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Kenji/Serious Eats – 30-Min Pressure Cooker Pho Ga
- stasomatic 2mo agoThere was a recent submission on HN about ramen. While I love ramen/udon/soba, I prefer pho. Perhaps I find pho more "crispy", I like the sprouts/lime/mint/jalapeno. Ramen puts me to sleep. Ramen definitely has more pedigree, this isn't about what's better.
- MomsAVoxell 2mo agoAs a lover of both pho and ramen I feel I can compel with you on the crispy factor - like pho is more for a jungle - and also on the food coma factor of ramen - a meal for the monsoons, perhaps - but nevertheless need to point out to you that there are also crispy ramens, with sprouts/lime/mint/japaleno, too. In fact there is no ‘one ramen’, it has to be said; there are regional variants where the “scrap food” of the area is used as the decoration to the base, where a noodle and boiled-meat leftover soups/stock are combined … I have very sleepy pho’s in my neighborhood, also .. just sayin’. Both are great, you’re right, they are a wonderful branch of food.
- Hikikomori 2mo agoBest pho I had was in Tokyo, thinly sliced raw wagyu melted into the soup. Though theres as many ramen styles as there are cities in Japan, some style would likely suit you.
- dcrazy 2mo agoYes, tori paitan is one nice light alternative to the popular and heavy tonkotsu.
- fallinghawks 2mo agoParticularly tonkotsu, which basically has fat emulsified into it. My understanding is that ramen was originally a workman's meal -- inexpensive and calorie rich food for laborers.
- bookofjoe 2mo agoInstant (4 minutes in microwave) tonkotsu @$2.79 is surprisingly good: https://www.doordash.com/products/nongshim-tonkotsu-premium-noodle-soup-356-oz/urpc_045b5b22-ba33-4e31-9b0b-05d4ccffa349?business_id=13055333&gad_campaignid=19547626483&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAADemgEunx2hmTzhggg0XVingG18XF&gclid=CjwKCAjwsrbTBhAvEiwA0Bpp4RsHD_HFSH2VOH4ax9BcJ-GSEtOh6_DQpg6vMwNWildnQGVj59pMkxoCHEgQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds&ms_id=980419®ion_id=31020410&utm_adgroup_id=&utm_campaign=CX_US_SE_LP_GO_NVT_CUSXXX_20560041960_GROCER_%20PL_TOT_GROCY_BAKEPANTRYPMX_EVG_ROAS_XXX_COUSA_EN_EN_X_DOOR_GO_SE_TXT_PerformMax&utm_content=&utm_creative_id=&utm_keyword_id=&utm_medium=PLA&utm_source=Google&utm_term= https://www.doordash.com/products/nongshim-tonkotsu-premium-...
- fallinghawks 2mo agoThese come in a 6 pack at Costco (not black garlic though; Costco's comes with hot oil). They're surprisingly tasty for instant.
- markerz 2mo agoI had a Japanese teacher a few years ago who explained that Japan's ramen is the US's "burger and fries". It's calorie-rich processed food that's available everywhere. They are prepared in advance, served very quickly (usually within a few minutes), and people finish their meals within 15 minutes. It's far closer to "fast food" than most Westerners realize. The average ramen outside Japan is far more elevated than within Japan.
- decimalenough 2mo agoThe average ramen, yes, but in the same way that many people in the US obsess about the perfect burger, there is a serious ramen scene in Japan with obsessive ramen devotees and chefs pushing the envelope.
- bigstrat2003 2mo agoI would say the average ramen in the US is instant ramen, so I think that the "cheap easy food" angle still goes on here.
- Cider9986 2mo agoThey are both some of my favorite foods. I've made pho probably 4 times at this point. It takes 8 to 10 hours but is totally worth it. Something I started doing was occasionally taking the rare thin meat out for use with the sriracha and sweet sauce. I never added then to the soup because I found it corrupts it. There's also Northern Vietnamese Pho which I haven't tried but I'd like to. It's supposed to be less sweet and less spiced. In the US it seems southern sweet style is the norm.
