Cooking and Baking Laboratory

October 29, 2008

Soto Betawi (Batavian Beef Soup)

This is one of my favorite Soto. I really enjoy its taste. Yes, certainly it comes from Betawi, so it is named Soto Betawi. But, where Betawi actually is? Betawi or Batavia is the old name of Jakarta, The Capital City of Indonesia.

Coconut milk and cow’s milk in its gravy is unique to this Soto. Other Soto never put milk in its gravy. Besides that, Soto Betawi uses various spices to build its taste. The origin recipe uses cow’s innards such as intestines, livers, and lungs. For health reason, I choose not to use cow’s innards. And for simplicity, I also choose not to use cow’s milk. However, it is all up to you, prefer to the origin or the modification..:)

Ingredients:

500 g beef, sliced in cube formed
½ nutmeg, grated
4 cloves
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
4 Jeruk Purut leaves
2 teaspoons salt
250 ml coconut milk from ½ coconut fruit
1500 ml water for boiling
1 tablespoon cooking oil

Ground Spices:

4 cm ginger
3 cloves garlic
8 shallots
1 teaspoon ground coriander
½ teaspoon ground white pepper
A pinch of ground caraway
A pinch of sugar
Grind them all with stone mortar or processor

Complements:

1 tomato, sliced
2 leek, chopped
3 celery leaves, chopped
4 tablespoon fried onion
Lemon juice
Sweet soy sauce
Bitter nut crackers
Condiment
Cucumber and Carrot Acar

Instructions:

Set the high heat, boil the water in the pan
While the water already boiled, set to medium heat, put the beef into it, keep boiling
Add nutmeg, clove, cinnamon, salt, and Jeruk Purut leaves
Keep boiling until the meat is mild enough, then set into lower heat

Sauté the ground spices until fragrant, low the heat
Then pour coconut milk into it, stir, turn off the heat

Pour that spiced coconut milk above into boiling pan, stir until well cooked, then ready to serve with all the complements

(for 6 peoples)

October 28, 2008

Ikan Acar Kuning (Fish cooked in Yellow Spicy and Sour Spices)

Caesio erythrogaster or Yellow Tail Fusilier Fish is very easy to find in Indonesian fresh market. There are some ways to make it delicious, such as simply fry it or steam it in banana leaves. My favorite way is cooking this fish with acar (yellow and sour) spices.

Marinated Spices for Fish:

3 cloves garlic, ground
½ teaspoon ground turmeric
A pinch of salt
1 teaspoon lime juice
1 tablespoon fresh water

Ingredients:

500 g (1 or 2) Yellow Tail Fusilier Fish (Bahasa Indonesia= ikan ekor kuning), cleaned, sliced in two chunks, marinated with spices about 15 minutes
Cooking oil

Ground Spices:

5 candle nut
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
2 cm ginger
½ teaspoon white pepper
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoon white sugar

Acar Spices:

10 shallots, thick sliced
3 red chilies, sliced
10 red hot chilies (Don’t cut them if you don’t want a hot taste)
1 lemongrass
3 Jeruk Purut leaves
2 tablespoon lime juice
2 tablespoon cooking oil
300 ml fresh water

Instructions:

Use high heat. Fry the marinated fish until turns into golden brown colour. Set aside.
Then change to medium heat.
Sauté the ground spices with small amount of cooking oil, add lemongrass and Jeruk Purut leaves until fragrant. Pour some water into it. Stir.
Add lime juice. Stir and wait until it turns into thick liquid.
Add sliced shallot, sliced red chilies, whole red hot chilies, stir well. Wait until they become wilted.
Add the fried fish. Let the fish absorb the spices.
Then ready to serve with warm cooked rice.

(Served for two people)

October 27, 2008

Rendang (Beef in Chili and Coconut Milk)

Rendang is an Indonesian beef stew dish with coconut milk and very complicated spices. I make it simpler and easier. Actually, this recipe below is adapted from my mother recipe. So that, my Rendang (I am sure) is different than Rendang from Padang (A city in West Sumatera- Indonesia where Minangkabau community come from, which has the origin of this recipe). Rendang (as I wrote before) usually serve with ketupat and other dishes in Hari Raya (Iedul Fitri Celebration Day). However, if you just eat it with warm cooked rice it would be very nice too.

Ingredients:

1 kg beef, sliced into 10-15 chunk, in the same direction with its fiber
3 jeruk purut leaves
1 lemongrass, crushed
2 salam leaves
500 ml thick coconut milk from 4 coconuts
2 turmeric leaves (my mother used it, but I didn’t)
5 ml cooking oil (I replaced it with olive oil)

Ground Spices:

10 chilies, or as necessary (depend on you like hot or not)
4 cloves of garlic
7 shallots
1 teaspoon turmeric powder
2 pieces galangal root (2 cm per piece)
2 pieces ginger (2 cm per piece)
1 tablespoon salt, or as what you think necessary
1 teaspoon white sugar, or as what you think necessary
1 tablespoon palm sugar, or as what you think necessary

Instructions:

Grind all spices in Ground Spices above with stone mortar or processor
Set the heat in medium
Sauté the ground spices with cooking oil, add lemongrass, salam leaves, jeruk purut leaves, and turmeric leaves if you use it. Sauté them together until it is fragrant
Then, add the beef, sauté until the red color of beef turns into brown
Set the heat in low
Add the coconut milk, stir well
Boil about 1 hour or until the beef are mild enough or turn into dark brown color
Don’t forget to stir it well occasionally
If it runs dry meanwhile the beef are still hard to chew (use fork to make sure), you can just add the boiled water into it and do the same process again

Refrigerate it, if you want to keep this dish for any longer use for 1 week or more. When you need to serve a meal, you can simply warm it.