Soto Ayam Madura / Chicken & Bean Sprouts Soup

Enough break!
After more than 2 months I haven't posted my new 'expriment' in this blog, today... I have decided to start blogging again. So here is my first posting after my break.
Actually I cooked and took the pictures about 2 months ago, but haven't had time and good mood to blogging since then.

Traditional Market is a place that always gives me an exciting experience.
Yup, I really enjoy visiting Traditional Markets, anywhere. Everytime I visit a city/town/village, I always try to find and visit the local traditional market. For me, it is not only a place for 'transaction', buying and selling the "goods", but it also inspires me a lot.

Regularly I visit the Traditional Market located in our housing complex. It's a very small market, that only opens from 5 am to 10 am. There, I can find most of our everyday food ingredients. From fresh fruits and vegetables to fresh chicken and fish. Most of Indonesian spices are available everyday.

I usually visit this market without any ideas what to cook for my family. I just walk around the fresh vegetable area and when the seller asks me,"What are you looking for ? Do you need some help ?", I reply,"I'm looking for an IDEA. I have no idea what to cook".

So last time, I was looking around, and I remembered that I still had chicken in our freezer, then suddenly I felt so excited thinking to prepare 'Soto Ayam/~traditional Chicken Soup'. Yup... I got it! All the ingredients are available in this small market. From fresh bean sprouts, lime, celery, spring onions ...to glass noodle. Yippy...

One thing I should remind you if you're interested to cook this soup, that it's not hard to prepare it, but you need sometimes to prepare the soup ingredients one by one, before you mix it in one bowl. It takes time... You have to prepare the soup in one pan, on the other pan you need to boil the eggs, and another pan to soak the glass noodle. You also need frying pan to fry the potato chips and the chicken. Another job is cleaning the bean sprout, shred the chicken and one more... one the cutting board we need to chop the celery, spring onions, lime, and boiled eggs.
At the end, mix them all in serving bowls...
The yummy Soto Ayam is enjoyed on our dining table.

Soto Ayam Madura
source : The best of Indonesian Cooking by Yasa Boga
1 chicken, cut into 2-4 pieces
2 litres water
oil for deep-frying
3 tbsps oil
1 stalk lemongrass, bruised
3 kaffir lemon leaves
50 grams glass noodles, cuit, soaked in water until tender, drained
100 grams beans sprouts, blanched, drained
3 spring onions, chopped
2 sprigs Chinese parsley/celery, chopped
1-2 tbsps fried shallots
75 grams potato chips
4 hard-boiled eggs, quartered
sweet soy sauce and lime juice

Spices (ground)
1 tsp chopped ginger
2 tsps chopped tumeric
1 tsp peppercorns
4 candlenuts roasted/fried
5 cloves garlic
1 tsp salt

1. Boil chicken in watel until tender. Remove chicken, reserving 1.5 litres stock.
2. Deep-fry the chicken until crispy, then shred finely.
3. Heat 3 tbsps oil and saute ground spices, lemon grass and kaffir lime leaves until fragrant, then add the stock. Continue to simmer over low heat for about 30 minutes

Sambal Soto : Boil 5 red chillies and 5 brid's eye chilies, drain, and grind with salt.

How to serve:
Arrange glass noodles, bean sprouts, chicken, spring onions, Chinese parsley/celery and fried shallots in a bowl, adn pour boiling stock over. Garnish with potato chips and egg. Serve with sambal, sweet soy sauce and lime juice.