Coto Makassar ala Nangbus

Today's recipe is another recipe on Indonesian soup (soto), but this time the soup comes from an area near my home town; Makassar, South Sulawesi. The locals call it Coto Makassar. This soto is actually easy to make, but if you are an Indonesian abroad, it will be a bit tricky to find the ingredients for the soup since the main ingredients of this soup is cow innards like such as intestine, lungs, tripe, liver and heart. I noticed that some people, especially in Europe and North America don't eat cow innards, they even consider it as 'trash'. What a pitty, little that they know, these ingredients are actually eatable and yummy. The thing is you have to clean it properly under a running water and cook it with lots of spice to remove its strong smell. 

This recipe might not be the authentic from my Great Great Great Grandmother nor a five star's hotel special recipe, but don't worry, the taste is as close as the real coto Makassar you find in Makassar. This is one is from my top list recipes for cold days in winter.  

  

Ingredients:

500 gr tenderloin, do not cut it in cubes,
250 gr intestine, well cleaned,
250 gr tripe, well cleaned,
400 gr beef tongue, well cleaned and peeled, this one is my favorite!
100 gr heart, well cleaned.

Broth spice:

10 Lemongrass, bruised,
8 cm Ginger (2 big fat chunk),
7 cm Galangal (2), bruised. This is the spice to remove the strong smell of the innards, you may add more if needed,
4 Kaffir lime leaves, some people think this is optional but I find it crucial to help remove the strong smell of the innards,
7 Indonesian Bayleaf (daun salam),
1/4 kg of peanut, roasted and grounded,
1 handful of rice (you can use red rice too).

Ingredient to paste:

20 shallots,
20 garlic cloves,
10 bird eye chillis, boiled for 5 minutes,
200 gr Tauco (fermented soy bean paste),
2 tbsp roasted corriander,
10 candlenuts
1 1/2 fennel seed,
2 tbsp blackpepper seed,
Salt to your taste, usually Tauco is already salty so you don't need too much salt to add, 
Gula jawa (Indonesia palm sugar) to your taste, to balance out the saltyness. 

On the side:

Green onion, thinly cut,

Lemon wedges,

Lontong or burasa (Makassar rice cake)

Sambal Tauco

Cooking steps:

1. In a huge pot or slow cooker, put all the meat and innards,

2. Add water until it covers the ingredients,

3. Add the broth ingredients and turn on the stove to medium heat,

4. Close the pot and let it boil, reduce the heat and continue cooking until the beef is tender. 

5. Once the beef is tender enough as well as the innards, take it out and put aside,

6. Take out the floating spice such as the leaves and lemongrass. Continue cooking on low heat.

7. Cut the beef in cubes and the innards to bite size, watch out it might be hot!.

8. Saute the paste ingredients until fragrant and changes color (become darker and brown) then add it into the broth. Stir gently.

 10. On a serving bowl, place a portion of the beef and innards. Cut the lontong or burasa into bite size and add into the bowl. Sprinkle the green onion then add the broth in. Serve with a wedge of lemon and Sambal Tauco. Enjoy while its hot!

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Happy Cooking!!

PS: Store the left over meat and innards in a plastic box with lid and the broth aside. Simply reheat the broth when you are going to serve it.
Usually I run out of lontong/burasa before the broth/meat are finished, in this case, I will just replace the lontong/burasa with vermicelli noodle :P