Sour & Sweet Bean Soup
Origin: Kupang – East Nusa Tenggara Province
Ingredients
- 500 gr beef
- 150 gr french bean, cut in 3cm lengt
- 2 pc carrots, thinly sliced
- 5 pc shallots, thinly sliced
- 3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
- 5 pc large green or red chillies, cut in 1cm length
- 3 pc half ripe tomato, quartered (or take the young green tomatoes if available)
- 2 cm galangale, thinly sliced
- 2 pc salam leaves (use bay leaves as subtitute)
- 2 tbsp tamarind pulp, soak with 3 tbsp water
- 5 tbsp Indonesian sweet soya sauce / Kecap Manis
- 2 tbsp palm/brown sugar
- salt to taste
- 1.5 l beef stock or water
Sour & Sweet Bean Soup
This soup always reminds me of my hometown, especially of my mother who has taught me uncountable cooking's knowledge without dictating nor patronizing.Those knowledge just unnoticeably absorbed & settled in my memories after years of witnessing or being her co-pilot while cooking ;-). Now I have to drew thosememories back while experimenting some recipes with "Try & Error" methods in my own kitchen.Sometimes I get success immediately, sometimes I have to check & re-check to my main resource alias my mother when failureoccured. I just want to satisfy all parties, especially those of you who want to learn to cook Indonesian dishes or maybe just try a new recipe .Maybe you have come accrossed to this beef-vegetable soup somewhere in Indonesia? Or just curious to taste a kind of new soup ??!. Then you can startwith this simple but delicious soup. The taste is a perfect combination between mildly hot, sweet & sour. Served with rice & savory crackers..hmmmm it freshes my throat already !! For those of you who are vegetarian, just take away thebeef out of the recipe. It still taste good!!
Instructions
- Boil 2 liter water in a large saucepan. Then add the beef ***.
- Cook the beef over medium heat (to obtain clear stock) until the beef getting tender. (Skim off and discard the fat that floats to the water surface if necessary).
- When the beef is well cooked, take out from the pan and cut in pieces.
- Keep about 1.5 ml from beef stock, add more water if necessary. Put back the cutting beef into the saucepan. Keep aside.
- Stir-fry the sliced shallots, garlic, chillies, green tomatoes if used & galangale over medium heat until well cooked & fragrant (about 10 minutes).
- Add the bean and stir to mix. Cook until the bean half cooked. Stir all the time to prevent burning then add the fried spice & bean into the beef's pan.
- Soak the tamarind pulp in warm water. Squeeze the tamarind pulp constantly to extract the flavor into the water. Add the tamarind juice & stir to mix. (Add tamarind together with it's pulp to get the optimum sourness).
- Add kecap manis & palm sugar. Adjust the seasoning, add salt to taste. Make sure that the vegetables are not overcooked. Serve hot with rice.
Tips
- *** Add the meat into boiled water then cook over medium heat to preserve it's best taste.
