Soto Betawi (Jakarta Beef Soup)
Soto (traditional Indonesian soup) is widely enjoyed throughout Indonesia, and every region has its own specialty soto.
Soto betawi or beef soup in coconut milk is one of Indonesian traditional food from Jakarta (the capital city of Indonesia). It's really aromatic with the combination of lots of herbs and coconut milk.
Ingredients
1 kilogram beef
5 stalks lemongrass
3 bay leaves
1 liter fresh milk
1 liter water
500 ml thick coconut milk
1 tablespoon salt
Grind the following into spice paste
100 gram shallots
4 cloves garlic
1 inch ginger
2 inch galangal
Garnishes
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
Crackers
10 kaffir limes (or about 3 regular limes)
sweet soy sauce
steamed white rice
Instructions
Boil together beef 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.
Remove the meat from the pot to cool. Once they are cool enough to handle, cut into bite size pieces, about 1/2 inch cubes.
Return the pieces of meat into the pot, add water, coconut milk, salt, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for another 30 minutes.
Turn off the heat, discard the lemongrass and bay leaves.
Serve the soup (soto) in soup bowls. Garnish each bowl with tomato and fried potato cubes, and top with sliced scallions, shallot flakes. Add as much lime juice and sweet soy sauce to their soup. The soup (soto) is traditionally eaten with steamed white rice.