It is hard for most Americans to distinguish Bún Bò Huế (BBH) and Phở since they are both translated as "beef noodle", but they are as different as day and night, or as some wise person once said on her blog: "to say BBH and phở are the same is like equating spaghetti bolognese and fettuccine alfredo." The only thing BBH and phở share in common is beef.
BBH, as the name suggests, originates from Huế, a beautiful city in the central area (which I have not had the good fortune to visit). Hue is famous for many other different small-portioned dishes that I hope to share with you some time soon. Hue cuisine is stereotyped to be spicy. However, many of Viet dishes can be made as mild or as spicy as you prefer without losing their flavor.
I am not absolutely sure if what I'm going to show you is indeed Bún Bò Huế according to Huế people. I think it is so say that this is Bún Bò Huế that my family often make.
In Dalat, BBH is served with bean sprouts, a mixture of escarole and herbs (such as Viet basil, red perilla, Vietnamese balm) thinly sliced, and occasionally thinly sliced banana flower (left photo). I think Dalat is the only place in Vietnam where most soupy noodle dishes are served with thinly sliced escarole. Perhaps because we grow a lot of escaroles. In Saigon, BBH is often served with sliced banana flower, shredded water spinach stalk, and herbs (as demonstrated on the right photo). In the US, BBH comes with shredded red cabbage. Whatever your preference, it is the herbs that enhance the flavor of the soup.
Like many other Viet dishes, the work is in making the broth. It often takes 2-3 hours for the bones to release all their flavor into the stock. Pressure cooker certainly speeds up the process but the end result is not quite the same. Or perhaps it's a psychological thing!
INGREDIENTS:
For the broth:
2 lbs beef/pork bones
1 front pig's feet, cut into rounds (this is often pre-done at Asian grocery stores)*
11/2 lbs beef shank
8 lemongrass stalks (2 for mincing, optional)
1 large onion
2 Tsp mắm ruốc (shrimp paste)**
Viet fish sauce (3-crab brand is recommended)
1 Tsp sugar
Curdled pig's blood (optional)
Vietnamese steamed pork loaf (I prefer Hue style pork loaf)
Others:
Bean sprouts
Your preferred way of serving vege as mentioned above***
Spring onion + cilantro
Lime wedges
Onion
Freshly ground pepper
Jiang Xi round noodles, large
METHOD:
Bring water (enough to cover the bones) in a stock pot to boil, place the bones and pig's feet in. Let boil for about 10 min. Remove from heat, dump the water from the pot, wash the pot (or use another stock pot) and the bones then put the bones back into the pot and boil. This is to remove all the scum that has floated to the top. Once the water boils again, you will find more scum floating to the top, use a fine strainer to remove it.
Bruise 6 lemongrass stalks with a knife and place them together with the onion into the pot. Add the shrimp paste. Turn heat down to low and let the pot boil for about 2 hours. At about 1.5h, add the beef shank.
While waiting for the stock, prepare the vege for serving and noodles. Bring water to boil in a sauce pan, put the noodles in. Once the noodles are softer than al dante, remove, place under running cold water and strain.
At the end of the 2h, remove the pig's leg rounds and beef shank ,and set aside for serving later. Discard the bones. Add the 1Tsp sugar. Taste to see if the broth is salty enough. Chances are you will need to add fish sauce at this point.
Heat a 2Tsp of oil on a frying pan, add the annatto seeds and cook until the seeds have bled all of the oil. Remove the seeds. My family just add this to the broth for color. Some places saute the minced lemongrass in this oil for 2-3 min before adding the mixture to the stock pot.
When the beef shank has cooled fown, slice them into 1/10in-thick slices.
Cut the pork loaf and curdled pig's blood into 1-in thick pieces. Add these together with the annatto oil to the pot, let boil on low fire for a few minutes.
Put strained noodles into bowl, arrange 1 round of pig's leg, a few slices of beef shank, 1-2 pieces each of pork loaf and curdled blood. Top with sliced onion, spring onion and cilantro. Ladle soup over the noodle, add freshly ground pepper on top and serve with vege.
Enjoy!!!
*You may opt not to use pig's leg but it makes the dish less authentic.
**Shrimp paste refers to many kinds of pastes made from shrimp due to the lack of English words to accurately translate these Viet condiments. Make sure you get mắm ruốc or the flavor would be completely off.
***If banana flower is used, prepare a bowl of cold water with a few Tsp of vinegar added to it before you slice the banana flower. Separate the purple leaves, remove the actual flower, slice these leaves very thinly. Once they are sliced, place immediately in the bowl to prevent oxidation/browning.
To shred water spinach stalks, get a tool specific for this task from a Viet/Asian grocery store. It's inexpensive.
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