Oxtail Soup (Sop Buntut)

What is your typical weekend lunch at home? Suddenly I had this question popped up. Coming from a real big families with 6 other siblings and few more foster brothers and sisters, weekend was always a big gathering at home. That the day when all of us returned home from our work place, from schools and be together and get loud. Of course, the most busiest person probably Mum and older sisters and the helpers. Well at least when we are all still single and lived not far from our parent's home.

And after lot of laughter and jokes and chats, moving from one room to the others, then the lunch is ready. I called this the delight of being among "the younger" children. I haven't really cooked since there are always expert to create the food, so I'd rather joined the boys clean up the garden, or painting the house, making small vegetable garden than cooking. But then after finishing college and worked in a place which take at least 4.5 hours flight from home, then this missing of my own comfort food really start to hit. Well they say nothing will happen unless you do something to make it happen, so I decided to play a bit in the kitchen, making phone calls home, asking for recipes and more recipes and more ...

So the food that I'm going to share here now is our typical weekend lunch at home. This food calls Sop Buntut. Sop as soup in english and buntut is means tail. Yes, when you mentioned buntut it literally means oxtail. So folks let's cook!

Ingredients:

2 pounds of oxtail (usually available in chunks version)
2 pcs carrots; chopped
1 stalks of Chinese celery; cut into 3 parts
4-5 cups of water

5 garlic (roasted in the oven  approximately 6-8 minutes)
1 big onion or 8 shallots (roasted in the oven  approximately 6-8 minutes)
3 cm of ginger (roasted in the oven approximately 6-8 minutes)

5 tbs vegetable oil

Spices:
1 tsp ground white pepper
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground cloves
2 tbs salt
1 pcs of star anise
1 Beef cube (optional; I don't use it)

Condiments:
- 1 stalk of Chinese celery; chopped
- 1 tomatoes; diced
- Fried shallots n garlic (available at Asian market)
-8 green Thai small chillies; ground (this is the sambal)
-1 lime' cut into four; take the juice
-krupuk emping (I don't use)

Directions:
1. Boiled the oxtail in a hot boiling water, let the water boiled again then take out the water, poured in 5 cups of water. This way the soup will have clear broth.
2. Add the spices and keep boiling in small fire till the oxtail become tender. More or less 1-1.5 hour.
3. In a wok, heat 5 tsp vegetable oil and stir in the grounded roasted ingredients (shallots, ginger and garlic), then add to the soup, add the celery and carrot. Keep boiling till the carrot is well cooked (not too tender)
4. Add water if necessary and add the sallt.
5. Serve in a bowl with pieces of tomatoes, chopped celery, green sambal, krupuk and lime juice.

Soto Ayam (Indonesian Chicken soup with coconut milk) ala Medan

If you are in Indonesia or if you have been traveling around the country, you probably read "Soto" in any restaurant menus. Soto has been daily delicacy for many people. Throughout Sumatera you will find Soto Medan and Soto Padang (the name refer to the city in the north and west sumatera), then if you arrive in Jakarta you'll find Soto Betawi, Betawi refer to the ethnic origin in Jakarta or in the old days this capital city of Indonesia called Batavia. West Java is famous with Soto Bandung. In mainland Java there several variations of soto like Soto Kudus, Soto Pekalongan, Soto Banyumas, Soto Madura. While In South Sulawesi, the local made Cotto Makassar and In Kalimantan or Borneo, Soto Banjar is the local version of Soto.

So what is Soto actually? Thanks to someone who have written it well on wikipedia, soto is a traditional soup mainly composed of broth, meat and vegetables. Most of the time the main feature of soto are either beef or chicken and sometimes some part of the organs and intestines also included. In a bowl of warm soto you can also add some condiments like potatoes cake (perkedel kentang or fricadel), scallions and fried yellow onion, fried potatoes, boiled quail eggs or boiled eggs, crackers, fried chicken giblets and of course some ground chilles with sweet soy (kecap) is necessary to enrich the taste. The main spices that is used to make soto is shallots, garlic, galangal, turmeric, ginger, corriander, salt and pepper. The soup is either cooked with clear broth or by adding coconut milk like Soto Medan or by adding milk like soto betawi.

I have some favorite places to eat soto.  In Medan, my hometown, I opted to go to the restaurant pagi sore, this place is located on Gatot Subroto street, not too far from the Deli river or the city hall. The restaurant served three kinds of soto, the ones with chicken only, with beef only, or the one with organs and intestines, chicken and beef ones are the ones that I always buy. Soto Medan in coconut milk and a lot of spices is very good for those who liked spicy food. In Jakarta, near the Pasar Baroe, the location is part of the old city of Batavia, I always go to Soto Padang, Sutan Mangkuto. The clear beef broths served with fried beef fillets, potatoes cake, a bit of lime and ground red chilles just so delicious, sometimes a bowl is certainly not enough. Soto Kadipiro in Jogjakarta also awesome. My Jogja friends introduced the restairant chained to me when I travelled there, this one is also with clear yellowish broth is just delicious. And sometimes, even the ones sold by the street vendors in any of these cities was extremely good, though I am sometimes try to avoid it cause it may give me some stomach ache afterward, probably it's due to lack of hygiene practice by the street vendors.

You probably asked, when is the good time to eat soto? Hmmm...it is probably good at any time. As you probably know, the Indonesian are eating rice almost three times a day, yes they (or we :) do. So early in the morning for breakfast, at noon for lunch or even for dinner. For me, I like to eat soto when days are bit cold and cloudy, a bowl of warm soto will brighten my day.

This time we will make soto Medan, the one with coconut milk and spices. I got this recipe from my sister, well this is the advantage of having sisters not only one but three, though the younger one is not really reliable for asking recipe.

Ingredients:

Chicken:

1/2 chicken medium size (cut into two)

2 cups of water

salt

5 bay leaves

Soups:

1/2 can coconut milk (yes, I tried to reduce the quantity, please add more if you like to have a more condensed taste of coconut milk)

5 shallots

4 garlic

3 cm ginger; crushed

3 cm galangal; cut into stripes

5 keffir limes leaves

1/2 stick of lemon grass (get the one close to the root)' crushed

3 bay leaves

1/2 cup chopped chinese celery

1/2 tbs ground turmeric

1/2 tbs ground pepper corn

1 table spoon ground fennel

1 cube of chicken stock

vegetable oil

Additional condiment:

1 cup bean sprout; plunk it into boiled water and then take it out.

Krupuk (shrimp crackers)

slices of limes (get the juice out baby)

ground thai or red chilles.

1 tomato; slices

fried spring onion

Directions:

1. Boiled the chicken with water and salt, add the bay leaves for 10 minutes (keep the broth)

2. Fry the chicken till its a bit brownish then sliced it. Put the bones back to the chicken broth.

3. Grind the shallot and ginger then mix it with other spices like ginger, galangal. turmeric, fennel and white pepper corn.

4. Heat a pan, add 5 tbs vegetable oil, add the spices in then add the keffir lime leaves, bay leaves and lemon grass till fragran.

5. Add the coconut milk and chicken broth, let it simmer for a while then add the chicken slices, cook till the soup is boiled.

6. Serve in a bowl and add the condiment.