beef

Beef Phở Noodles (Phở Bò)

When it comes to noodles in Vietnam, Phở is the undisputed king of the Land.

From Hanoi in the North to the Delta in the South, phở is ubiquitous and with good reason; it is utterly delicious. At first glance phở may seem like a simple dish of beef broth, rice noodles and herbs, but don’t be fooled. Complex, alluring and fragrant, when it comes to aromatics, phở’s beef broth is legion. The ingredient list for phở is intimidatingly long, but with the exception of a couple of items, most of the aromatics are quite common. Some phở recipes require over 25 ingredients just for the broth alone, so in comparison my recipe is quite accessible.

There are a couple of things to keep in mind when making beef phở:

  1. This isn’t a dish for the impatient; the broth takes time, a lot of time.
  2. The correct type of noodle is vital, this being a wide, flat rice noodle. Use fresh if possible, if not use the best dried noodles you can find.
  3. A good selection of herbs is essential
  4. Phở must be served piping hot, there is no waiting on ceremony with phở – dig in the moment it is ready!

If you are interested in reading more about phở and my travels in Vietnam, please click here

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Ragu alla Bolognese

The one thing that surprised me most about Italy is how simple italian food really is; nothing is added that isn’t necessary and ingredients are given the room to speak for themselves.

In Florence we chanced upon a delightful local eatery called La Burrasca, just on the dodgy side of the Central Market. My partner, who has a famed aversion to all things “flavoursome” (with a particular loathing of garlic) fretted over whether the penne al ragu on the menu was cooked with the offending clove; after all this was Italy, they put it in everything. We asked our waiter if the ragu was made with garlic and his response was quite unexpected; “Of course not, this is ragu! It would not be ragu if there was garlic!”. Delighted, my partner ordered it and loved it. So much so, he ordered it three nights in a row!

So the humble ragu taught me an important lesson in italian cooking: keep it simple. It seems the obligatory addition of garlic to all Italian dishes is a culinary assumption most of us are all guilty of making. Unsurprisingly, the Italians harbour an aversion to extraneous elements being added to their most treasured dishes. Why mess with Tuscan perfection? After all a ragu is a ragu and you don’t need to add garlic to make it taste italian.

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Beef Hor Fun 滑蛋牛肉河

Some times in life you’re just haunted by glorious ghosts of noodles-past and beef hor fun has haunted me more than most. These luscious noodles truly rate as one of my all time childhood favourites. That said, even in Noodle Nirvana of Penang a good beef hor fun is hard to come by, but when you do find a place that does it right you’ll be hooked!

There are two vital components to the success of this dish: super tender beef and silky soft noodles. After trawling the internet I discovered the secret to the tender beef, but I just couldn’t source fresh noodles in Cape Town. Undeterred and determined to feed my hor fun cravings, I tried for many years to replicate this dish with dried flat rice noodles but it was always well short of the mark. That’s until I chanced upon this particular brand of dried noodles at the Mun Fong Chinese Supermarket in Goodwood. Don’t ask me what they are called, my Mandarin is non-existent – all I know is that they’re the closet I’ve come to finding the texture of fresh rice noodles in their dried form. Buy them, buy a lot of them.

Anyway, armed with my eureka-noodles I once again attempted to make my version of Beef Hor Fun and I can safely say that I can put this particular ghost of noodles past to rest. Enjoy.

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