Cooking Chicken Soup with Instapot

I don't know about you but hearty chicken soup is one of those meals I long for when I am not feeling well, when the weather is cold, or whenever I miss home. Unfortunately, my chicken soup is not the same kind that my husband grew up eating. "There's something missing," he said and he didn't know what it was. Until last month when we went home to Indonesia, my sister in law was cooking chicken soup and my hubby tasted it. He told me that's it tasted the same as chicken soup his mom used to cook. We finally figured out the  missing ingredient: candlenut, a nut commonly used in Indonesian cooking. This is optional ingredient though. I didn't use it for years and the soup taste just fine.

Ingredients:
chicken with bones, carrots, potatoes, salt, and white pepper
Three main spices: shallots, garlic

and candlenut

mince/ grind them

Indonesian Meatballs Soup a.k.a Sop Bakso

Meatballs Soup a.k.a. Sup Bakso is one of the staple food in Indonesia loved by kids and adults. 

Our family love this soup too so I cook this often.

Last year I donated both my slow cooker and pressure cooker and replace them with 
Instant Pot. I have been using it almost every single day to make beef or chicken broth. 

No more buying those canned/ boxed broth. 

Homemade broth is so much better and healthier especially if you have anemia like me.

First, make the beef broth by cooking the beef bone {I used beef neck bone found at Ranch 99} 

for 4 hours with regular pot/ slow cooker or 45 minutes if using Instant Pot or pressure cooker.

Some people make their own meatballs; I don't. I tried to make it before but the texture wasn't as good as this one I found at Asian Grocery store (picture below) so I use them instead of making them myself.

Add the meatballs and the rest of the ingredients to the broth and then cook again for another 20 minutes.

Sometimes I add regular tofu, fish tofu or use fish balls instead of beef meat balls.

Eat with rice or rice noodle. Enjoy!

Indonesian Meatball Soup/ Soup Bakso
Printable Recipe

Ingredients:

1 pack of meat balls 

1 teaspoon of vinegar

1 piece of beef bone  

4 cloves of garlic - minced

1 big shallot or  ¼ big yellow onion - sliced

Water - about 8 cups 

1 teaspoon of sugar 

1 teaspoon of soy sauce  

1 Tablespoon fish sauce or 1 teaspoon mushroom seasoning (to replace MSG) 

Salt and white pepper to taste 

1 teaspoon of preserved cabbage  

Fried shallot and sliced green onion for garnish {available at Asian grocery store}

Direction:
Cook with regular pot, slow cooker, pressure cooker, or instant pot

1. Boil water inside a regular pot, slow cooker, instant pot, or pressure cooker. Add the beef bone and vinegar.
2. Cook for about 4 hour if cooking with slow cooker/ regular pot, or 45 minutes if using instant pot or pressure cooker.
3. Add the meatballs and the rest of the ingredients then cook for another 20 minutes.
4. Adjust taste with salt and pepper
5. Garnish with fried shallot and sliced green onion
6. Eat with rice or rice noodle

You may also like:

Oxtail Soup

Daikon Soup

Beef Bourguignon

Indonesian Oxtail Soup a.k.a Soup Buntut

Besides the daikon soup, this is another soup that I cook often. The whole family love this soup so hearty and filling. I used to think this is one of those food that's too complicated to make at home but turned out it's not. I use instapot to make this but you can use regular pot, pressure cooker, or slow cooker. I prefer using instapot because I can just press a button and leave, without having to stir or watch it. Very convenient especially when I have to take the kids to different activities.

Don't let the long list of ingredients scare you from trying to cook this. All of them should be available in Ranch 99 or other Asian grocery stores.

I buy oxtail either from Japanese Supermarket or Costco.

Cooking Beef Bourguignon with Pressure Cooker

I was inspired to cook Beef Bourguignon when I read my friend Marina's post about her cooking it on her blog a few years ago. However, I didn't own a dutch oven, I still don't have one until now, in addition, it was summer time when I wanted to give it a try and there's no way I would turn on the oven for 4 hours. So I tried other way to cook the dish: using pressure cooker or instapot.

The ingredients

The cooking process: