A Quick and Easy Soup - Variation on Phở

WHAT is Phở?
Phở is a Vietnamese soup, usually made with beef bone broth and rice noodles, with thin sliced beef added at the last minute.  It is usually accompanied, on the side, with a selection of bean sprouts, basil, peppers, to be added in the quantities you wish.

HOW do you pronounce Phở?
It looks like it should rhyme with go, pro, no, but that would be wrong!  It is pronounced "FUH", kind of like the first part of that word. . . 

So what can you do at home?
Well, the essential part, to me, is the rice noodles and some kind of broth, and I use what ever suits my fancy and take advantage of what is in the fridge and cupboard.

For the stock, if I don't have homemade, I use Minor's.  I'll use either the Chicken Base or the Beef Base.

If Minor's is not in your store, you can get it online.  Great to have in the fridge.

Then I add anything. . . Today was mushrooms, celery, and the bits of chicken that I cut off when making chicken cutlets for dinner.  When I'm satisfied with the broth, it's time for the noodles.

I like Saifun noodles.  I wish I could remember where I got these!

Maybe Wegmans?

These white noodles are like slivered guitar picks in texture.

They go into boiling liquid for 20 minutes.

Until they have absorbed some liquid, they cannot be cut very easily.

After a few minutes in the broth, I use a kitchen scissors to cut into more manageable lengths.

And I usually miss some, making this great fun to eat!

I'll add a bit more broth, and it's ready to enjoy!

Ăn ngon nhé

Peas and Peppers

When my brother posted his pepper pics, I had to check mine. We are much farther north, and usually two to three weeks later in the spring, but I was delighted to see flowers and peppers on the "cherry bombs".

So --- as long as I was out there with the camera, I got a couple of other garden pics.

The turnips are looking very happy. (D likes turnips in stews. And it's so easy to make a huge pot of soup or stew, and freeze 5-10 one-person servings for lunch. Right now the freezer has chicken with bowtie noodles (farfale), kale, mirepoix, barley. There is also lamb with mushroom and barley (and the ubiquitous mirepoix). And there's pork with everything. He often has soup for lunch with raisin bread.)

The peas are blossoming like mad, but no pods, yet. The peas, beans, peppers, beets, kale, cabbage, brussel sprouts are all in a large garden enclosed by an 8 foot fence. The fence was buried one foot to try to deter the woodchucks. And it's that high to deter the deer.

No matter how far apart we put the rows, picking will be a pain -

I like to pick in the morning, and I'll get soaked by the dew on the plants.

And the rows grow so close together that a stool is not very useful, so it's a lot of bending.

Oh, but nothing is better than peas right out of the garden.