Paleo Pho

Well, I ended up going up north for a super spontaneous drive last weekend, including a little hiking at gooseberry falls and some gazing at the surfers on Lake Superior. The winds were CRAZY on Saturday and the lake had some mega-waves. I guess it is pretty great surfing when the conditions are right?! The fall colors were totally stunning once I got past Two Harbors. I spent a night at my parent's cabin outside of Silver Bay, and was surround by fire-y orange trees. The misty rain weather made the colors even more vibrant. If you want to check out the fall colors, I think this week is the time to go - it was amazing. I (again!) stopped at the Northland Smokehaus for lunch, and got more corned beef to take home for dinner. Which I ate and it was as delicious as last time. Sunday was a day spent smoking lots of spice rubbed meat (mostly deer necks (3), but also a pork roast), reading, and picking and freezing tomatoes. But - this post is about the Pho I made before leaving town, at the start of the recent cold spell...

I had the recipe for Paleo Pho marked to try for awhile, and when the weather started to cool off and the forecast predicted days of rain, it seemed that pho time was here. I actually haven't had a proper bowl of pho ever, I think. I was vegetarian for so long, and most places used meat broth in their pho. When I started eating meat, it wasn't long before I also started eating paleo, and that meant no grand opportunity for the pho with meat and rice noodle experience. In any case, I'm creating my own grand opportunity - sans any memory of what it should taste like! All of the interesting spices: star anise, cinnamon, lemongrass and ginger, plus a good amount of fish sauce promise something good.

My camera is missing, so this is the photo from the original recipe!

I used some different meat than the original recipe calls for - in lieu of marrow bones, chuck roast and short ribs, I used oxtail and 4 pounds of venison stew meat. The quantity of meat came out the same, but a bit less bones and marrow-y goodness. I added in some extra broth (including some venison bone broth) so I think any difference was negligible. I found that I wanted noodles in this soup. Pho is, afterall, a noodle soup. So I tried adding wakame, and it worked out great. I'm sorry I have no photo to post, my camera is on the lamb. (Is that how you spell lamb used in that context?) Anyway - the pho was good, if a tiny bit on the fussy side. You could definitely decrease the fuss with still good results, so I encourage that (why brown the meat? just throw everything in a crock pot with some already made bone broth). Soup season is upon us! Hurray!