The Pho Beef that I mentioned about a week ago can be found here.  This is a wonderful cookbook that certainly makes starting to tackle Asian cuisine seem accessible and doable.  The toughest thing about making the soup is acquiring the ingredients which include various spices and a bunch of different types of beef bones to make the broth.  The good news about the broth/stock however is that it makes a ton and you can freeze a lot of it in quart containers.  So, you can make the dish a number of other times without having to remake the broth.  I found the bones at a meat market and I’m pretty sure you could ask a grocery store for bones as well with a least some limited success.  I was able to find all the other ingredients, condiments, etc. at our local Asian market (I went to the one on Route 22).

This particular version, I didn’t have mung beans, so I substituted long, thin Japanese mushrooms for them.  It didn’t have the same crunch but it was certainly good.  The first time I made this soup, I couldn’t find Thai basil, one of the garnishes, and used regular basil instead.  It tasted great that way, but have since been able to use actual Thai basil and have to say that using it made a big difference.  So if you can find Thai basil I would encourage you to use it!

Here is a link to the actual recipe.  However, I would strongly recommend the cookbook if you are at all interested in learning more about cooking Asian cuisine!  http://www.bonappetit.com/people/chefs/article/get-to-know-a-chef-2