Description
Sayur asem is a very common sour vegetable soup with a refreshing tamarind broth, originally from the Jakarta area. This recipe gives the classic soup a twist by adding beef trimmings, which can be ommitted.
Ingredients
Scale
- 250 gr beef trimmings (optional)
- 1 corn cob, cut into 4
- 50 gr raw peanuts (optional)
- 150 gr young jackfruit (optional), cut into bite-sized pieces
- 0.5 chayotte, peeled, cut into bite-sized pieces
- 3 long beans, cut into 4 cm pieces.
- 5 shallots, peeled and chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
- 2 candlenuts, chopped
- 0.5 tsp roasted shrimp paste (optional)
- 2 red chillies (optional)
- 2 cm galangal, bruised
- 2 Indonesian bay leaves (salam leaves)
- Salt to taste
- Sugar to taste
- 1 tsp tamarind pulp
- 2 lt water
Instructions
- Knead the tamarind pulp with 4tbsp of water to make tamarind juice.
- Using a blender or food processor, blend into a fine paste the shallots, garlic, candlenuts, chillies and roasted shrimp paste.
- Put the beef trimming in a medium-sized pot, then add the water.
- Cook over high heat until the soup boils.
- Add the corn pieces, young jackfruit and peanuts.
- Bring the soup to boil again, then reduce the heat to medium low.
- Add the spice paste to the soup.
- Add the galangal, salam leaves, salt, sugar and tamarind juice.
- Cook for about 30 minutes. During the 30 minutes, you can correct the flavour and add salt, sugar or tamarind according to your taste.
- Add the chayote and long beans, and continue cooking for another 5 minutes.
- Turn off the heat and let the soup rest for a while before serving.
Notes
- If the beef trimmings are omitted, cook the hard vegetables such as peanuts and corn with the spices until tender, before adding the rest of the vegetables.
- When the red chillies are omitted, the soup will be clear rather than reddish/yellowish.
Keywords: One-pot meal, Non-spicy