morsels45

morsels45 said

Bún bò Huế

Lemongrass and chilli beef noodle soup, heavier and hotter than pho and prouder of it.

Bún bò Huế
Photo: Chainwit., CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. A photo of the dish, not of these exact recipes.

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How to make bún bò huế

2 genuinely different takes — a classic, and a faster or lighter route. The same ones the app hands you once you have decided.

With a lemongrass broth

240 minutes · serves 6 · Hard

What you need

  • 1kg beef shin
  • 500g pork hock
  • 6 lemongrass stalks, bruised
  • 1 onion, charred
  • 3 tbsp shrimp paste
  • 3 tbsp sugar
  • 4 tbsp chilli oil with annatto
  • Fish sauce
  • 500g thick round rice noodles
  • Banana blossom, herbs, lime, sliced onion, to serve

What you do

  1. 1Blanch the beef and pork for 5 minutes and rinse. Cover with 4 litres fresh water.
  2. 2Charred onion and lemongrass in. Simmer three hours, skimming for the first twenty minutes.
  3. 3Mix the shrimp paste with a ladle of broth, let it settle, and pour the clear part back in. Never the sediment.
  4. 4Sugar, fish sauce and the chilli-annatto oil. Taste: it should be hot, sour-free, and much bolder than pho.
  5. 5Slice the meat. Cook the noodles separately.
  6. 6Noodles, meat, broth, then a plate of herbs, blossom and lime for everyone to wreck their own bowl with.

Shortcut, three hours less

60 minutes · serves 4 · Medium

What you need

  • Good beef stock
  • Lemongrass
  • Shrimp paste
  • Chilli oil
  • Thin sliced beef
  • Round rice noodles
  • Herbs

What you do

  1. 1Steep bruised lemongrass in hot stock for 30 minutes, then season as above.
  2. 2Pour the boiling broth over raw thin-sliced beef in the bowl.