Chase Sapphire® and Eater have partnered to bring you Nights In, a week of programming featuring some of our favorite chefs, foodies, and friends in support of communities impacted by COVID-19.
Nights In benefits World Central Kitchen, an organization that is working across America to distribute fresh meals to communities and frontline workers that need them most, while also helping put restaurants back to work by integrating them into food relief efforts.
Here’s what you missed from the Nights In livestream event.
A beef pho you’d find on a restaurant menu can take two days to simmer and perfect. But chef (and James Beard Award nominee) Jet Tila has found a way to bring the pho experience home — and in less than a half hour, if you can believe it. “This is about 80 percent to 90 percent of the quality of what you’d find at a restaurant,” Tila said on Wednesday’s Nights In livestream.
With chef and host Jordan Andino stunned (along with, assumably, every other viewer), Tila took his audience through a quick recipe for beef pho at home — and shared his helpful hacks along the way. Among his hot tips for making pho at home?
- Use a tea ball strainer for your aromatic ingredients (the star anise, cloves, and cinnamon stick). It looks professional, and you can easily remove the aromatics when you’re ready.
- Slice partially frozen (meaning not fully defrosted) meat to achieve that restaurant-style shaved thinness.
- Look for rice stick noodles at the store, made in Vietnam or Thailand. Soak the dried noodles in warm water first, then boil them until they’re al dente.
- Think outside the box for your drink pairing; though Tila says he’s a beer drinker, he’d pair this pho with a “phenomenal bottle of Champagne” if he was “feeling bougie.” “You want something with a little acid and a little sugar,” he said of other wine pairings, like riesling, gewürztraminer, and sauvignon blanc. “Tannins are no bueno here.”
And of course, the true debate of the night was how to to add the finishing sauces, hoisin and sriracha: to dip or not to dip? To pour directly into the broth, or dunk your meats on the side? Commenters were split, but Tila said he prefers to dip.
Check out the full recipe below to make Jet Tila’s quick beef pho at home.
Jet Tila’s Quick Beef Pho
makes 4 servings
For the Stock
1 quart water
2 tablespoons beef bouillon or base
2-inch piece ginger, sliced into thin tiles
½ onion, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon Vietnamese fish sauce
1 tablespoon white sugar
2 whole star anise pods
2 whole cloves
1 cinnamon stick
Pinch of Kosher salt
For assembly:
1/2 pound beef strip loin or fillet, shaved thinly
1/2 pound rice stick noodles, cooked, rinsed, and drained
1 onion, sliced paper-thin
4 green onions, thinly sliced
1/2 cup cilantro leaves
1 cup bean sprouts
1/2 pound Vietnamese basil
5 jalapeños, thinly sliced
1 lime, cut into wedges
Sriracha and/or hoisin sauce, for serving
Directions
For the Stock:
Add the water and beef base to a 2-quart saucepan and bring to a boil. Add the ginger, onion, fish sauce, and sugar to the stock and reduce to a simmer.
Wrap the star anise, cloves, and cinnamon stick in a piece of cheesecloth and tie it into a bundle (or for another alternative, place them into a tea ball strainer). Let the bundle simmer in the broth for no more than 45 minutes.
Stir in the salt and check seasonings. Strain and reserve the broth for the final bowl.
To assemble:
Distribute the noodles between four bowls. Top with sliced beef, onion, scallions, bean sprouts, basil, and jalapeños.
Bring the broth to a simmer and ladle in enough to cover the ingredients in the bowl. Garnish with lime wedge.
* From May 4 through May 8, Vox Media matched audience contribution amounts made to World Central Kitchen at wck.org/nightsin and through the live Nights In events on Instagram. This promotion does not imply that World Central Kitchen endorses Eater, Vox Media, or JPMorgan Chase Bank N.A.