Mystery ingredients from episode 11 were take-out inspired and included items such as burgers, onion rings, pho, bubble tea and more.  For the appetizer round, contestants had to put together a meal using pho, submarine sandwiches, pakoras and Greek salad.  This week, I will attempt to create an elevated version of a meal my grandmother made when I was off school due to illness.

Pho

I don’t know if it’s superstition, but my grandmother once told me that chicken was BAD for the cold.  Must be a Chinese thing.  Thus, when I was sick, my grandmother made me beef broth and rice noodles.  And that’s what pho is.  The Vietnamese version, anyway.  I had originally planned to make some sort of Sick Day dish (in an elevated form, of course), but instead, I’m going to make lo fun (in Cantonese, “mein” is a wheat-based pasta, while “fun” is rice.  Pho is generally a rice-based noodle).

The pho broth is going to be used to make a sauce.  Half a cup of the broth is reheated with teaspoon of chickpea flour to thicken it and is set aside.  The beef and sprouts, along with the meat in the sandwich and the Greek salad are tossed together with some mushrooms and then heated in a skillet while the pakoras, which will be tossed in later, are cut into smaller pieces.  Then, the sauce is poured over the meats and vegetables, cooked a bit longer before the noodles and then pakoras are added.  The dish is then plated and topped with some parsley to give it a bit more colour.

Image: Brandon Bourdages/Shutterstock