Soto Betawi

this is what we promised a few weeks ago. we tried the recipe from ari’s mom yesterday, and it was quite a success…

ingredients:
1/2 kg beef, top side – boil the beef until it’s cooked and keep about 1000ml of the beef stock for soup. hammer the beef to tenderize it.
2 medium sized potatoes
2 medium sized tomatoes
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
tamarind (around 1/2 tbsp of the paste, if you mix it with water)
if you like cow innards, you can add tripe, liver, lungs, small intestines, etc. don’t forget to clean them before boiling. i’m not an expert on cooking innards, but each of those usually need different ways of cleaning. don’t use the stock for the soup, though. throw it away. it usually stinks.
if you don’t want to be too experimental, stick with the beef. it’s yummy enough 🙂
the soup:
200 ml coconut milk (not the creamy one!)
1 lemon grass
salt
sugar
pepper
garnish:
lime
chopped scallion
fried shallot
sweet soy sauce (kecap manis)
emping (melinjo crackers)
to prepare:
mix the tamarind, salt and sugar to a paste. marinade the boiled beef (and the boiled innards, if you have ’em) with the paste. i usually keep it for one night in the fridge.
fry the beef to brown and dice it to bite-sized cubes. if you have the innards, do fry and dice them as well.
boil the potatoes and dice to bite-sized cubes. and dice the tomatoes to the bite-sized cubes as well.
now for the soup: heat the beef stock. pour the coconut milk while stirring. add the lemon grass. keep stirring until it boils. add salt, sugar and pepper to taste.
to serve:
scoop some beef cubes (and innards), potatoes and tomatoes into a bowl. then pour the boiling soup on top of it. sprinkle the scallion and fried shallot. squirt some lime and sweet soy sauce to taste. and crush some emping on top of it.
eat it with hot plain rice on a separate plate.