Soto is actually the name of an Indonesian dish that resembles soup but cooked with lots of herbs and spices. There are many variations of soto in Indonesia, and it seems that every province has there own version of soto. There are many variations of ingredients used to make this super delicious dish, but the main ingredient is usually something meaty, such as beef, ribs, chicken, prawns, or even fish. The meat plays a very important part to make a good broth. Then we will mix the broth with herbs and spices to make them even more delicious. You can tell if a soto dish is good or not just by looking at the colour and slurping the broth. Once you taste one spoonful of broth, you will already know if the dish is good enough or not.

We eat soto for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and sometimes if we’re hungry in between meal and yes, that is to describe how famous this dish is in Indonesia and it plays a big part in people’s daily life. Soto can be easily found everywhere, from street food vendors to 5 starts restaurants, but you will mostly find soto served hot with steam rice as a family meal on the dining table, cooked by the chef of the house aka. the mother.

Although the main ingredients can be different, actually the herbs and spices are mostly the same, well maybe a bit different but not that much. The one thing that really differentiates is actually the broth because the chicken broth will taste different than beef broth or prawn stock.

One other thing in common is that we eat soto with lots of condiments, such as vegetables (potatoes, cabbages, bean sprout), boiled egg, perkedel or fried mashed potato, keropok or crackers, topped with fried shallots, spring onion or celery, poya or shrimp crackers crumbs, and not to forget to squeeze some lime juice, add sweet soy sauce, and at least one spoonful of hand made chilli sauce. That is so yummy and so addictive for the stomach.

I make soto quite often as it is one of my family’s favourite dish. When my sister was visiting us, she also requested soto to be served as our dinner. Yes, that is how much we love this comfort food.

I’ve posted a recipe for soto ayam with chicken as the main ingredient (because ayam means chicken in Bahasa Indonesia), but this time I will be posting a different kind of soto which is made from shrimps. Originally, this dish came from Medan, North Sumatera, Indonesia. If you ever heard of Lake Toba, that this is the place where the lake is located. It is a famous tourist destination in Sumatera, Indonesia.

The soup is creamy because we are adding coconut milk to the broth and it tastes so delicious especially if you’re using homemade prawn or shrimp stock which I have shared the recipe in this post. 

Ingredients:

1. 1 kg shrimps or prawns (I cleaned but didn’t peel although you can use peeled shrimps)
2. 3 tbsp cooking oil
3. 8 shallots
4. 6 garlic
5. 5 candlenuts, stir fry until fragrant in a non-stick pan without oil
6. 1 tsp coriander powder
7. 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
8. 1/2 tsp ground caraway seeds (or substitute with ground fennel seeds) or jinten in Bahasa Indonesia
9. 1 thumb of galangal, cut in thin slices
10. 1 thumb of ginger, cut into thin slices
11. 1 lemongrass, peel off any dry or tough outer layers then cut diagonally into 5 (don’t just use the bottom part of the lemongrass, use the whole lemongrass to improve the flavour of the dish)
12. 10 lime leaves
13. 5 salam leaves
14. 1 tbsp salt, or to taste
15. 1/2 tsp pepper, or to taste
16. 1.5 L shrimp stock
17. 50 ml coconut cream
18.  2 good pinches of saffron (optional, skip this if you don’t have saffron)
19. 3 tbsp fried shallots, divided
20. 1 tbsp fried garlic
21. 8 green onions, minced
22. freshly squeezed lime juice
23. 2 tomatoes, sliced
24. 100 gr cooked bean sprout
25. 20 gr bean vermicelli (soak in cold water for 15 minutes, then cook in boiling water for 10 seconds or until soft, then strain and set aside)

Method:

1. Prepare the spices and herbs: In a blender, add together: shallots, garlic, candlenuts, coriander powder, salt, caraway seeds and turmeric powder with cooking oil. Process until smooth and they form a paste. Transfer the paste to a wok
2. Add ginger, galangal and lemongrass to the wok and stir fry until really fragrant and the mixture starts to dry and reduced in volume. Transfer to a pot
3. Add shrimp stock to the pot and bring to boil in low heat. Turn off the heat. In this phase, I’d like to wait until the spiced stock is cool enough and strain the liquid to get a clear soup. You can skip this step if you prefer not to strain the stock
4. Add saffron to the stock and bring the stock to boil again, then add coconut milk. Stir constantly and bring to boil
5. Add shrimps and bring to boil again then turn off the heat
6. Add half of the fried shallots, fried garlic and half of the minced green onions. Cover the pot for 5 minutes
7. Prepare serving bowls and arrange: cut tomatoes, bean sprouts and bean vermicelli
8. Add shrimps and pour the soup into the serving bowls
9. Top with fried shallots and minced green onions
10. Finish it by squeezing some lime juice