Soto Betawi Famous Beef Soup From Jakarta, Indonesia

Soto betawi is food derived from the Indonesian capital "Jakarta" where it can be found everywhere, from side street food carts, hole in a wall places, food courts in malls, up scale restaurants, all the way to five star hotels. Each place will have their own way of preparing soto betawi, with highly guarded blend of secret spices, and each with fierce die-hard fans touting theirs has got be the one offering the most original and most delicious soto betawi.

Soto Betawi - Jakarta Beef Soup Recipes :

Ingredients

• Soto
• 1 kilogram beef shank (Indonesian: daging sengkel)
• 500 gram beef tripe (Indonesian: babat sapi)
• 5 stalks lemongrass (Indonesian: sereh), bruised and knotted
• 3 bay leaves (Indonesian: daun salam)
• 1 liter fresh milk
• 1 liter water
• 500 ml thick coconut milk
• 1 tablespoon salt
• Grind the following into spice paste
• 5 shallots (Indonesian: bawang merah) (*)
• 4 cloves garlic (Indonesian: bawang putih)
• 1 inch ginger (Indonesian: jahe)
• 2 inch galangal (Indonesian: lengkuas)
• 5 candlenut (Indonesian: kemiri)
• Garnishes and accompaniments
• 2 tomatoes, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
• 2 potatoes, cut into 1/2 inch cubes and fried
• 2 scallions, thinly sliced
• 2 tablespoon deep fried shallot flakes (Indonesian: bawang goreng)
• emping (a.k.a. melinjo crackers)
• 10 kaffir limes (or about 3 regular limes)
• sweet soy sauce (Indonesian: kecap manis)
• steamed white rice
• acar (Indonesian pickle)

Instructions

1. Boil together beef shank, beef tripe, lemongrass, bay leaves, milk, and spice paste over medium high heat in a soup pot. Once it reaches a rolling boil, reduce the heat to a simmer, cover the pot, and continue cooking until the meat and tripe are tender, about 2 hours.
2. Remove the meat and tripe from the pot to cool. Once they are cool enough to handle, cut into bite size pieces, about 1/2 inch cubes.
3. Return the pieces of meat and tripe into the pot, add water, coconut milk, salt, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for another 30 minutes.
4. Turn off the heat, discard the lemongrass and bay leaves.
5. Serve the soup (soto) in soup bowls. Garnish each bowl with tomato and fried potato cubes, and top with sliced scallions, shallot flakes, and emping. Let each person add as much lime juice and sweet soy sauce to their soup. The soup (soto) is traditionally eaten with steamed white rice and a side of acar.

Notes

• (*) Use 100 gram if using standard shallot instead of Indonesian shallot.