Soup Making to Soothe The Soul

Today I made pho (beef noodle soup) with the intention of having it tomorrow for dinner (as we had lots of leftover chicken wings from dinner last night).

There is something I find incredibly soothing and satisfying about making pho... It brings me a quiet, inner peace as I go about developing the complex combination spices to create just the perfect nourishing broth... I don't make pho often as I find it difficult to source the right ingredients and even so, I think because I put so much soul into it, it's something that I don't like to make too often so that it keeps that bit of "specialness" about it. Today was my 6th time ever at making pho... I even have detailed notes about my last 5 attempts... I base it on my mum's original secret recipe, but I've modified it each time I've made it and I think today's recipe is pretty close to being what I think is perfect... Today's soup making experience was also a success because I've finally figured out the best configuration of pots to use to maximise the yield of stock ... (yes an odd logistic to consider I know... if I had like a 20L stockpot, I wouldn't have this problem, but until I find a massive stockpot, I'm stuck juggling the pots I have).

Funnily enough, during my pho making experience today, Beth noticed me tending to my soup on the stove outside... She's seen me make chicken stock on the stove outside before, so she comes up to me and says "Mummy make soup". Yes, she's very observant... Then she asks me if I'm making "green soup", which would be her reference to the zucchini, pea and bacon soup I made yesterday for dinner that she really enjoyed. "No, I'm not making green soup today." I tell her. Then she asks me to pick her up so she can look in the pot. I pick her up and she peers intently into the large pot of boiling soup from afar... a large concoction of water, beef bones, onion and spices ... really, it looks a mess and not at all the interesting. It'd had only been cooking for about 2 hours (and still had about 4 hours to go)... But from looking at the pot and smelling the fragrance of the broth, she figured out what I was making. "Pho?" she asked, looking at me. I had to smile - "Yes, I'm making pho." A pause as she ponders what this means... "Pho now?" "Sorry, darling, you have to waiting... it's cooking... you can have some for dinner." Which wasn't part of the original plan, but she looked so excited at the prospect of pho for dinner, I couldn't refuse.

So over the course of the afternoon, whenever I would go and tend to the soup, Beth would ask me expectantly ... "Pho?"... I would have to keep telling her it wasn't ready yet... And come dinner time... oh, she was so happy to have her favourite meal!