Soto Medan And Perkedel

Spent 2 hours in kitchen making this for the first time just because… I have major craving for Indonesian food 😭 #covidsucks

Googled around for recipes and most recipes call for quite a lot of spices to make the paste for the soup base, so we have to adjust and make do with whatever we have at home.

We have adjusted recipes from these amazing websites:
https://whattocooktoday.com/soto-ayam.html ,
https://dailycookingquest.com/soto-medan-medan-style-chicken-soup.html

So here’s the ingredients for our version which we are quite satisfy with.

Ingredients for soto Medan (soup):
Shallots and garlic (peeled – 80g)
Galangal (peeled -30g)
Ginger (peeled – 15g)
Coriander seeds (1.5 tsp)
Turmeric powder (1.5 tsp)
Bay leaf (3 pieces)
Lime leaf (5 pieces)
Cardamom pod (4-5 pods)
Cloves (4-5 pieces)
Lemongrass (2 stalks – bruised and chopped to 2-3 sections)
Chicken thigh 800g
Salt
Coconut milk 200g
bean sprout 150g
Water- a big pot 😅
Tomatoes, beansprout, chopped parsley and hard boiled egg for toppings

Ingredients for chili paste:
Chili padi (10-15 pieces)
Water to boil chili
Salt

Ingredients for perkedel/bergedil:
Potatoes (500g before peeling)
Chinese parsley – 1 big stalk, chopped to small pieces
Minced meat 100g
minced shallots 15g
Fried shallots (bawang Goreng) -3 tbsp
Salt
Pepper
Egg (beaten , to coat the perkedel before deep fry)

Yes! It’s just a simple meal with just soup , mashed potatoes and rice but the preparations and ingredient lists are quite massive 😅😅 not something I can afford to do often. I used thermomix to sauté the rempah/spices so that I could do the other preparations. Hope the next time I get to make this dish will be less chaotic and probably can spend lesser time 🤣 no nice photos because I was so tired after intensive 2 hours of cooking and cleaning.

Steps for Soto Medan:

1. Placed chicken thigh in a pot of water and set it to boil in a big pot of water. Let it simmer for at least 30 minutes. Remove chicken thigh and shred it for soup toppings (I placed it in stand mixer bowl and process it with dough paddle to shred the chicken into stripes). Reserve the water for soup base.
2. Place some oil in thermomix mixing boil, add in peeled shallots, garlic, galangal, ginger and coriander seeds , 5 sec/ speed5 (repeat if necessary to get a paste texture)
3. Scrape down the bowl and cook 6min/Varoma/speed 2
4. Add turmeric powder, bay leaf, lime leaf, cardamom pods, cloves, lemongrass, salt. Cook 4 mins/Varoma/Speed 1
5. Pour in 1.5-2L of chicken soup from the pot to the thermomix mixing bowl. Let it cook 25 mins/Varoma/Speed 1(Reverse blade)
6. Strained the soup back into pot to get rid of all the spices
7. Add coconut milk into pot and let it simmer for 5 minutes. Add salt and sugar according to preference.
8. To serve, ladle soup into bowl and top with shredded chicken, tomatoes, blanched beansprout, hard boiled egg, fried shallots, chili paste and fresh chinese parsley.

Steps for chili paste:

1. Boil chili (stem removed) in a pan until chili is softened (5- 10 minutes)
2. Drain and add salt.
3. Chop or grind till desired consistency

Steps for Perkedel:

1. Peeled potatoes and cut into quarter chunks, steam for 15-20 minutes till it can be soften easily with fork
2. Drain any water on the plate, and let it sit in the steamer to dry out the potatoes a little
3. In a pan, stir fry minced meat with a little oil and some minced shallots till almost cooked.
4. In a bowl, mash the potatoes with fork and add in minced meat, fried shallots, chopped pasrsley, salt and pepper. Mix till well combined.
5. Lightly oil your palms and shape the mashed potatoes mixture into round balls and flatten slightly with palm and set aside in a plate. Perkedel patties are about 0.5 inches thick after flattened.
6. Prepare a deep fry pot with oil about 1 inch. Coat the patties with beaten egg and deep fry the potato patties till golden brown.