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Rinse your dried mushrooms to get rid of any dirt and dunk them into a bowl with 500ml water and set aside until later.
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Dry fry your spices in saute pan until they have browned and released a beautiful spice fragrance, remove them and allow to cool down on the side before placing inside a muslin cloth or spice ball.
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Place the aromatic ingredients (onion, ginger, and carrot) into the same saute pan and char them until they are dark, but not burnt. This may cause the pan to smoke a tad, so just make sure to keep your windows open!
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Place the cooked aromatics, spices (wrapped inside a muslin cloth or put into a spice ball), rehydrated mushrooms (and their soaking liquid), and the rest of the soup ingredients into a large stock pot.
Bring to a boil and then put down to a simmer and cook the broth for 1 hour.
If you want to impart even more flavour in to the broth then you can cook it for much longer, just remove the spices so they don't overpower it.
Meanwhile, cook your noodles according to packet instructions and rinse with cold water and leave to drain.
Prep any of your other fresh toppings, like your herbs, spring onions, sliced brown onions, and beansprouts.
Once your broth is cooked, pass it through a seive or colander over the top of a large bowl. If your broth is a little bitty, then you can pass it through a muslin cloth which is placed over the top of a colander.
Pour the broth back into the stock pot and keep it warm on the stove whilst you prep the hot toppings.
Slice and cook your mushrooms in a frying pan and prepare your tofu accoridng to how you want it (either fried or fresh).
Place your cooked noodles into individual serving bowls and pour the hot broth over the top of each before adding the cooked mushrooms and tofu.
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Serve it with a bowl of sriracha and/or hoisin sauce on the side for people to stir into their broth, as well as a plate with the fresh herbs, onion, beansprouts and lime slices on the side for people to add to their pho.
Slurp and enjoy!