I was craving Soto Betawi very badly the other day.  So, after googled and searched all over the internet, I found this recipe and tried on my own kitchen.  It’s very delicious and the taste even very close to the one that I used to eat back in my home town.  So, here it is;

Source: Primarasa, Soto Nusantara

Ingredients:

500gr  dice beef

2000 ml water to boil

1/2 nutmeg

3 cloves

5cm cinnamon stick

4 kafir lime leaves

2 tsp salt

1 tbs vegetable oil to fry

250ml coconut milk

Blend into a paste all the following:

4cm ginger

8 shallots

3 cloves garlic

1 tsp cumin powder

1/2 tsp peppercorn

to garnish:

2 or 3  tomatoes, quarter

3 spring onion, chopped

fried onion

sweet soy sauce, lime, emping melinjo (type of crackers) and sambal (optional).

Method:

Boil the meat in a big sauce pan together with nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon stick, kafir lime leaves and salt until tender.

Meanwhile, fry the paste with oil in different pan, for 2 minutes, then add the coconut milk, keep stirring until all blend together.  Turn off and add the mixed paste into the boiling meat.  Cook for about 5 or 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

To serve: put soto into the bowl, garnish with tomatoes, spring onion, fried onion, emping, add sweet soy sauce, and a squeezed of lime.  Can be eat with steam rice too.

Note:

You can buy emping melinjo and the fried onion at the Asian groceries shop.  In the original Indonesian way, they also add any other stomach organs of the cow for example lung, intestine, heart, liver, etc.  But, I like just the meat, thanks!