One of my favorite ways to bring people together, fellowship, and share a little bit about my culture is to cook a huge pot of phở (Vietnamese beef noodle soup for the uninitiated). It's fairly easy to make, and it's a novel experience for most people, who are accustomed to restaurant phở. I especially recommend making some during the cold winter months. After making it a few times I've come up with my own recipe. You'll need a stock pot that holds at least 16 quarts to proceed.

Ingredients

• Beef
  • 2-3 lbs leg bones
  • 2-3 lbs neck bones
  • 2-3 lbs oxtail
  • 5-7 lbs eye round roast, freeze and thinly slice, let it come to room temperature before serving
• Spices (you can opt to toast the spices over medium heat)
  • 5-10 whole star anise
  • 2 cardamom pods
  • 1 tablespoon whole coriander seeds
  • 1 tablespoon whole fennel seeds
  • 1 scant teaspon whole cloves
  • 2 sticks of cinnamon
• 2-4 nubs of ginger
• 2 medium-sized onions
• 1 dozen green onions also known as scallions
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1/4-1/3 cups of a sweetener, sugar or syrup works
• 1 cup fish sauce, I recommend the Red Boat brand
• 6 lbs of fresh noodles, bánh phở tươi
• Condiments
  • Siracha
  • Hoison sauce
  • Thai chili peppers
  • Cilantro
  • Thai basil
  • Mung bean sprouts
  • Limes
  • Green onions

Steps

1. Ahead of time, freeze your eye round roasts and thinly slice them. This is easily the most labor-intensive part. Set aside and refrigerate. Let the slices sit for 2-3 hours at room temperature before serving.
2. Parboil the bones and oxtail for a cleaner broth. Bring water to a boil. Put the bones and oxtail in the water. Let the water return to a boil. After 5-10 minutes, dump the water, and wash the bones and oxtail. Return the bones and oxtail to the pot, fill it with water, and simmer.
3. Char the onions and ginger under the broiler. This usually takes about 10 minutes. Add the onions and ginger to the pot. Also, add the white part of the green onions.
4. Toast the spices and put them in a spice bag or tea infuser. Add the bag of spices or tea infuser to the pot.
5. Add fish sauce, salt, and sweetener. Back when I followed Paleo more strictly, I refused to use sugar, so I used maple syrup. In reality, sugar works just as well.
6. Now let the broth simmer. I find 8 hours is enough. You can go longer for a more intense flavor. If you serve it after just 8 hours, you can just add more water to make more broth. It's a little bit like making a second brew of tea.
7. Add more fish sauce, salt, or sugar to taste.

Serving

1. Bring the thinly sliced eye round roast out. Wash the vegetables. Remove the thick stems from cilantro. Cut the limes into eighths. Cut the Thai chili peppers and the green part of the scallions.
2. Filter out broth into a smaller pot. Skim excess fat. Don't skim all of it, though. The fat makes the broth more savory. Bring the smaller pot to a boil.
3. To cook the noodles, bring another pot of water to a boil. Add the noodles and stir them around for about 20 seconds. Drain with a colander.
4. Put the noodles in a bowl and add the raw meat to the bowl. Pour the boiling broth over the raw meat to cook the meat.
5. For your VIP guests, dig out some oxtail from the larger stock pot. The braised, fatty meat melts in your mouth.
6. Add condiments and enjoy!

After making a few bowls, I usually let guests make their own. This recipe may not be the most authentic, but it tastes pretty good in my opinion. Notice that most times and ingredients are given in ranges and are not exact. The recipe is pretty forgiving, and you can modify it according to your preference.