Saoto soup

As tradition built it

Saoto soup

Brought over by contract labourers from around 1890, adapted because Indonesian ingredients were not available on arrival · about 1 hour 30 minutes

Ingredients

• 600g whole soup chicken, bone-in preferred
• 4cm fresh laos (galangal)
• 4 garlic cloves, whole
• 1 onion, halved
• 1 stalk lemongrass
• 1 salam leaf
• 2, large bouillon cubes stock cubes
• 1 tsp white pepper
• 3 litres water
• as needed boiled egg, to garnish
• as needed bean sprouts, to garnish
• as needed fried potato sticks, to garnish
• as needed fried vermicelli, to garnish
• as needed fried onions, to garnish
• as needed celery, to garnish
• to taste fresh chilli, crushed
• 5 tbsp soy sauce, salty

Method

1. Simmer the whole soup chicken with 4cm fresh laos, four whole garlic cloves, a halved onion, a stalk of lemongrass, a salam leaf, stock cubes and white pepper in 3 litres water for 30 minutes.
2. Remove and shred the fillets.
3. Continue simmering the bony remainder alone on low for a further hour to build real depth.
4. Assemble the garnishes, boiled egg, bean sprouts, fried potato sticks, fried vermicelli, fried onions, the shredded chicken and celery, in the bowl.
5. Pour the hot broth over at the table, alongside a chilli-and-soy condiment of crushed fresh chilli in salty soy sauce.

What a modern chef changes

Clarified consommé, dehydrated potato sticks, aromatic dust

Rung 04

Method

1. Hold the two-stage broth build exactly as tradition sets it out, the short first phase for the fillet, the long second phase for the bones, since this is already the correct sequence a modern stock kitchen would arrive at independently.
2. Clarify the finished broth through a chinois for a genuine consommé-grade clarity the traditional bowl, garnished and cloudy with fried garnishes stirred through, was never trying for.
3. Dehydrate the fried potato sticks' raw potato first before frying, for a crisper, longer-holding garnish that survives the hot broth without softening in the first minute.
4. Grind a portion of dried salam leaf and laos to a fine dust in the spice grinder, finished over the bowl at the table as an aromatic lift rather than folded into the broth itself.