Soto Betawi - Jakarta Beef Soup

5.0 from 21 reviews

Author: Anita Jacobson

Categories: One Dish Meal Soup

Cuisines: Indonesian

Ingredients: Beef

Prep Time: 30 mins

Cook Time: 2 hours 30 mins

Total Time: 3 hours

Serves: 8

Ingredients

• Soto
• 1 kilogram beef shank (Indonesian: daging sengkel)
• 500 gram honeycomb tripe (Indonesian: babat sapi)
• 5 stalks lemongrass (Indonesian: sereh), bruised and knotted
• 3 Indonesian bay leaves (Indonesian: daun salam)
• 1 liter fresh milk
• 1 liter water
• 500 ml coconut milk
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 5 kaffir lime leaves (Indonesian: daun jeruk)
• Grind the following into spice paste
• 100 gram shallots (Indonesian: bawang merah)
• 4 cloves garlic (Indonesian: bawang putih)
• 1 inch ginger (Indonesian: jahe)
• 2 inch galangal (Indonesian: lengkuas)
• 5 candlenut (Indonesian: kemiri)
• Garnishes and accompaniments
• 2 tomatoes, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
• 2 potatoes, cut into 1/2 inch cubes and fried
• 2 scallions, thinly sliced
• 2 tablespoon deep fried shallot flakes (Indonesian: bawang goreng)
• emping (a.k.a. melinjo crackers)
• 10 kaffir limes (or about 3 regular limes)
• sweet soy sauce (Indonesian: kecap manis)
• steamed white rice
• acar (Indonesian pickle)

Instructions

1. Boil together beef shank, honeycomb tripe, lemongrass, daun salam(Indonesian bay leaves), milk, and spice paste over medium high heat in a soup pot. Once it reaches a rolling boil, reduce the heat to a simmer, cover the pot, and continue cooking until the meat and tripe are tender, about 2 hours.
   TIPS: If using a pressure cooker, this step will only take 30 minutes.
2. Remove the meat and tripe from the pot to cool. Once they are cool enough to handle, cut into bite-size pieces, about 1/2 inch cubes.
3. Optional step: Strain the soup to remove any impurities and scums to get a clear soup, then return the strained soup to the soup pot.
4. Return the pieces of meat and tripe into the pot, add water, coconut milk, salt, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for another 30 minutes.
5. Turn off the heat, discard the lemongrass and bay leaves. Stir in kaffir lime leaves.
6. Serve the soup (soto) in soup bowls. Garnish each bowl with tomato and fried potato cubes, and top with sliced scallions, shallot flakes, and emping. Let each person add as much lime juice and sweet soy sauce to their soup. The soup (soto) is traditionally eaten with steamed white rice and a side of acar.