Category: Recipes

This is a great soup for a cold winter’s day, which makes it even weirder that it’s from Indonesia.  Nevertheless, it’s an Indonesian classic, and we’ve had it in several restaurants and seen it for sale on the street.  Note that the features vegetables that are all winter root vegetables, except for the tomatoes and scallions, and that we would think of the spices as Christmas cookie spices.  Oh well.  It’s good though.  You might translate it as "Spice Islands Oxtail Soup," as it is sort of like oxtail soup, but it includes the three greatest money-earners for the Dutch in Indonesia: nutmeg, cloves, and pepper.

2 lbs. oxtail
3 inches of ginger, unpeeled but smashed
3 nutmeg seeds, roughly broken
20 cloves
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
salt to taste
3 carrots, halved and chopped into 1 inch chunks
2 leeks, chopped into 1 inch chunks
1 scallion, chopped into 1 inch chunks
2 medium all-purpose potatoes, chopped into 8 chunks each
2 tomatoes, cut into wedges
1 cup chopped celery, with leaves.
fried shallots
1 Tbsp butter or vegetable oil

Fill a large pot with enough water to cover the oxtail generously and add the ginger.  Bring the water to a boil, add the oxtail, and boil for three minutes.  Pour out the water and discard the ginger.  Refill the pot (still with the oxtail) with cold water and bring to a boil.  Add the cloves and nutmeg, and simmer, covered, for 1 1/2 hours until the meat is tender.  Remove from heat, cool completely, and refridgerate overnight.  Skim the congealed fat from the surface.

Bring the soup back to a simmer.  Heat butter/oil in a pan over medium heat, add carrot, leek, and scallion and saute for 3 minutes, then add to the soup along with the potatoes, pepper, and salt to taste.  Cover and simmer for twenty minutes, or until the potatoes are tender.  Ladle into bowls and garnish with celery, tomato slices, and fried shallots.

The recipe would probably be even tastier if, before you started, you rubbed the meat lightly with vegetable oil and roasted it for an hour or so at 425 degrees, then deglazed the pan with water, used that for the soup base, and skipped the initial boil-and-dump phase.  We can’t do that though because we don’t have an oven.  If you do this, it’s important to use water–wine would ruin the taste.

Here’s the first of the recipes from our cooking class in Bali.  It’s a spice paste called Sambal Pasih, translated as Seafood Sambal.  Usually, sambals are sauces that are served on the side and used as a garnish.  In this case, it acts more like a spice paste, as it is cooked and then added to other recipes for flavor.

2   large red chilies, sliced and deseeded
2   cloves  garlic, peeled
3   shallots, peeled
2 cm fresh turmeric, peeled
1 cm fresh ginger, peeled
1   tomato, peeled and seeded
1 tsp coriander seeds, dry roasted
2   candlenuts (optional; or use macadamia nuts)
1 tsp shrimp paste (optional)
1 Tb salad oil
1   salam leaf (optional)
1   stalk lemongrass, bruised
3   pieces celery leaves
1   tsp palm sugar (can use brown sugar)

Chop and grind all ingredients except lemongrass and salam leaf.  Use a mortar and pestle, blender or food processor.  Saute the paste in a small amount of oil (peanut, salad, or vegetable).  Add the lemongrass and salam leaf and cook for about 5 minutes on medium heat.  Season with a pinch of salt and pepper.  Let cool.

We asked the chef if one can make lots of this at once and store it in the fridge until needed.  We think he said yes, but we are not entirely sure.  We’ll post some other recipes that use this recipe as a base soon.