Last Summer my family made a trip to Kuching; a very much delayed trip of 7 years’ overdue. While I was in 7th heaven binging foods I grew up eating, my Belgian hubs and Belsian boys were craving for their Belgian fries. Erm… I guess I could totally understand their cravings, because that’s what happened to me this Summer!
We were in the South of France for 2 weeks, consuming local Provençal’s 3-course meals almost daily. And guess what? My palate was screaming for SPICES!!!
When we headed home, I was longing for that one dish that’s packed with spices and fresh herbs. Because I had been “pampered” with served meals while in the Provence, it was hard getting back to cooking mode. By the way, I have not been using my thermomix for almost a month! Tsk! Tsk! Tsk!
Therefore, one weekend, I moved my thermie and placed it under the extractor hood. My mission? To appease my craving. Yup, I was craving for the Indonesian inspired dish, “soto ayam” because that’s one tantalising dish that’s packed with all the goodness of spices and fresh herbs. No ready-made or instant boemboes! Everything was fresh and cooked from scratch… in my thermie!
If you are wondering what “Soto” means, I was as blur as most of you, so I asked the right people, my Indonesian colleagues. They said it’s a soup dish. Yes, I knew it’s a soup dish, but what is soto? I did not get an answer right away but they went on to explain that usually chicken meat is submerged in water with specific spices and herbs to obtain the broth.
Okay, in my humble opinion, soto is not just a simple soup dish, it’s the method how the broth is made. My Indonesian colleagues agreed to my curious conclusion.
And by the way, I used fresh turmeric to give the broth that vibrant yellow look, while poaching and simmering the chicken in the broth. It’s such a healthy dish, with lots of flavour and very, very aromatic.
Two years ago, I posted the soto ayam recipe done the conventional way, so in this post, I’m going the opposite direction.
The Revival
Since our Summer hols in August, my thermomix had been left idle for about a month! When I started cooking the soto ayam, my thermie went bonkers. The sound of the blades spinning was not normal. It sounded rusty. I was hoping the squeaky sound would go away. It did not, until I started to boil the chicken. Guess what?!!! My thermie stopped cooking completely in the first 4 to 5 minutes. And I still had so many more minutes to go before the raw chicken meat was cooked!! Oh no!!!! Not now. So I did what I had to do, i.e. removed the plug and then re-plugged. At the same time, I had to re-start the menu. I felt like a surgeon reviving a comatose. Thank goodness, the ‘flatline’ re-acted and my thermie came back to life! It was a HUGE relief! Phew!!!
And here’s how I cooked my Soto Ayam, which I have personally translated as Fragrant Herbed Chicken Soup, because that’s what it actually is!
Ingredients A
- 5g Sarawak white peppercorns
- 5g coriander seeds
Ingredients B
- 70g garlic
- 230g shallots
- 50g galangal
- 10g (1 stalk) lemongrass
- 25g turmeric
- 65g ginger
- 20g candle nuts
- 4 kaffir lime leaves
Ingredients C
- 60g coconut oil
Ingredients D
- 8 pcs (ca 1 kg) chicken drumsticks
- 800g water
- 4 stalks lemon grass (bruised)
- A palmful kaffir lime leaves (bruised)
- Coarse sea salt to taste
Ingredients E
- 8 – 9 medium-sized eggs placed in Varoma dish
Ingredients F
- 500g hot water
Garnishing
- Cucumber, julienned
- Fried shallots (not in photo)
- Spring onion
- Fresh coriander
- Mint leaves
Method
- Place A in TM bowl. Dry roast for 10 mins/ V/ sp 1. Mill the toasted spices when temp drops below 60C. Mill for 1 min/ sp 6->10/ MC
- Tip the ground spices onto a clean plate/ bowl. Set aside
- Meanwhile add B and blend for 15 sec/sp 10. Scrape the sides of the inner bowl and under the lid. Again, blend for 15 sec/ sp 10.
- Add C and ground spices A and sauté for 15 mins/ V/ sp 1
- Add D. Cook for 15 mins/V/R/ spoon
- Place E on top of TM bowl and cook / boil further for 17 mins/ V/ R/ spoon (or until the eggs are boiled according to your liking or better still, use the TM5 recipe chip and boil the eggs separately. I like mine with firm white and runny yolk. Heaven! )
- Remove Varoma dish and cool eggs under cold running water. Set aside.
- Remove cooked chicken. Set aside
- Meanwhile add F and check the seasoning of the broth. Boil further for 5 mins/ 100 C/ R/ spoon
- Before drizzling the hot spiced broth, plate the sliced cooked chicken in a (deep) bowl and garnish with thinly stripped cucumber, coriander leaves, spring onions and mint leaves. Place a hard or medium or soft boiled egg on top and sprinkle with fried shallots/ onions.
- Pour the hot broth slowly over the chicken.
- Serve with steamed white basmati rice (which I also cooked in my thermie)
A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words!
My Verdict?
When my thermie stopped cooking in the first 5 minutes, I felt my whole world came crashing down around me! It was that bad. I was thinking that I had prepared everything for nothing. That’s just not me. I wanted to see, or better still, taste the end result. It appears that the thermie must not be left idle for a long time. It needs attention and wearing, therefore, TM owners, keep your thermie busy!
Now, the verdict for the dish. Usually I would serve the soto ayam with vermicelli or noodles. This was the first time I had the fragrant herbed chicken broth with steamed rice. It was a complete meal which we all liked, but personally, I would serve the broth with rice noodles. As you can see, the egg was supposed to be hard-boiled, but it turned out soft, which we all liked, too 😀
With the summer temperatures behind us, this dish will be made quite frequently now. This dish is pure comfort food for cold weather.
So I made this dish again with rice vermicelli, and making sure to boil the eggs separately as per the recipe chip.
Et voilà!
Stay warm!
Cheers!
By the way ... 