Soto Medan

Yep this is another Indonesian soto recipes. On winter like this, I do prefer to eat soupy hot meal, especially where I live it can go to lower than -25 C outside, yeah, the weather can be nasty in this part of the world but it makes a good season to try out soup recipes.

Today's soto comes from Medan. The capital of North Sumatra province in east Indonesia. Cuisine from this region, or let say from this island itself (Sumatra) is famous for its spiciness and hotness. This soto in particular, tastes like light curry. Rich in flavor. The broth is made of diluted coconut milk, which is perfect to my taste, it makes it less heavy and fatty plus it served with a squirt of lime juice which gives the fresh taste to it.

Ingredients:

4 chicken thighs
1 liter of water
500 ml coconut milk (a can)
2 cm fresh galangal
2 Indonesian Bayleaf (daun salam)
2 Lemon grass
4 Kaffir lime leaves, torn

Spices to paste:

4 shallots (8 if you are using small Indonesian shallot/bawang merah)
3 garlic cloves
1/2 tbsp coriander powder (1 tbsp if you use coriander seeds)
1/2 tsp caraway seeds
1 tsp white pepper seeds
1 1/2 cm fresh ginger
1 cm fresh turmeric
1 tbsp salt (or adjust to your taste)
oil to saute

Compliments:

Eggs, boiled and cut in halves,
lontong/rice cake,
boiled potato,
fried shallots,
green onion, thinly sliced
fresh tomatoes, cut in cubes,
Lime wedges

Cooking steps:

1. In a  pan, put all the spices and saute with oil, add fresh galangal, lemon grass, Indonesian bayleaves, and kaffir lime leaves until fragrant,
2. Add the chicken into the spice saute, cook until the chicken change color,
3. Add water, cover the pan and continue cooking until it boils,
4. Reduce heat and continue cooking with open lid,
5. Once the water is reduced to 750 ml, take the chicken out and shred the meat,
6. Continue cooking the broth on simmer and add the coconut oil, stir the broth gently so the coconut milk is well incorporated and bring it to boil,
7. Meanwhile, pan fry the shredded chicken meat until the outer part is a bit crunchy or bronzed,
8. On a serving bowl, add lontong and boiled potato, put the shredded chicken on top and fill the bowl with the broth. Sprinkle fried shallot and green onion. Decorate with egg and tomatoes. Serve the lemon wedges aside.


Happy cooking!!


PS: I didn't have lontong so I served it with a bowl of rice as you can see on my picture.