- stasomatic 2mo agoDo you mean after the meat sat a bit in the broth? I’m no stranger to tartar or raw meats, just not clear.
- Cider9986 2mo agoYeah. Cook it to how you like it and then dip in Sriracha and or the sweet one. But you could also do it with the braised meat or anything as well I love the meat straight from the broth so I mostly do that but the sauces are a traditional option it seems.
- stasomatic 2mo agoThank you. If you have a Trader Joe’s near you (it’s a chain in the states for anyone wondering), they have a pretty good chilly paste named “Bomba Hot Pepper”. It has a punch, but it’s not EMP level, not too sweet, not too acidy. Half a teaspoon does it for me. I do have some Asian markets near me within reasonable driving distance, but I can’t try all the sauces and the ones I have tried leaned toward the sweeter side, and that’s not for me. This Bomba hits me where it matters. https://www.traderjoes.com/home/products/pdp/italian-bomba-hot-pepper-sauce-061934 https://www.traderjoes.com/home/products/pdp/italian-bomba-h...
- Cider9986 2mo agoI'll check it out. Although I didn't like their sriracha or chilli oil. Their peanut butter cups are my favorite sweet. The ones in the plastic bags are better than in thr large container. (Darker chocolate and more salt).
- guessmyname 2mo agoI’m not entirely sure what makes this hacker news? It’s just a very long recipe for Phở (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pho https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pho) Is the hack that it’s supposedly doable in under 30 minutes?
- eutropia 2mo agothe person cooking it is Kenji Lopez-Alt, who is an MIT graduate turned professional chef, and his wife is the one who's colombian. He's got several excellent cookbooks (like the Food Lab and Wok) and is a regular contributor to serious eats and has youtube etc...
- deleted 2mo ago[deleted]
- throwaway_fjmr 2mo agoEx-wife I believe?
- malnourish 2mo agoEx-wife. I was not aware he went to MIT though (got a degree in architecture)
- jdironman 2mo agoStill, doesn't really make sense to be here. Content not author is what matters usually.
- stasomatic 2mo agoOP here. Apologies if I overstepped, but it is kind of about hacking the prep. I was simply piggybacking on another thread about ramen, I wasn’t thinking of the hacking angle at that moment.
- CTDOCodebases 2mo agoI appreciate the post if counts for anything. Cooking hacks to save time or elevate a dish to the next level or even allow me to make something without the proper equipment are always good to add to the toolbox. The coffee I am drinking right now is an example of that.[0][1] [0] - https://youtu.be/Odo0f9P2SgQ https://youtu.be/Odo0f9P2SgQ [1] - https://youtu.be/WeNoDCWezls https://youtu.be/WeNoDCWezls
- MostlyStable 2mo agoInteresting to see this posted, as it's quite an old recipe (the oldest capture I could find on the Wayback Machine was from 2015 although I'm pretty confident it's older than that; as an aside, can I say how annoying it is when websites only have an "updated on" or "edited on" date and not a date for when it was originally written?). It's also one of my favorites of Kenji's though and a regular in our home. I think that Kenji's series of pressure cooker recipes are probably my favorites of everything he did when he was doing The Food Lab section. Almost every recipe is fantastic and they are mostly pretty easy. If I had to pick my single favorite, it would probably be the pressure cooker chicken enchilads [0], although that one is on the higher end of the effort spectrum [0] https://www.seriouseats.com/pressure-cooker-fast-and-easy-chicken-enchiladas-food-lab-recipe https://www.seriouseats.com/pressure-cooker-fast-and-easy-ch...
- stasomatic 2mo agoThe article about ramen made me salivate, so I thought, hey, I know ramen is gonna put me in a comma, let me MacGyver pho - because the closest place to me that serves pho is named "Sushi Thai", so you know... :) In this Florida weather, "Okroshka soup" [0] is more appropriate (Eastern European summer soup), but it's too much to chop and I already had nice bones for a pho. [0] https://petersfoodadventures.com/okroshka-kvass/ https://petersfoodadventures.com/okroshka-kvass/
- netsharc 2mo agoThe "updated/edited on" date is so that it'll say "2026", and search engine and searchers think "oh a freshly written article".. although that hardly matters for recipes. Thanks, SEO.
