A Better Go at Cheater Pho

Having not done very well at my last attempt at Vietnamese Grandma style made-from-scratch pho broth, I decided to work on the best cheater pho I could make. Based on the number of cheater pho recipes on the net, I'm not alone.

My old version was "ok", but it always lacked something. I wanted a rich and intense (but not horribly over salted) broth, kind of more like Au Jus you get with a french dip sandwich. So, I found cheater au jus recipes! Basically beef stock plus dry onion soup mix and worcestershire. Then I took that and fresh-vegged and spiced it up, and I loooooove it.

This can be done in less than half an hour including cleanup!
1 box beef stock
2 cans consomme
2 packets dry onion soup mix

Ahhh excellent, this is the simple but delicioso base I was after! It'd be ok just like this. But, I have handy veg and spices, so:
handfuls of carrot (untraditional; 1 cup or less, more makes too sweet), celery, onions, a chopped fennel and fronds (highly recommended and save some fronds for sexy garnish), several smashed garlic, any veg scraps from the bottom of the fridge or scraps if you freeze them, bit of tomato sauce or paste if handy
4 bay leaves
8 cloves
4 star anise
couple dashes cinnamon
NO half teaspoon garam masala or extra cardamom (made it bitter!)
ground black pepper
a thumb of fresh ginger, grated. I learned there is for sure such a thing as too much ginger.
1 tablespoon brown sugar
Few dashes of worcestershire
small dashes fish sauce (too much makes fish sauce soup)
About half a teaspoon of anchovy paste (aw yea, that brought the umami level up without too much fishfunk)
CAREFULLY add bits of bouillon concentrate if you need more oomph and salt. Really stir for a few minutes to ensure dissolving. I had some undissolved bouillon sludge in the bottom of the pan :(

Usually you add herbs and fresh goodies at serving, but I want ease of lunch, I tried cooking in mint, that did not work. Too minty and bitter when cooked. Tried cooking in basil and cilantro with stems, that did work well enough. I did not add any heat, that's easy enough to add at lunch with hot sauce or chile slices or any other handy heat.

Simmered that covered for 20 minutes and strained. Perfect kind of hearty beefiness I was after. Good tasting sipping broth isn't robust enough for pho noodles, for me. This would be pretty strong for a western style soup, like au jus. The only way to test is with chopsticks and noodles. Full beef goodness with magical spice complexity. Yum.

TL, DR: Box of stock, two cans consomme, two packs onion soup plus whatever.