The cold freezing weather is perfect for this Indonesian style beef soup. Serve this with a bowl of hot steaming jasmine rice like the Indonesian do. You will be rewarded with very satisfying and delicious meal of the day.

For some reason, I love to use beef shank for all of my stew and soup recipe, if unavailable at your grocery store, you can use precut beef stew instead.

Soto Daging
recipe adapted from Ratnasoe's
serve 6 to 8

3 pounds beef shanks
5 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
2 large shallots, roughly chopped
5 candlenuts, roughly chopped (available at Asian grocery store)
1 teaspoon roughly chopped fresh turmeric root (same amount if using powder)
1 tablespoon roughly chopped fresh ginger root
1 tablespoons lightly toasted coriander seeds
10 white peppercorns
3 - 5 fresh kaffir lime leaves
1 stalk fresh lemongrass
2 teaspoon fish sauce, to taste (optional)
canola oil or any vegetable oil
12 cups water

To serve

Steam jasmine rice
lime
tomato, cut into wedges
fresh bean sprouts
roughly chopped cilantro
roughly chopped scallions
fried shallots, optional

Make the spice paste: place garlic, shallots, candlenuts, turmeric, ginger, coriander seeds, and white peppercorn in food processor, process to make a smooth paste. You might want to add a little bit of water to keep the blade running. Alternately, use a large mortar and pestle if you own one.

Discard the green outer layer of the lemongrass, cut into 3 inch long, then lightly bruised with the back of knife.

Set a large soup pot over medium heat, when the pot is hot, add about 2 tablespoon canola or vegetable oil, throw in kaffir lime and lemongrass, fry for a few seconds to infused the oil. Now, add the paste, stirring often to prevent the paste from sticking to the bottom of the pan, which will happen to  any paste that contain candlenuts. So be patient, and stir often.  When the paste is fragrant and the raw smell disappear, add beef shanks, season with salt and fish sauce, give it couple of stir, then add water. Turn the heat to high, bring the soup to a boil. As soon as it boils, turn the heat to low, let it simmer for about  2  to 2 ½ hours, or until the beef is tender.

When the soup is ready, take out the beef shanks, and separate the beef from the bone (save the bones for your pooch), return to the beef to the soup. If desire, you can strain the broth, and discard the rough paste, then return the broth to the pan. In general I can't be bother with this step, as I wouldn't mind to bite in few pieces of spices. It's what make this soup rustic and homey, I think. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed.

To serve:

scoop out about half a cup of steaming hot jasmin rice, place it in a deep soup bowl, top with handful of bean sprouts, Ladle some beef soup with generous amount of beef in it (don't be stingy), scatter some tomatoes, scallions, cilantro, and fried shallots, lastly squeeze a little bit of lime. Serve at once.