As featured in  Tastespotting &  Foodgawker

Remember in my previous posting when I briefly introduced   “Soto” -  one of the many special soup dishes in Indonesia, which is interestingly enough, served as  main dish accompanied by steamed rice or noodles. Unlike in the western cuisine where soup is served as an appetizer. One of the special characteristics of Indonesian soup is the generous usage of fragrant ingredients such as lemon grass, kaffir lime leaves, roasted coriander seeds and galangal – resulting in that special flavours which characterize these “soto”

Soto or Indonesian soup is something you would find sold on street corners & open market vendors. Yups, it’s a street food, quite a famous one. Different provinces in Indonesia has its own distinct flavours.  There’re so  many varieties of  ’soto’ dish to a point that you could probably make a one month menu from different type of soto. Just kidding! But really, it’s THAT many….

Note on the special ingredients e.g.  kaffir lime leaves, lemon grass, galangal, Indonesian soy sauce.  Most of these ingredients are becoming easier to find in the local asian stores or china town in your country, well I am sure it’s much more easier to find these things over there compared to where I live now in Inner Mongolia.

TONGSENG KAMBING
or  Indonesian Lamb Cabbage Soup
Ingredients:
*  1 kg of lamb – I added a few pcss of lamb ribs for the flavours
*  1 liter coconut milk (canned or packaged is just fine)
*  1/2 cabbage – roughly chopped
*  4  pcs whole cloves
*  2 pcs red tomatoes, chopped
*  1 stalk of lemon grass – bruised
*  2 cm galangal
*  4 pcs kaffir lime leaves
*  6 pods of cardamoms
*  3 cm cinnamon stick
*  10 pcs red (or bird eye’s) chilies, sliced

Processed (paste) Ingredients:
*  8 pcs shallots
*  6 pcs garlic
*  2 cm fresh garlic
*  5 pcs candlenuts – flame roasted would taste better
*  1/2 tsp  coriander seeds – toasted would taste better
*  1/2 tsp cumin powder

** Optional:  2 tbs of Bumbu Cik Oneh – for a better kick!
untuk yang baru aja dapet stok bumbu dari Pasar Majestik… whoo hooo!

Cooking Directions:
1.)  In a pressure cook, boil lamb in 1 ltr water until tender enough
2.)  Stir fry processed ingredients until fragrant. Add lemon grass
3.)  Mix in the cooked ingredients into lamb pot, add the rest of  ingredients
4.)  Let it cook for a while,  stir in  coconut milk.
5.)  Add chopped cabbage, tomatoes & chilies. Let it cooked through
6.) Ready to serve with warm steamed rice on the side
and sprinkles of fried shallots (bawang goreng)

Note for my fellow SLFers:
Setelah berkali-kali bereksperimen dengan sup & soto shot yang kadang2 anglenya suka rada impossible karena bentuk mangkuk yang kurang ideal, akhirnya ketemu juga dengan  angle yang cukup memuaskan *imho*  Mangkuk yang dipakai kali ini cukup lebar mulutnya & tidak terlalu dalam, hingga isi si soto bisa terlihat, nggak tenggelam dalam kuahnya.  Warna mangkuk juga sengaja dicari yang cheerful untuk menunjang warna soto/sup yang memang cenderung kelihatan ‘dull’ saat  difoto…..  

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