Faux Pho

You can’t always get what you want, the cliché goes, but I’ve found that I can usually improvise to get what I need. I wanted pho. Hot, spicy, sketchy-meat filled pho. Sadly, I’m 15 miles from the nearest acceptable option, in the middle of midterms, and flat broke.

Lucky for me, I had some (faux?) pho bullion cubes leftover from a previous (and abortive) attempt at making the stuff myself, so I wondered if I couldn’t whip up something close enough. What I ended up with only resembled the real thing in its flavor undertones and hot-soupness. I probably should have added some more star anise.

The good news is, despite not being what I really wanted, my soup was delicious and satisfied my craving for hearty comfort food. Here’s what I used:

2 pho bullion cubes (Chay brand);
3 cups water;
A bunch of mixed dried mushrooms;
Some frozen (thawed) veggies - snow peas, broccoli, onion, kale;
About a pound of frozen (thawed) mahi-mahi;
Hot red pepper flakes;
Fresh basil (about 10-12 leaves);
A splash of Mirin;
Some stale sourdough bread.

Yeah, I keep some strange stuff in my pantry.

Here’s what I did:

I boiled the water to dissolve the pho cubes, and reduced the heat to medium for a slow boil, adding the mushrooms. Then I added the veggies, which I’d resuscitated from cryo-stasis in the microwave, and the fish (thawed in a cold water bath and cubed). I let the mix return to a boil, and after a few minutes tasted it and decided hot pepper flakes were in order. So I added a few shakes.

While that boiled away (for about 12-15 minutes), I prepared my serving bowl by turning the bread (as I had no noodles handy) and making croutons - tear up and bake about 5 minutes at 450 degrees - and tearing the basil into it. When the fish was cooked through (flaky and white, not grey and hard or à poil as you’d eat it normally), I ladled some into the bowl.

I added soy sauce and fish sauce and sriracha, but even without them, the flavor was good. It would have been nice to have fresh lime and bean sprouts too, but oh well. I was happy! The sourdough was actually the nicest surprise: it really set off the soup’s flavors. Has anyone ever seen or made sourdough pasta? That might be a good thing for me to keep around.