Soto Betawi ( Jakarta style Beef Soup)

Dear Kindness,

Soto Betawi - a slow cooked beef with rich and velvety aromatic broth. It is served with a bowl of steamed rice and its complete fixings. Truly a comfort food at its finest!

I encourage you to read the whole post to understand what its all about!

JUMP TO THE RECIPE HERE

Do you ever think about how certain cultural dishes is inseparable from a specific protein? Beef as a popular protein of choice in many Indonesian dishes is so synanimous with many heritage recipes like Rendang, Bakso and also varitions of Soto.

We have more than 75 unique regional varieties of Soto (soup) in Indonesia. Soto Betawi which originates from Jakarta is popular due to its creamy, rich tasting, aromatic coconut & milk based-broth and the beef!

Soto Betawi truly celebrates beef! As meat is a precious and less accessible ingredient in the old days, this soup uses all parts of cow ( offals, bones, everything you can think of) because we couldn’t afford waste. In the process, this practice truly creates the best rich tasting soup! Using a whole part of animal is truly an amazing approach that is kinder to the environment too.

So I can’t think of a better heritage recipe to share with you when I partner with Ontario Beef.

Like most of you, sustainability and eating local are important factors for me when consuming meat. It’s good to know that Ontario beef farmers with their continued innovations in feed, cattle management and sustainable farming practices, strive to reduce the carbon footprint of beef. You can learn more for about their initiatives at ONTARIO BEEF.

Disclosure: I have participated in a paid partnership with Ontario Beef. Opinions in this post are my own.

Quality ingredients make the best tasting food so start from there! A good piece of meat doesn’t have to be the most expensive. It all depends on what you are trying to make. See how to make Soto Betawi in the video below.

When making Soto, we almost exclusively use under utilized tougher parts of meat such as shanks, chucks, tendons, oxtails. Not only they give much more flavours with longer cooking time, they have such a desirable texture and higher level of collagen for that rich deep nutritious broth!

In typical Indonesian cooking, we prepare the meat and broth in two separate processes before merging them into a final dish.

The spices that are crucial in making that delicious rich tasting broth!

The first part is processing the meat to get a flavourful broth and tender muscles for a desirable bite. We do this by slow-boiling / pressure cooking it with few aromatics.

Second, its all about the oil! We blend the complimentary rempah (spices) by blending them ( either in mortar and pestle or food processor) into a smooth paste, then releasing their full potential by frying them in oil. Fat is the carrier of the flavouring agents so this is a crucial step.

When the meat is ready, it is cut up and set aside. The cooked spice blend is then introduced to the broth, and let simmer to marry. This is a good time to prepare the steamed rice, and all of the Soto Betawi fixings such as diced seeded tomatoes, scallions, kerupuk, and fried shallots, and wait until the soup is ready. Bonus if you have the patience to wait for another day, because it will taste wildly more delicious the next day. Pretty straightforward right?

Here is how to make Soto Betawi.

Print

SOTO BETAWI

Yield 4-6

M.Aimee (milkofthykindness)

Prep time

15 Min

Cook time

2 H & 30 M

Total time

2 H & 45 M

Soto Betawi - a slow-cooked beef with rich and velvety aromatic broth. It is served with a bowl of steamed rice and its complete fixings. Truly a comfort food at its finest!

Ingredients

Meat

• 500g Ontario Beef shank with bones
• 250 g of beef tripe ( omit and replace with meat if prefered)
• 2 L of water
• 2 Bay leaves
• 4 Kefir Lime leaves
• 2 lemongrass bruised
• 4 cm galangal

Spice Paste

• 10 shallots
• 4 cloves of garlic
• a knob of ginger
• 4 Thai red chillies ( adjust to liking)
• 4 candlenuts(kukui nut) skip if not available
• 2 tsp coriander powder
• 1/2 tsp cumin powder
• 1/4 cup neutral oil

Seasoning

• 200mL evaporated milk
• 200 mL coconut milk
• 1/2 Tbsp knorr beef bouillon
• 1 Tbsp salt
• 1/2 tsp sugar

Spice Bouquet

• 2 tsp of white peppercorn
• a small cinnamon stick
• 1-star anise
• 1/2 nutmeg
• 3 cardamoms
• Cheese cloth/ spice bag to keep the loose spice secure

Side garnish

• 2 medium- sized tomatoes seeded and diced
• 2 green onions sliced
• fried shallots
• lime wedges

Instructions

Meat

1. Cook the meat submerged in water, with the herbs, spice bouquet and 1/2 Tbsp of salt, in a high-pressure cooker for 45 minutes, or boiled in a regular pot for 1.5-2 hours until tender.
2. Remove the meat, and cut it into bite sizes, keep the broth for later.

Spice paste

1. In a food processor, make a paste with the listed ingredients and oil, and add a couple of tablespoons of water to smoothen the paste if needed.
2. On medium-low heat, fry the paste until it is fully fragrant and caramelized.

Putting SOTO BETAWI together

1. In a medium pot, combine 1.5L of the broth with the cooked spice paste. Add seasonings such as salt, sugar, and beef bouillon ( if using).
2. Cook on low heat for 10-15 minutes to reduce, then add evaporated and or coconut milk. Bring it to a gentle boil again, adjust the seasoning with salt, sugar, and beef bouillon, turn off the heat and be ready to assemble.
3. Place the cut-up beef and tripes, in an individual bowl and pour some soup into it. Add chunks of tomatoes, fried shallots and scallions. Serve with some steamed rice and garnish with lime juice. Enjoy!

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