If beef isn't your thing, then take a look at the chicken pho noodle soup.

Beef Pho Noodle Soup  Recipe (Pho bo)

Makes 8 satisfying (American-sized) bowls

For the broth:
2 medium yellow onions (about 1 pound total)
4-inch piece ginger (about 4 ounces)
5-6 pounds beef soup bones (marrow and knuckle bones)
5 star anise (40 star points total)
6 whole cloves
3-inch cinnamon stick
1 pound piece of beef chuck, rump, brisket or cross rib roast, cut into 2-by-4-inch pieces (weight after trimming)
1  1/2 tablespoons salt
4 tablespoons fish sauce
1 ounce (1-inch chunk) yellow rock sugar (duong phen; see Note)

Lobster Pho a la Emeril Lagasse

Miko from Seattle worked very hard to make an authentic pho noodle soup of his own last year. He was aghast at a lobster pho recipe presented on an episode of Emeril Lagasse's show that airs on the food network.

The recipe has you simmer broth ingredients for about 15 minutes and though there's star anise, there are also lobster bodies. Strain the broth and serve over rice noodles with lobster meat. Miko says on the show, there were some sliced cooked pork and Chinese sausages too but no bean sprouts. In the online recipe I saw no Chinese sausage (lop cheung/lap suong) but the sprouts were there. It's like a quick noodle soup that he made, and not a pho. But he had to frame it in some manner that fit the episode, which was called "Lovin' Lobster" and orginally aired in 2006.

Strange... there are many kinds of inventive pho that feature seafood but I've never seen one with lobster. I don't think you'd get a big bowl for less than $20!

I've held you in suspense long enough. Here's a link to the recipe:

Emeril Lagasse's Lobster Pho

What are your reactions?

Basic Pho Cooking Secrets and Techniques

It's so hard to get the flavor of pho broth just right. You're best off leaving it up the professional cooks at pho noodle shops. Don't even try. It takes so long to make the broth, anyway.  It's more convenient to go out. I don't have the time. Ha! You're teaching non-Vietnamese people to make their own pho? That should be interesting...

Cooking is a skill and craft that just takes practice to master. I've never been one to be discouraged from tinkering in the kitchen. At the end of the day, it's just food. If you mess up, you can still eat whatever you made. It's not likely to harm you.

But there's something about pho. I often hear from young Viet people about how her or his mother, father, grandmother or grandfather says that there's no way to make a bowl of homemade pho that's as good as what you'd get out. Indeed, the fragrant noodle soup is practically Vietnam's national dish, but it's no State secret! I suspect that the elders themselves don't know how to make a good bowl at home so there isn't much wisdom to impart to the kid. 

Chicken Pho Noodle Soup Recipe (Pho Ga)

My friend Simon says that there's a lot of confusing and misleading online chatter about chicken phở these days. If you've had the original beef phở then you're bound to want to explore the chicken version, which is slightly lighter in flavor, but delicious still.

Making noodle soup is an art form that take a bit of time, but most of the time is passive cooking. I encourage you to try making your own bowl so that you may savor and appreciate a well-crafted bowl. At Simon's urging, I'm  sharing this chicken phở  recipe from my cookbook, Into the Vietnamese Kitchen (Ten Speed Press, 2006). Try it out and contribute comments so that we can build a nice body of content on this wonderful Vietnamese chicken noodle soup!