Soto Padang [ Beef Soup from Padang ]

Soto means soup in my language. There are tons of soto variations recipe in Indonesian cuisine. Its considered as one of our comfort foods. Almost every region in Indonesia has their own soto recipe and highly influenced by the availability of local ingredients and cooking traditions. Today, I decided to try a soto recipe from Sumatra island, its called Soto Padang. The bouillon is so rich in spice, it just perfect and comforting in this cold, snowy season. 

Ingredients:

2 big stalk of lemongrass

2 cm fresh galangal

3 kaffir lime leaves

2 pods of cardamom

2 anise star

4 clove buds

500 gr beef , cubed

2 liter of water

2 small potatoes, cubed

Spice Ingredients To Paste:

6 shallots (I used 1 onion instead since I ran out of shallots)

4 garlic cloves

3 thai chili (seeded if you want to reduce the spiciness)

1 Tsp shrimp paste (terasi)

1 Tsp tumeric powder

½ Tsp white pepper powder

½ Tsp cinnamon powder 

1 Tbsp beef bouillon powder 

2 Tbsp sugar

Salt to taste 

3 Tbsp oil

Prepare aside:

lontong (indonesian rice cake), cubed into bite size

Vermicelli noodle, blenched

beansprout, blenched

boiled eggs, cut egg in 4 ( I forgot to include the egg in my picture)

scallion, chopped

tomato, diced (or cherry tomatoes cut in two)

fried shallot

lemon, diced

1. In an electric food processor, paste all the spice ingredients.

2. In a soup pan, sauté the spice paste on medium heat until it becomes aromatic.

3. Add lemongrass, galangal, kaffir lime leaves, cardamon pods, anise stars and cloves buds. Sauté for another 5 minutes then add in the beef cubes, stir gently.

4. Cook for another 10 minutes until the meat starts to change color then add the water. 

5. Let it boil then reduce the heat and put in the cubed potato. Let it continue cooking for at least another 45 minutes. 

To serve the soto:

1. In a serving bowl, place the cubed lontong on the bottom of the bowl, then put the vermicelli in then the beansprout. 

2. With a soup ladle, try to pick up just the meat and the potato from the soup then spread them nicely on top of the beansprout. Pout the egg, and diced tomato on top. 

3. With another help from the soup ladle, pour the soup from the side of the bowl carefully

4. Sprinkle scallion and fried shallot to decorate

5. Squeeze a dice of lemon on your bowl before eating, it will give a fresh kick to the soup

Happy Cooking!! 

PS: I wrote the recipe to make an easy lontong in here.