Egg White Soup / West Lake Beef Soup

I always look for ways to used up my egg whites. Some people use egg white for face mask but with all the ice cream I make, I would never be able to finish my left over egg white even if I used it on my face every day. My baker friend, Bertha often make this soup for her family so I was thrilled when I hear she uses egg whites to make this soup. Yay!

One of the ingredients is shiitake mushroom, you can use the dry in, just soak it in warm water first for about 30 minutes or if you use the fresh one, you can use it right away. 

Sayur Lodeh: Indonesian Vegetables Soup

This is one of my favorite Indonesian meals. I used to buy the instant seasoning but couldn't find one that taste like the one I used to eat in Indonesia. After a lot of trials, I finally found the recipe I like. There is a lot of chopping work involved in making this meal but the result is totally worth it.

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.

Daikon Soup Recipe

We call this 'Soto Bandung' or 'Sop Lobak' in Indonesian. My grandma used to cook this soup every week or so. My mom used to tell us the following story in order to motivate us to eat it: "One day our family dog got poisoned by bad guys who planned to steal something from our home. Then grandma gave the dog daikon and the next day the dog is all well. "

I passed on the story to Max and sure enough when grandma call he asked, "Nyama's dog sakit terus makan lobak jadi sembuh?" {translation= "So grandma, your dog got sick and then it's well after eating daikon?"}
My mom was like "huh?" She didn't think I would still remember that story.

Anyway... our family (even my hubby who never tasted this until he married me) loveeee this soup. It's very tasty and healthy.

The Ingredients:

Shabu Shabu / Hot Pot Recipe

We invited people over for dinner or host gathering pretty often in our house. This is one of our favorite menu for gathering because it is super easy to prepare just dump all the ingredients in one pot or two or three depends on the size of the group. I don't mind eating the left over the rest of the week. It's so good.

The ingredients: we usually buy them either at Korean or Japanese Supermarket


Cooking Directions:
First of all, make the stock. You can use chicken bones or beef bones depends on which one you prefer. I personally prefer beef bones due to health reason (I have anemia and eating beef bone broth helps improve my iron level.)

The easiest way to make stock is by using instant pot. I simply place beef bone and water inside, turn it on, go about your own business then voila I have my delicious stock ready by dinner time. Our old pressure cooker just broke and hubby bought me this multi-functional cooker pressure cooker/ slow cooker/ warmer as replacement. It's definitely worth the investment considering how many time it saves us from eating out.