- thoughtFrame 2mo agoChecking the source of the recipe page, there's a schema.org object in there that says "datePublished": "2015-01-08T03:45:00-05:00" So I'd believe it's from 2015 Always wanted to try pressure cooker recipes, they look so good, but haven't been able to justify the purchase yet
- 2mo ago
- pverheggen 2mo agoPressure cookers do reduce the cook time of some dishes dramatically, but the flavors don't meld as much compared with slow cooking. If you do a 30-minute recipe like this, it's probably worth letting the soup sit another 20-30 minutes in warming mode before serving.
- MostlyStable 2mo agoOne of the reasons why I loved The Food Lab was that very often Kenji would write several versions of a recipe at different effort levels, along with detailed reasonings about why and how he shortened a step and what one was giving up by doing so. While he didn't do that for the Pho Ga recipe, he did do that for his Beef Pho recipe, with a full blown 6 hour "traditional" version [0] and a faster (although still not as fast as the pressure cooker pho ga one) 1 hour version of the recipe [1]. My guess is that the write ups of the 3 recipes together probably give one enough information to dial in relatively precisely how much effort you want to give and which steps one can skip or reduce. [0] https://www.seriouseats.com/traditional-beef-pho-recipe https://www.seriouseats.com/traditional-beef-pho-recipe [1] https://www.seriouseats.com/quick-and-easy-1-hour-pho https://www.seriouseats.com/quick-and-easy-1-hour-pho
- m4r71n 2mo agoIn a similar vein, Chris Young has a fantastic video on making world class chicken stock in 60 minutes using a pressure cooker: https://youtube.com/watch?v=3k20zFlbFfE https://youtube.com/watch?v=3k20zFlbFfE.
- Cider9986 2mo agoI'm not convinced by his 350° searing temperature for steaks and his idea about searing from frozen doesn't turn out well because there's no time for the salt to penetrate. His video showing that you can speed up a reverse sear starting at a higher temperature was really helpful though. Haven't tried his pressure cooker video because I don't have one. I will get one eventually but probably not a multi cooker. I have heard great things about them.
- what 2mo agoYou can’t actually do it in 60 minutes. It takes longer to reach pressure and then release pressure even with his tricks. At least with an instapot. But I do generally follow this method. I put the chicken meat in a soup sock though, so I can pull it out and add it to a soup or whatever instead of throwing it away. It will be kind of dry chicken though.
- julianlam 2mo agoYeah, I do the same. Soup sock in a vacuum cooker. It's the chinese way to make soup. The chicken does turn out dry. Perhaps it's worth taking the chicken mear out (leaving the bones) after an hour and adding it back after the soup is done.
- simondotau 2mo agoI would rather have the real chicken aroma in the stock liquid, and I consider bland meat a sign of a successful extraction. Why would I want to stop that happening? I find that trying to keep the natural flavour of chicken meat in soups is a fool's errand anyway. I don't know if it makes a difference, but if I'm returning the meat into soup I will separate it, put the pieces in a small tupperware along with a ton of chicken stock powder, and just enough water to cover. It then sits in the fridge until the soup is 10 minutes from ready.
- milleramp 2mo agoI assumed it would use chicken broth. Obviously not a chef, but I am going to give it a go.
- sicvita 2mo agoLove that this popped up on HN. Been making this recipe regularly for going on 14 (?) years now.
- stevenaenns 2mo agosame here, one of my family's favorites
- written-beyond 2mo agoKenji and Alton Browns first video together is a must watch, Alton was extremely insecure.
- annexrichmond 2mo agoI’ve recently discovered Galbitang and despite being far less popular, I much prefer it over pho. We make it in a pressure cooker as well and love how easy it is!
- vient 2mo agoJust learned about Kenji by finding his "The Best Chili Ever" recipe [0] through Reddit and immediately his another recipe appears on HN. Baader-Meinhof strikes again. [0] https://www.seriouseats.com/the-best-chili-recipe https://www.seriouseats.com/the-best-chili-recipe
- dcow 2mo agoIs this the one where he adds espresso and chocolate? So good!
