Spicy and Sour Indonesian Beef Soup Recipe

Rain, rain and rain ....

It seems that Jakarta doesn't know anything else besides the rainy season. For me and Tedy (my brother), rain always drives us to imagine spicy, soupy, hot dishes with a lot of rice, of course. It means forget about the diet program and forget about a target weight loss of 15 kg. This never ending diet program sometimes make me so crazy and hopeless, because it never worked! But I always did it again, and again. 

Ok, now back to the soup that I want to cook.  I have a half kilogram frozen beef in my fridge and a bunch of sour starfruit (carambola) hanging on the tree in my yard, so if I combine them together then finally we will have a bowl of sour and spicy beef soup at lunch! Sounds very tempting. I can't wait for that! ^_^

Carambola/sour star fruit tree

The origin Spicy and Sour Indonesian Beef Soup  actually came from Central Java, we used to call it 'asem-asem daging' in Indonesian language. This dish mainly consists of slices of meet, usually beef but sometimes we can use poultry also, red chilies (oh yeah, a lot is better!), garlic and shallot. Some people use beans, cabbage or corn also, but I prefer just using meat only. To make the sour taste we put a lot of this little sour starfruit or carambola, or we can use tamarind paste and green tomato chunks instead if the sour starfruit is difficult to get. As many other cuisine from Central Java, little sweet taste is a must. I used palm sugar or we used to call it Java sugar, a solid rock sugar with deep amber color made from palm tree, this sugar can give different taste instead of granulated sugar. The final taste of this dish should be sour, a little bit salty and sweet. 

Confused about carambola? Maybe this little article from Wikipedia can give you some information. Carambola  also known as starfruit, is the fruit of Averrhoa carambola, a species of tree native to the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. The fruit is popular throughout Southeast Asia, the South Pacific and parts of East Asia. The tree is also cultivated throughout non-indigenous tropical areas, such as in Latin America, the Caribbean, and the southern United States. The fruit has distinctive ridges running down its sides (usually five but can sometimes vary); in cross-section, it resembles a star, hence its name. The entire fruit is edible and is usually eaten out of hand. They may also be used in cooking and can be made into relishes, preserves, and juice drinks.

Now let's see the recipe.

Spicy and Sour Indonesian Beef Soup Recipe
Recipe from my personal collection

for 3 servings

Ingredients:
- 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil for frying beef
- 500 gram beef, cut into 3 x 3 cm
- 1000 ml hot boiling water
- 5 Indonesian bay leaves (daun salam)
- 1 tablespoons tamarind paste
- 1 tablespoon sweet soy sauce (kecap manis)
- 5 shallot, thinly slice
- 3 cloves garlic, chopped 
- 3 large red chilies, cut into 1,5 cm
- 2 large green chilies, cut into 1,5 cm
- 3 bird's eye chilies, cut into 0.5 cm
- 8 - 10 carambola, cut into 1,5 cm
- 1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar/palm sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon bouillon powder (optional)
- 1 teaspoon of salt

Roasted spices:
Skewer the spices on the tip of a fork and roast on the stove until slightly blackish.
- 2 cm ginger root, roasted with skin, peeled and smashed
- 3 cm galangal root, roasted and smashed
- 3 cm fresh turmeric root, roasted with skin, peeled and smashed

Directions:
In a non stick skillet put the oil and let it hot over medium heat. Put the beef cubes, and browning the beef. Set aside.

In a soup pot, pour hot boiling water. Add the browning beef, Indonesian bay leaves, all roasted spices, sweet soy sauce, and tamarind paste into the pot, cook until beef really tender. 

While we are cooking the beef, heat the skillet that we used to fry the beef. Saute garlic and shallot until fragrant and translucent. Add all chilies, and carambola, stir well. Pour the sauteed spices into the pot. Add salt, palm sugar, white pepper and bouillon powder. Stir well and boil until all ingredients cooked and carambolas become tender. 

Crushed three or four carambolas to add sour taste into the soup, more if you want the soup really sour.  Taste the soup, add more salt or sugar to make a balance taste. 

Remove the pot from the stove, serve soup with rice. This dish should taste sweet, sour, salty and best eaten while still hot.  Yummy!