Vietnamese Style Beef Soup (越南风味牛肉汤)

越南风味牛肉汤(Yue Nan Feng Wei Niu Rou Tang)

Most of the soups I made over the years are Chinese style, they are simple, original, only with flavor of green onion and ginger. I have been thinking of making Vietnamese beef soup for many years, the reason is that all the beef pho soup I have tried so far is too sweet for me with a lot of sugar added. I am not a big fan of adding so much sugar to meat soup. And this recipe is the result of my first adventure into Vietnamese style soup, I intentionally left the sugar out. Given the generous portion of beef bone and meat used in this recipe, and no use of sugar at all, I believe the taste and flavor are much better than the restaurant version I have tried.

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Ingredients

• 3 to 4 lb. Beef bone
• 2 lb. Beef chuck roast (or any other cut)
• 1 white onion
• 1 tablespoon canola oil
• 2 tablespoon fish sauce
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 2 teaspoon salt
• 2 arise stars
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 pinch of clove
• A few slices of ginger
• 1 green onion (why buy from store? grow your own green onion)

Preparation Time:  15 minutes
Cooking Time:  3 to 6 hours
Servings: 4

Cooking Steps

1. Buy 3 - 4 pounds beef bone, rinse clean.
2. Add 1 tablespoon canola oil to a non sticky pan, turn on medium heat, add 2 chopped garlic cloves, 1 chopped white onion slices, pan fry for about 2 minutes to let the aroma come out, put t hr onion and garlic to a large cooking pot.
3. Add 8 cups water to the large cooking pot, add 2 teaspoon salt, a few slices of ginger, 1 coarse chopped green onion, 2 cinnamon sticks, 2 arise stars, 1 teaspoon black pepper, a pinch of cloves, 2 tablespoon fish sauce, add the beef bones, boil.
4. Get 2 lb. Beef meat, cut the beef against the grain into thin slices, add to the pot.
5. While the soup boils, skim the foam on the top.
6. Cover and simmer for 3 hours. The soup and meat will be ready.
Or leave the soup continue to cook for another few hours, the bone will fall apart further more.
Tip: With the hours of simmering, water will evaporate, add more water if needed.
 

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