Crockpot Pho

I made my first batch of pho today!!! In a crock pot no less! It was genius for the recipe author to adapt this recipe to a crock pot. I made the stock before we left for church in the morning, and had it simmering all day- it was ready by dinner time. Van said it was strange to smell pho in our house; it's usually a smell he associates with his mom's house.

The hardest part was finding the ingredients. The recipe called for 1.5 lb oxtail or beef short rib to make the stock. The vietnamese store near our house only sold 5 pounds of this- they wouldn't cut it into 1.5 lb for me. So, I ended up just buying beef ribs from Stater Bros.

The recipe can be found here, from a blog called Wandering Chopsticks:
http://wanderingchopsticks.blogspot.com/2009/12/crock-pot-pho-bo-vietnamese-beef-noodle.html

I even bought cheesecloth for the spices (cinnamon stick, coriander seeds, star anise,garlic). The onion is studded with cloves, exactly what the instructions ask for. I already had a lot of these ingredients in the cupboard from making bo kho in the past. I do a lot of cooking and baking with my ipad.

Adding the ingredients + water to the crockpot:

Left unattended, 6 hours later, we have pho broth!

All the condiments, including beef eye round, that is pre-sliced at the asian store (thank goodness!).

Van, enjoying his favorite food- PHO! He said it tasted great! I think it tasted pretty good too, although I am not a pho connosseur. I am really happy to now be able to make Van's favorite food. The next step will be for Ma Viet to compare this recipe's ingredients with her ingredients- then I can adapt her recipe to the crock pot.