- t3hTao 2mo ago[dead]
- yewenjie 2mo agoSince I became began I really miss good Pho, anyone knows a recipe that comes close?
- aaronbrethorst 2mo agoWe've been making pho ga from this recipe for years. It's been on weekly rotation in the fall and winter because it is so ridiculously good. Pair it with bone broth made in your instant pot for best results. Normally we start making bone broth around 9am, it finishes by about 5pm, and then dinner is ready by 7pm.
- helterskelter 2mo agoOh man the the amount of fish sauce he wants you put in this will ruin it. Add a teaspoon or a tablespoon or something, but not 1/4 cup. The first time I made it I nearly threw it out.
- jasonwatkinspdx 2mo agoIt's a tablespoon per serving which isn't that crazy at all. Also Vietnamese fish stock is milder than Thai fish sauce if that's what you're thinking of.
- helterskelter 2mo agoGo through the SE comments on this recipe. The amount of fish sauce makes the broth smell like asshole. I recall several Vietnamese scratching their heads over it. I love fish sauce, but Kenji went nose blind to it or something.
- tclancy 2mo agoA tablespoon of fish sauce per serving is wild.
- red_hare 2mo agoAnyone else catch that he wrote this on an 11-inch MacBook Air (2016 at latest)?
- SoftTalker 2mo agoSite locks up my browser.
- yuchtman 2mo agosame ... well maybe not same: I can't scroll, can't click anything on the cookie banner, neither on FF with noscirpt, nor on vanilla Chromium. Weird. I can click anything else and open stuff, but again, no scrolling.
- eps 2mo agoIt runs some sort of anti-ad-blocker script, which is likely the cause.
- deleted 2mo ago[deleted]
- brcmthrowaway 2mo agoTrigger warning - meat. Anyone have a vegetarian version of this recipe?
- niek_pas 2mo agoI consider eating meat completely morally reprehensible but a ‘trigger warning’? What do you do when you enter a supermarket? As for making the recipe vegetarian, the chicken you could replace with any protein of your choosing. There are vegetarian fish sauces but I’ve not found a good one. You might be able to use miso or marmite.
- 83642736392 2mo ago[flagged]
- JumpCrisscross 2mo agoIs there a domain of low temperature, high pressure cooking? Infusions and such come to mind.
- gavinsyancey 2mo agoPressure cookers get up to pressure by heating water until the steam pressure is whatever pressure they are trying to reach -- which means their temperature will necessarily be above the boiling point of water. Low-temperature high-pressure cooking seems hard to achieve. You'd need a pump or something similar to pressurize with.
- throwaway219450 2mo agoYes, it’s been used for mixology (and other things like oils). Put ingredients in a whipping siphon, pressurize and then rapidly vent. https://culinary.isi.com/en-GB/culinary/applications/aromatise https://culinary.isi.com/en-GB/culinary/applications/aromati... Dave Arnold’s Liquid Intelligence has instructions and popularized it with that specific brand of whipper (who also sell an infusion attachment).
- JumpCrisscross 2mo agoThe meat angle is crazy! I wonder what happens at much higher pressures…
- bolt012 2mo agoI haven't seen this written yet but I highly recommend Kenji's book: The Food Lab. It's the perfect book for HN Nerds that love to cook
- Cider9986 2mo agoThe Food Lab is a great introduction to cooking. Could use some updates but it's still a staple for me. I didn't like The Wok (his most recent real coobook) as much as the Food Lab. Although the garlic noodles with regular Italian pasta, oyster sauce, and Parmeggiano Reggiano are absolutely incredible and easy to whip up because it's all pantry ingredients. Another cookbook I recommend is Meathead: The Science of Great Barbecue and Grilling. Also teaches the science and the guy who wrote it is one of the main people who debunked the resting meat.
- bolt012 2mo agoThanks for the recommendation! On the topic of nerd cookbooks recommendations: Cooking for Geeks. I found it way more approachable/readable than The Food Lab (which is a beast of a book, volume wise)