Easy Sop Buntut - Indonesian Ox Tail Soup

I can't believe what just happened!!!
All the crap I've been typing for several hours has gone!

I was having one of those really uninspired days, where my mind goes blank and believe it or not, I almost started by writing a couple sad versions of "What does one write when one has nothing to write? Writing about having nothing to write?"...then thought better of it and wrote paragraphs after paragraphs on how I grew up with sop (soup) back home in Indonesia. Yawn.
It was pure crap.

I guess the universe didn't want me to inflict such a lethally boring article to my readers' soul (who are probably bored to the bone at work, or at home, refreshing their Facebook or Twitter pages every few seconds, seeing one boring update after another, or even none), so when I clicked "Publish", I was faced by the feared "Page cannot be displayed" error message.

I always pride myself of being the "click-save-after-every-little-update" girl, I thought I would never be those who lose an unpublished draft, no matter how painfully boring it was. I was (again) wrong. I lost that boring draft. Thank God.

What the heck did I wrote?

"I didn't like sop then, but now I do."
Imagine that sentence being stretched into a 2,000 word article. Yawn. A long yawn.

But, oh dammit, I lost the recipe draft too!

Easy Sop Buntut - Indonesian Ox Tail Soup

Recipe
- 1 lb ox tail (chopped into chunks)
- 1 large onion, chopped into chunks, or 6 shallots
- 1 carrot, peeled and chopped into bite sized chunks
- 1 cup straw mushrooms (totally optional, you can also use potatoes)
- 2 cups of chicken stock (or use powder/cube)
- olive oil, hot water, salt, pepper, nutmeg (use quite a lot of it, it's the dominant spice in this dish)
- 1 sprig of spring onion, chopped (garnish)
- crispy shallot (garnish)
- juice of 1 lime (garnish)

I used pressure cooker to dramatically reduce the cooking time. Of course, it also works without a pressure cooker, it should taste even better.

Saute onion/shallot in olive oil, add ox tail pieces, brown them a bit, add carrot chunks, potatoes (if using), add chicken stock (add water if you want more soup), add salt, pepper, nutmeg, cook in pressure cooker for 25 minutes. If you're not using a pressure cooker, bring to boil and cook until meat is tender, at least 1.5 hours, the longer the better. Once the meat is tender, add mushrooms (if using), adjust seasoning, garnish with spring onion and crispy shallot, squeeze juice of 1 lime. Serve hot with steamed rice and you can do perkedel (Indonesian fried potato cakes) as a side dish.


Don't let the clean and clear looking broth fool you, it is bursting with flavors.

Now please please please tell me I am not the only one who's lost a boring draft? Misery loves company (Wah! How evil).

"Indonesian" Oxtail Soup

Previously, I bitched about what should be considered Indonesian food and decided to call some of my dishes "Indonesian". Recently, after reading hundreds of posts on my Indonesian friends' blogs, I realised that my so called "Indonesian" cooking (note the quotation marks and the phrase "so called") is the most unauthentic one in the whole galaxy, measured by traditional Indonesian standard. It hardly involves classic Indonesian ingredients such as galangal, bay leaves, turmeric, corriander seeds, cumin, candlenuts, tempe etc etc...and more often than not, the whole mix of exotic spices came out of an instant packet :p. The most Indonesian thing about the dishes is...the person eating it.

However, this time, no instant spice packet. It's not because of my determination to try cooking everything from scratch...but it's because there's no spice packet for Indonesian oxtail soup (or I couldn't find one). HAHA! Believe me, if there's one, I would buy it in a heartbeat.

I consulted my friend, whose oxtail soup received rave reviews and repeat orders from her husband's friends, and she gave me her recipe. I bet you a new kitchen that I won't be able to stay within the guidelines of her recipe...I was so sure of this(more than the sun rising in the East). I would definitely add this and that and ruin her true and tested recipe. It's my defect, really.

"Indonesian" Oxtail Soup

Indonesian oxtail soup is something extraordinarily simple, yet bursting with flavors. It's perfect after a long medley of dining out.

Recipe
- 1 lb oxtail (I bought frozen)
- 1 onion, roughly chopped
- 4 cloves of garlic, crushed
- 4 small tomatoes, cut into sections
- 1 potato, chopped into bite sized chunks
- a pack of straw mushrooms, quartered
- 1 sprig of spring onion, chopped
- a dash of nutmeg
- olive oil, salt, pepper, sugar, hot water, vinegar, corn starch

I am using pressure cooker for this, but you can cook it slowly in a regular pot. Boil oxtail for a few minutes to get rid of excess fat and quickly defrost it, drain, cut off excess fat, set aside. Season oxtail chunks with salt, pepper, sugar and dust with a bit of corn starch. Brown oxtail chunks in a bit of hot oil, add onion chunks, garlic, tomatoes, potato chunks, add hot water. Season with salt, pepper, sugar, vinegar and nutmeg, cook for about 20-25 minutes (in a pressure cooker. Or 1.5-2 hours in a regular pot, with low heat, until meat is falling-off-the-bone tender). Release steam off pressure cooker, add mushrooms, cook for about 5 minutes, adjust seasonings if necessary. Serve with steamed rice, kecap manis and garnish with chopped spring onion and fried shallot.

You aren't as lazy assed as me, you could whip up some perkedel (fried potato cakes) or bakwan jagung (fried corn fritters) to eat with this dish. But generally...

...this Indonesian is pretty happy with this unauthentic dish *grin*

How do I dress Indonesian without batik? Check it out here.