Soto Banjar

Ingredients:
1 kg chicken, divide into four pieces
2 liter water
1 onion, finely sliced
2 tablespoons margarine
5 cloves
5 cardamoms
5 kembang sisir/bunga pekak/bunga Lawang/Star Anise
3 cm ginger, bruised
1 stalk lemon grass, bruised
1 stick (3 cm) cinnamon
1/2 - 1 teaspoon ground white pepper
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
salt

spices to grind: 4 clove garlics, 8 shallots, 4 candlenuts

directions:
Melt margarine in a pan then saute garlic,shallot & candlenut paste and sliced onion until fragrant. Pour in water. Add other spices and bring to boil. Season with salt and pepper.
Add chicken and let it simmer until the chicken is just cooked. Remove the chicken and fry in the deep frying oil. Let it cool. Shred the meat from bones . Discard the skins and bones.
When ready to eat, arrange shredded chicken and other condiments in each soup bowl. Heat the broth and pour in the soup bowl. Served hot.

condiments:
lontong, sambal soto
shredded chicken,
perkedel kentang (potato cake),
boiled egg (quartered),
chopped celery or green onion,
fried shallot, lemon,
soun (rice vermicelli)-soak in hot water then drain.

Lontong
Sambal soto:
15 bird´s eye chillies
1 tomato
salt, as desired
directions: Boil tomato and chillies with 75-100 ml water then grind, add salt to taste.

Perkedel Kentang (Potato Cake):
2 packs (2 x 100 g) of Kartoffel-püree (mashed potato powder)
200 ml milk
300 ml water
1 tablespoon margarine
1 egg, separated
1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
salt, as desired
cooking oil for frying

directions: Bring to boil water and milk. Add margarine, ground nutmeg and pepper, salt to taste. Remove from the heat then pour in Kartoffel-püree powder. Stir in eggyolk until mix well. Make the puree into round shaped about 3 cm in diameter. Dip each potato puree into beaten white egg. Heat the oil for deep-frying and fry the potato until golden.

Soto Madura

Ingredients:
500 gr beef or internals,
100 gr bean sprouts,
80 gr rice noodles,
60 gr Indonesian parsley,
60 gr scallions,
60 gr ginger,
1 lime,
salt and pepper.


Directions:

* Boil meat until done. Drain and cut into bite-sized slices.
* Remove the tails of bean sprouts, boil until half done
* Boil rice noodles separately
* Keep these in separate plates
* Cut Indonesian parsley and scallions
* Grind shallots, and brown it for a little bit
* Skin and cut ginger
* Make beef stock using beef bones boiled in water for about an hour. Remove bones, and put in salt, pepper, ginger, and shallots.
* Serve the soto by putting the beef, bean sprouts, noodles into a bowl. Pour soup into it.
* Sprinkle with Indonesian parsley and scallions.

Soto ayam (chicken soup)

Soto Ayam is a classic Spicy Chicken Soup, commonly found in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia (”Soto” means “soup” and “Ayam” means “chicken”). The soup is yellow in color due to the use of turmeric as one of its ingredients.

Add yellow noodles to this Soto Ayam and turn it into Mee Soto (Noodle Soup), a great light lunch and participate in Presto Pasta Nights. (*Phew!* Ruth accepts any noodle dish from any culture as entries.)

I was eating chicken salad for a few meals, and every time I boiled the bone-in chicken breast meat, I kept the chicken bones and the broth as a reserve for making this Soto Ayam.

The recipe is fairly simple. Turmeric, ginger, lemon grass, shallots, cloves, cardamons and star anise are all aromatics, contributing to the fragrance of the Soto Ayam. Oh and by the way I was shopping for whole cloves the other day and just FYI, Mccormick cloves sold in Safeway are at an exorbitant price of about US$5 for a small 0.62 oz bottle. If possible, get them from an Asian supermarket. That cost me only US$0.99 for a packet of approximately the same volume.

The Soto Ayam / Mee Soto Recipe below is based on approximated amounts because the amount of various ingredients to add depends on individual taste.

Ingredients (Serves 2):

- 1 handful of fresh / dry yellow noodles
- 6 cups chicken broth
- 1 chicken breast, bone in
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 lb bean sprouts, pluck off roots and blanched

Garnish:

- 1 small shallot, sliced
- 2 stalks spring onion, chopped
- 2 stalks cilantro, chopped

Soup Ingredients:

- 4-5 slices ginger
- 1 stalk lemon grass (the white part only)
- 1 small shallot
- 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
- 5 whole cloves
- 3 cardamons
- 1 star anise
- 1/2 tsp pepper (or more if you like a very peppery tasting soup)

Cooking Method:

1. Cook yellow noodles and set aside. Deep fry sliced shallot (from Garnish) until fragrant. Set aside. Grind the ginger, lemon grass and shallot (from Soup Ingredients) together using a mini food processor. Set aside.

2. Bring chicken broth to a boil, add chicken breast and salt, reduce heat setting to low and allow to simmer for about 30 minutes. Remove chicken from broth, shred chicken and set aside. Return chicken bones to the broth. Note: If you like me, have chicken broth made from leftover chicken bones, continue to simmer all the bones in the broth.

3. Heat up 2-3 tbsp cooking oil. When oil is hot enough, saute all the soup ingredients until fragrant. Pour in the chicken broth (together with all the bones) and cook under low heat (simmer, not boiling) for about half an hour till aromatic. Filter off the soup ingredients and get the soup only into serving bowls.

4. Add cooked yellow noodles, blanched bean sprouts and shredded chicken into the bowls. Garnish with chopped spring onions, cilantro and fried shallots.

Oops! The yellow noodles were all hidden under the shredded chicken bean sprouts and garnish :) but this is Mee Soto all right - yellow noodles in Spicy Chicken Soup (Soto Ayam).

Soto or sroto

Soto, Sroto or Coto is an Indonesian cuisine mainly comprised of broth and vegetables. The meats that most commonly used are beef and chicken, but there are also sotos with mutton and pork. The soup is usually accompanied by rice or compressed rice. Sotos are differentiated by the ingredients in them, such as soto ayam (chicken) and soto kambing (mutton).

There are also specific kinds of regional sotos. There are many varieties of sotos in Indonesia, which vary by regions, class, and ethnicity. Some well known variations are soto Madura (from East Java), soto Betawi (from Jakarta), soto Padang (from West Sumatra), soto Bandung (from West Java), soto Banjar (from South Kalimantan), and coto Makassar (from South Sulawesi). All of these sotos have distinctive flavor.