Pho Sure

I am a meat eater.  I married a meat eater.  We both come from families of meat eaters.  As a kid the steak was the first thing gone from my plate while I often had to be told to eat my vegetables.  I have grown to enjoy more vegetables as an adult than I ever would have as a child but I typically draw the line at vegetables.  I have tried non-meat products a few times but I have never been a fan.  Usually after a few bites I end up picking around the non-meat to get to the rest of the dish.  So it goes without saying that I was not very excited about my latest at home assignment for school: create an entree made with a non-meat product. 

I spent quite a bit of time researching recipes for this assignment.  I wanted to try something that I haven't had before but many of the recipes that I found were just a little too out there for me and Jason.  I got excited when I found a recipe for a chocolate silk pie made with tofu but then I remembered that I had to create an entree.  I was watching an episode of The Best Thing I Ever Ate while doing my recipe research and saw a segment where Emeril was talking about the pho at this Vietnamese restaurant in New Orleans.  Suddenly I had my answer, I would make pho.  It is something that neither Jason and I have ever had and how could tofu be bad if it's mixed with noodles.  I found a couple of recipes that sounded alright so I decided to use them as a guideline and change it up a little bit to suit our tastes.

Vietnamese Pho with Tofu
1/2 large onion, cut into quarters
1 shallot, peeled and cut in half
6 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
1" fresh ginger, peeled and coarsely chopped
32 oz vegetable broth
2 star anise pods
cinnamon stick
1 jalapeno, sliced
3 Tbs soy sauce
4 - 1/2" slices firm tofu
2 tsp 21 seasoning mix
1 package rice noodles, prepared (I used a bag of Chinese noodles, like ramen)
1/2 cup each: sliced mushrooms, julienned carrots, edamame, green onions
1/8 cup cilantro
lime wedges
(traditional pho is served with bean sprouts but I don't like them so I left them out)

For the broth, start by browning the onion, shallot, garlic and ginger in a medium sauce pot until they just begin to brown.

Once that browns, add the stock, star anise, cinnamon, jalapeno, and soy sauce.  Let this simmer over medium-high heat for about 25 minutes.  While the broth is simmering I prepared the tofu.

 I first pressed it between some paper towels to get rid of some excess moisture and then I sprinkled each side with the seasoning mix.

  In a pan, heat a little olive oil, just enough to coat the bottom of the pan and place in the tofu. 

Cook the tofu for about 3-4 minutes per side and remove from the pan.  Then I cut the tofu into small squares and set aside while I prepared the rest of the dish.

One of the reasons I liked the idea of pho is that you can create the base of the dish and serve it with whatever vegetables you like.  It would be a great dish to serve to a crowd because each person can individualize it to suit their tastes.  I put together a plate of carrots, mushrooms, green onions, edamame, cilantro and limes for us.

  It this point the broth was almost done so I added my noodles to a pot of boiling water and let them cook for a few minutes.  Once the noodles were cooked I drained them and set aside.  At this point I also strained all of the solids out of the broth and started to assemble our pho bowls.  I put a little of the tofu in each bowl.

Then top that with some of the noodles.

Add in whatever veggies you like.

And finally top the bowl with the broth. 

Once I had my bowl together, I topped it with a little soy sauce and sriracha and a squeeze of lime juice.

This was a very good starting point for a dish that I would serve again.  I still am not a fan of tofu but I did enjoy the rest of the dish.  If I made this again, I would only use half the jalapeno and I would seed it before adding it to the broth as the finished dish was very spicy.