Soto Betawi Instant Pot

Name: Soto Betawi Instant Pot
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 30 min
Ingredients: 1 Tomato; 2 lemongrass sticks; 2 bay leaves; 2 kafir lime leaves; 1 carrot; 2 chili large; 1 ginger thumb; 2 teaspoon salt; 4 garlic cloves; 6 shallots; 1 cinnamon stick; 1 teaspoon cumin; 1 tablespoon coriander; 1 teaspoon raw sugar; 1 teaspoon white pepper; 1 tablespoon kecup manis (If you do not have use 1 teaspoon soy sauce or 2 raw sugar); 2 spring onions; 6 peppercorns; ½ teaspoon nutmeg; 1 teaspoon lime juice; 2 potatoes; 1.5 lb beef1 can coconut cream; 

Tasty and Easy

Pressure Cooker Batavia Soup

This recipe is one of the famous Indonesian soups and had its origins from Batavia - which is now Jakarta the capital of Indonesia.

Before 1942 Batavia was a colonial city for the Dutch East Indies.

There were many amazing dishes created in that time - a blend of Dutch and traditional Indonesian cuisine.

What is Soto Betawi?
“Soto Betawi", Soto Batavia" or Jakarta beef soup, is a tasty coconut-based soup from the Indonesian capital Jakarta. It will be found on all the street food stands but also in upscale restaurants.

The Soto Betawi or Jakarta Beef Soup is usually served with rice and or Emping Melinjo crackers which are really nice in themselves. The English name is bitter nut crisps.

You will really love this soup.

Key Spices And Ingredients for Soto Betawi.

Lemongrass

Lemon grass is commonly used all through Asia - but it is most common in Southeast Asia. Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam employ it in their cuisines. for making dishes like Tom Yum Goong, Beef Rendang, and Laksa to name but a few.

Chilli

Chilli is a key ingredient an you can use only a little and it will make a huge difference to the overall taste. My message to you if you are afraid - is do not be - just use a very small amount to start with - you will soon learn just how much you need.

Ginger

Ginger is another key ingredient, just like chilli - use a little at first, but do use it because you will notice a difference. Even if you do not actually taste the ginger directly - it actually influences and enhances the overall flavour of the dish.

Prepare Your Ingredients

It really does help to get organized by getting all your ingredients measured and organized first.

Why - because when you have never made a recipe before - having all your ingredients ready means that you can firstly check them off against the recipe before you start so that nothing is missing.

Secondly - as you are moving through the cooking steps it lets you focus on the dish preparation rather than jumping around looking for or preparing a missed item.

Prepare The Meat

Cut the meat into slabs about 3/4 inch thick.

Batavia Soup meat ingredients instant pot

Batavia Soup paste ingredients instant pot

Make The Ginger And Shallot (onion) Paste

In a blender put sliced ginger, shallots, and a tablespoon of oil.

It should form a smooth paste like what is shown here.

Fresh Nutmeg

You can use powdered nutmeg - but if you have a fresh one the overall taste is better - here we are grating a nutmeg to add to our soto betawi.

Batavia Soup cook ingredients instant pot

Brown The Meat

Set the instant pot to saute and when hot add 1 tablespoon olive oil.

Cook the meat in big slabs (see picture) for about 2-3 minutes on each side .

Cook Out the Garlic and Shallot Paste

I really like the depth of flavor that a chilli can add but I do not like it too hot.

By scrapping the seeds and a little bit of the inside skin you can remove most of the heat - and keep the nice flavor enhancing properties of the chilli.

Batavia Soup vegetable ingredients instant pot

Batavia Soup coconut ingredients instant pot

Add In Spices And Coconut Milk

Now Put in all the other spices and stir

Then add in the coconut milk and stir

Place In The Other Ingedients

Put in 6 cups of water and stir well

Put back the beef slabs

Add in the lemon juice, celery, carrot spring onion, crushed bay leaves, crushed kafir lime leaves.

Pressure cook for 30 minutes and 10 minutes natural release

After Cooking

First, take out the meat.

Now taste the broth - and add salt, pepper, sugar, and ketchup-manis to taste.

Get it tasting just right and then move to the next step.

Chunk Down The Ingredients

Sautee the potatoes and cut into big pieces - see the photo here.

Cut the meat also into good-sized chunks

And then add to a soup bowl - then meat, potatoes plus the soup broth.

After that, you will be almost ready to eat!

Plated And Ready To Eat

Here you can see the plated version of soto betawi - and believe me it is really delicious and not like any other soup you have tasted.

You will see the red sauce here - that is actually blitzed up chilli- I do suggest you do this step (see below) because even if you do not like hot - just put the tiniest bit of this in and it actually just brings the flavor of the soup alive.

By just putting in a small amount and stirring - you can control the final taste to you liking but it is worth the extra few minutes to make what the Indonesians call sambul.

Optional Chilli Sambul

I really like the depth of flavor that a chilli can add but I do not like it too hot.

To make this then blitz 2 chilies in the blender with some oil - and add sparingly to taste into your own personal bowl (not the whole bowl of soup).

You will like the extra flavor the sauce just brings out - when doing it for the first time - just add a tiny bit, by bit to get your taste right. Say about 1/8 of a teaspoon at a time.

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