Growing Herbs In the City: Home Grown Basil in Pho Inspired Dish

I live in North Carolina where the whether is often unpredictable. After a week of mild to warm temperatures, Mother Nature threw an overnight freeze warning at us, so my herbal babies stayed inside.

I stopped by Whole Foods last night to buy some protein for dinner. I’d intended on preparing oysters with a chilled mignonette sauce, and a pasta using my fresh basil and mint. My basil is of the Sweet Basil variety. She’s fragrant and her leaves are growing wider in the planter each day. The mint is growing like a weed and reminds me of my favorite drink from our local watering hole.

To my surprise, Whole Foods was pretty empty. There were few oysters and even fewer fresh vegetables to choose from. I hate when my plans go array and I have to make things up on the fly. So, what did I come up with? Pho! A dish that I have never tried at a restaurant. That’s right. I made Pho but I’ve never tried Pho. I’ve only seen photographs.

I grabbed some organic chard since they were out of bok choy, and a sirloin steak, and headed home.

I called it a Pho-inspired dish, and it impressed my fiancé who is a chef that helped to open a restaurant in Hong Kong. It took about 30 minutes to make and included a few ingredients that are commonly found in the kitchen. I was going for two servings but ended up with more like four.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 pound boneless sirloin steak
• Ramen noodles

• 3 garlic cloves
• 8 Shiitake mushrooms
• Fresh ginger
• 3 stalks of chard (bok choy is preferable)
• 2 green onions
• Soy sauce
• 2 eggs
• Fresh basil (for garnish)
• Fresh cilantro (for garnish)
• Fresh jalapeño (for garnish)
• Salt and pepper to taste

I started by searing the steak in a cast iron pan until it was medium in temp. I then removed the steak and set it aside.

I then added whole cloves of garlics into the pot. I am a garlic lover but my stomach is garlic sensitive. I find that including whole cloves for flavor allows me to enjoy the taste without getting sick. I discarded the whole cloves after the dish cooked.

Add mushrooms, ginger (whole…same as the garlic), chard, and 1 tsp of soy sauce. Add 6-8 cups of water and bring to a boil. Reduce the temperature to a medium-high heat and let it cook for 25 minutes.

Meanwhile, I boiled two eggs for 7 minutes so that I could get a soft but not runny yoke to add with the garnish.

After the soup simmered for about 20 minutes, I threw in some ramen noodles and let them cook for four minutes.

That’s it! I put the soup and noodles in a bowl. I also added my steak in the bowl so it could cook more in the hot broth. I garnished the dish with my fresh, home-grown herbs like cilantro and basil, sliced jalapeño, green onion, and an egg.

It was the perfect dish to have a on a cold, Spring night. If I could make this, anyone can do it.