Hot Soup for Cold Nights (Pho Bo)

This was my first time making pho and it's not a recipe that gets whipped up casually. I had to track down a butcher that had both oxtail and beef shanks in stock (my neighborhood butcher didn't), and ended up buying my first meat cleaver because the oxtail I did find was still whole. It was actually harder to find the bean spouts that are part of the garnish assortment; apparently almost every store in town got cleaned out over new year's and hadn't restocked when I first went looking. In the end I bumped my pho production schedule by two days as I acquired all the ingredients and equipment. So the end product tastes like victory.
Once everything was set up I made the broth. Broth is key for pho and in this case gets locked in a pressure cooker instead of having to spend hours on the stove; this is the closest I've come to hitting max capacity on my instant pot. That pot had 4lbs of meat in it (2 cuts of beef plus chicken wings), plus all the spices, liquid, and half an apple.

See That Line That Says Max? I Got Close

There's a third cut of beef that goes into the serving bowl raw, to be cooked by the hot pho broth when it's poured over it. Plus a standard array of garnishes.

Garnish Board

The end result is not the best pho I've ever had, but is better than some restaurants.

No Regrets

Difficulty Level: Complex
Will It Get Made Again? Maybe, I could see myself being in the mood to try this again now that I have one round under my belt to see if it's a little simpler the second time around. I might up the spices in the broth a little more to get a stronger spice level. I still have a pound of oxtail left, it might be destined for a 2nd batch down the line.