Soto Ayam

Soto ayam needs no introduction in this region. In Singapore, we can enjoy soto ayam any time of the day in many food outlets. Nevertheless, I still cook it at home at least once a month as my family loves this dish very much. I also like to serve this dish to my guests during hari raya.

This recipe is my mum's. I usually just estimate the amount of ingredients, but since I'm sharing the recipe here, this time I measured all the ingredients that I used.

Notes & modifications:

1. This is a truly homemade soto. The flavour comes from the chicken & other ingredients in the recipe… no chicken cube or msg.
2. Alternatively, instead of cutting the chicken into small pieces, you can cook the whole chicken. Once cooked, separate the chicken from the soup & shred the chicken meat.
3. The soup can also be served with yellow noodle or rice vermicelli (commonly called bee hoon). Just cook the noodle in boiling water & drain it. Then serve with the soup & garnish.

Soto Ayam

Ingredients:
nasi impit (or yellow noodle  or bee hoon)
1 chicken (cut into small pieces.)
7 cups water
1 stalk lemongrass – bruised
2-cm thick sliced galangal (lengkuas) – bruised

Grind to paste:
*2 ½ tbsp coriander powder
*1 ½ tsp cumin powder
*1 ½ tsp fennel powder
*1 tsp white pepper powder
*(You may replace these ingredients with 4 tbsp store-bought dry soto mixed spice (rempah soto)
3 candlenuts
400g onions (about 4 large pieces)
4 pieces of garlic
2 cm-thick sliced fresh turmeric (Fresh is better, but you may replace it with the dry ground form.)
1 small slice (about 1cm) cekur root - no need to use this if you can't find it.

- In a large pot, put the chicken, ground paste, water, salt, lemongrass & galangal. Bring to a boil & then allow chicken to simmer for about 20 minutes. (*Read notes & modifications for alternative method of cooking.)

Garnish:
bean sprouts (Blanched in boiling water.)
fried shallots
spring onions & celery – chopped fine
begedil (potato cutlets)

Chilli Padi Sauce:
¼ cup birds-eye chilli (chilli padi) – If chilli padi is not available, you may use fresh red chilli.
3 pieces of garlic
dark soya sauce ( I used sweet dark soya sauce.)

- Blend chilli & garlic into a coarse paste. Add in black soya sauce & mix well.

To serve:
Put the nasi impit in a dish, sprinkle bean sprouts & add soup & chicken pieces. Then garnish & serve with chilli padi sauce.

Begedil (Potato Cutlets)

Begedil needs no introduction at all. Besides serving it with soto ayam or rice, it can also be eaten as a snack! I made these to go with the soto ayam, the recipe is coming up next...

Notes:
If you don’t want to consume the begedil within the day, you may store the shaped begedil in the fridge. When you want to eat it, dip it in the egg & fry it.

Begedil ( Potato Cutlets)

Ingredients:
1 kg potato
200g ground beef
1 tsp ground black pepper
1 tbsp chopped spring onion & celery
1 tbsp fried shallots
pinch of nutmeg
salt to taste
2 eggs (beaten)
oil for frying

Method:

1. Peel & slice potatoes about ½ cm thick. Deep fry until cook. Once cooked, remove from frying pan & place on kitchen paper towel to drain oil. Then mash when still warm. Put the mashed potato in a mixing bowl. Set aside.
2. Place ground beef in a pan & cook on medium fire until it’s cooked & almost dry. Remove from fire & add to the mashed potato. 
3. Add in ground black pepper, chopped spring onion & celery, fried shallots, nutmeg powder & salt. Mix well.
4. Take a small amount of the potato mixture & form into a ball. Then flatten it slightly. Do the same with the rest until finish.
5. Pour some oil into a frying pan (preferably a flat one), about 1-cm deep. Dip a piece of the begedil into the beaten egg until well coated & fry until golden brown.
6. Once cooked, place the begedil on a plate lined with paper kitchen towel to drain the oil. Serve.

Nasi Impit

I grew up eating home-cooked meals most of the time. My mother has been a full-time homemaker all her life, so my family gets to enjoy delicious home-cooked meals everydat. My mother loves to cook & she’s a fantastic cook too! Thanks to the great cooking knowledge & skills passed down by my late grandmother & the daily practice my mum had, cooking for the family & my late grandfather’s employees (he ran a medium-scale leather factory in the backyard). Growing up in the 70s & 80s, I remember that my mother made sure that I did my share in the kitchen. I really treasure the memories of cooking everything from scratch…

One of the things I remember my mum prepared was nasi impit or compressed rice. Every time she planned to cook soto ayam, lontong, gado-gado or sate,  she would start to cook the nasi impit early in the morning so that it would be ready by lunch time. Last week, I cooked soto ayam, my family's favourite. Instead of taking the easy way out by just buying the ready-made lontong or cooking the ketupat in plastic packs, I decided to make the nasi impit myself. Why go through all the trouble, you may ask… Well, recently, Victoria of Victoria Bakes asked me if I could share the soto ayam recipe. Her husband loves eating soto ayam but since they are now residing in Beijing, the only way to have it is to cook it at home. So since I’ve never prepared nasi impit myself at home, I thought I should try out & share the recipe here. I like the way it turned out... the firmness is just nice, not too firm & not too soft either. I hope this sharing will benefit those of you who want to enjoy homemade nasi impit & especially those living in areas where it's not possible to get hold of the ready-made or instant ones. 

Notes:

1. I used Thai rice to cook the nasi impit. If broken rice is available in your area, you could use it, after all, the cooked rice needs to be mashed... My mum used to use ‘beras Cina’ or Chinese rice, I suppose it’s from Chinese. This rice is great for nasi impit or ketupat as it produces better texture for the rice cakes. Apparently, Chinese rice is not exported overseas any more because of limited supply but some managed to be smuggled into Singapore… so you may want to ask around.
2. The amount of water you need will depend on the type of rice you’re using. Use the recipe below as a guide but you may need to make some adjustments.
3. My mum always used banana leaves to line the container for the nasi impit, so it’s  more fragrant.

Nasi Impit (Compressed Rice)
Ingredients:
1 cup rice (I used Thai long grain rice.) – clean, wash & drain
2 3/4 cups  plus 2 tbsp water (You may need to adjust the quantity.)
½ tsp salt

Method:

1. Combine above ingredients in a saucepan & bring to the boil. Reduce heat to medium low stirring every 5 minutes, mixing & mashing the rice with a wooden spoon to give the rice a smooth texture. Cook over low heat till the rice has completely absorbed the water & become a smooth paste.

2. Line a heat-proof container (I used an aluminium army mess tin.) with plastic or silicone paper (I used silicone baking paper.).  Pour the cooked rice into the container & smoothen the top.

3. Then cover the top with another piece of plastic or silicone paper & place another tray on top. 

4. Place a heavy weight on it (I used stone mortar & pestle.) for 2-3 hours to compress the  rice into a solid cake & until it has completely cooled down.
 

5. Remove from container, cut into small pieces & serve.