Okay, I’m back. 

This challenge is from October and I’m not really sure why I haven’t posted it yet.  I actually had been sick for about 5 weeks during the challenge and had refused to take anything (cold meds to antibiotics) to kick it.  I was actually relying quite a bit on bone broth soups to get me thru.  That and boxes and boxes of tissues.    So of course I was thrilled about Octobers Challenge.  I even made it several times.  But didn’t find the time to post it.  *scratches head*  Go figure.  Just have a lot going on, with a healthy dose of lazy I guess.

October’s Daring KitchenChallenge is soup - chicken noodle soup - with a twist.  This soup is Pho Ga.  Huh?   PHO GA.  Vietnamese chicken and noodle soup.  The recipe and challenge comes from Jaden of Steamy Kitchen, a totally scrumptious blog that you must check out if you like Asian foods and fantastic photography.  And come to think of it, if you are a fan of Asian foods and fantastic photography, you should check out her first book The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook  (yeah Jaden, you rock).  So consider this recipe a preview of many tasty recipes in her cookbook and make sure you visit her site, too.

That said, this was not my favorite Vietnamese soup.  I much prefer another soup I make with prawns and pork.  But I learned so much and many of the ideas of this soup were fantastic (and will be repeated).  First, the long cook broth with roasted ginger and onions is pure genius as it imparts unbelievable flavor.  Also the idea of  balancing all your flavors in the bowl with lime, fish sauce, sriracha and hoisin is nothing shy of brilliant!  Talk about personalizing your flavors. 

On the down side, I discovered that I really don’t like cloves and bean sprouts.  Something I didn’t know.  And I learned to not use a cleaver and a thin plastic board directly on my granite counter tops.  Ouch.  I have nice big cuts in the island now.

So go forth and make soup… It is the perfect time of year.

Jaden’s long cook version of this soup is available on her website.  It is the version that I chose to cook and would recommend you try as well.  It is available here.

And don’t forget to check out what the other Daring Cooks have done as well.

Tomorrow expect to see the November Daring Kitchen posting (it’s good) and more things later this week.

~Blondie