In the middle of a snowstorm I decided I wanted pho. Except I didn't have any of the proper ingredients to make pho. So I made faux. Faux pho.
On top of everything, I've never had actual pho, so I wouldn't know if I was eating a knock-off or the real thing anyways, so this probably doesn't taste anything like pho. So if you're expecting some sort of pho-like dish, this is not your place. You will, however, get a delicious meat and noodle soup that I'm going to pretend is pho from here on out.
SO... let's start with what I did have, and go from there. I had...
Pork breakfast sausage
Carrots
Celery
Onions
Garlic
Bone Broth
Vegetable Broth
and some sort of sweet potato starch noodles from the Asian market.
Well... that's pretty close. Sorta. Ok, not really, but this is my blog, so we'll say it is.
And here's another test. Let's see if I can finish this blog post before I can finish this wine. (See, we New Yorkers know how to handle a snowstorm.) Now if only Facebook would stop interrupting me.
Where was I?
Oh yes. Faux pho.
After tallying up my ingredients I started warming the bone broth in a large pot. While that heated, I browned the sausage in a pan, and sliced up the vegetables. I like long, thin strips. Very pho-like.
When the meat was mostly browned I added it to the broth. Next it was the veggie's turn in the pan with a little added fat. Bacon grease works well for this. Only cook them long enough to make them slightly soft.
Add the cooked veggies to the meat and broth. Salt and loads of pepper too. And crushed garlic. Oh, and a bay leaf.
Since most everything is pretty much cooked, all you really need to do now is warm it through and let some of the flavors marry.
I didn't forget the noodles. Promise. I hate losing noodles all in my soup, so I do those separately.
Therefore...
(yes, therefore,) in a separate sauce pan, I set the vegetable broth to boil
(because I hate flavorless noodles, and vegetable broth helps a little bit.) and cooked the noodles.
Strain off the broth into the soup, and put the noodles in the bottom of a wide bowl. Top with soup and eat with chopsticks, so that it feels authentic.
And that's Faux Pho... because I don't know what else to call it.
