January 2024 update
Not much to report on, a lot of projects in progress. No more nap counter as I've fully adopted the habit.
I installed Unhook and Pockettube on my browser which hides Youtube recommendations and lets you sort subscriptions respectively, turning the subscription feed into a categorized library. It's nicer this way. Mostly because the recommendations were just plain gross with history turned off. Lots of culture war dross and tech clickbait when I only use Youtube for music and hobby content.
Not much else to say, so I'll post a classic family recipe:
Cheater's Pho - pictured above with homegrown beansprouts, homemade beef balls, fish balls, and round tip steak.
It's "cheating" because it uses ground beef instead of bones - this is because ground beef is inexplicably cheaper than cow bones! It also cooks way faster. You can even eat the ground beef afterwards! It's great fried with rice.
Makes about 4 servings/3-4L.
Equipment needed:
- Pot (optional if using instapot and fresh noodles, but you'll need it for dried noodles)
- Slow cooker or instapot (optional if using pot) - the slow cooker and pressure cooker will both make a lovely clear broth
- Sheet pan
- Broiler
- Tea ball
- Chef's knife
- Cutting board
- Strainer
Soup base ingredients:
- 2 lb (900g) ground beef
- 3-4 tbsp (40-60g) powdered gelatine
- 6" cinnamon stick
- 2 cloves
- 3 star anise
- 1 onion
- 3 cloves garlic
- 2 tbsp brown sugar (or white sugar and molasses, or palm sugar, or Chinese rock sugar)
- 3 lemongrass cores, chopped (you can use the outer lemongrass leaves but they get progressively more bitter - limit the time they cook if you're doing so)
- 3 tbsp (50g) ginger, chopped
- 3 tbsp (50g) fish sauce - for "restaurant style," triple this amount
- 1 tsp peppercorns
- 1/2 tsp cardamom, roughly crushed
- 1/2 tsp fennel
- 1/2 tsp coriander
- 3-4 L water
Add-ins:
- Fresh rice noodles - definitely try these if you can find them. Keep in mind it takes about 10 minutes to peel a single serving of noodles - a good use for child labour.
- Dry rice noodles - get at least the 3mm kind, boil for 7 minutes. Do not store or reheat in the broth, the starch will turn everything gloopy.
- thin-sliced meat (get the kind meant for hot pot, or parfreeze and slice your own)
- tripe
- beef tendon meatballs (these are quite easy to DIY from ground beef with a food processor/mixer)
- fish balls (can be DIY'd from fish paste)
- beansprouts (again, easy to DIY)
- lime/lemon juice
- cilantro
- mint
- basil
- red onion, finely sliced
- green onion, finely sliced
- sriracha garlic chili sauce
- birdseye chilies
- hoisin sauce
Directions for soup base:
- brown half of ground beef in pot, draining and reserving liquid (helps it brown faster), until it's crispy and fully separated.
- broil spices on sheet pan until fragrant, 1-2 minutes
- add all ground beef to pot or slow cooker with water and reserved liquid (you can add just enough water to cover the meat and dilute it later if using small vessels like an instapot).
- Add spices, ginger and lemongrass to tea ball. Add to broth. Cinnamon probably won't fit, you can add to broth directly. This step just makes it more convenient when getting the meat out.
- chop onion and garlic. add to broth.
- sift gelatine into broth while stirring to avoid clumping (alternately, bloom gelatine before adding).
- simmer for 1-2 hours, or pressure cook for at least 1 hour, or slow cook for 4 hours. There's no upper limit but the lemongrass will get progressively more bitter.
- skim off fat to your preference.
- remove tea ball, strain out ground beef and onions. eat those later fried with rice.
- add add-ins and eat.
