This beef soup from Palembang (the capital city of the Indonesian province of South Sumatra) is refreshing and light with a mix of savory, sour, and spicy taste (originally it should be quite spicy, but since I cooked for my son, I only used large red chili without the seeds, and I served the chili sauce separately). Pindang Tulang or bone soup is usually made with beef ribs, but I used oxtail instead (it was recommended by my butcher at the wet market), but you can choose to use one of them or a combination of both.

Don’t forget to blanch the beef before cooking and for a faster cooking process and soft and tender beef, I always used my pressure cooker, although you can also use slow cooker or stove top cooking which will take quite some time.

What’s the difference between this soup and other beef soup recipes? Pindang Tulang uses pineapple and basil leaves in the soup and do not use as many spices as other traditional beef soup. So the taste is quite light but also very delicious and addictive. I love the combination of pineapple, basil, and tomato is this soup. For the basil leaves, we use Indonesian sweet basil or also known as daun kemangi.

Ingredients:

1. 1.5 kg oxtail
2. 2.5 L of water
3. 2 lemongrass, take the white parts and bruised
4. 6 slices of galangal
5. 6 slices of ginger
6. 5 salam or bay leaves
7. 5 kaffir lime leaves, shredded
8. 2 tbsp of salt, or to taste
9. 2 tbsp of sugar, or to taste
10. 2 tbsp of tamarind seeds, soaked in 50 ml of water and squeezed to get the juice. Discard the seeds
11. Daun kemangi
12. sliced pineapples
13. sliced tomatoes
14. lime juice

Spices:

1. 15 shallots
2. 8 garlic
3. red chili (as much as you want)
4. 1 tsp ground turmeric
5. 5 tbsp coconut oil

Method:

1. Blanch the beef to remove any impurities. Prepare a large pot and fill half the pot with water, then bring the water to boil in medium heat. Add all the beef (the water in the pot must cover the meat) and bring the water to boil again in medium heat and let the water keeps boiling for another 5 minutes. Turn off the heat. Discard the water and wash the meat one by one in running tap water and transfer to a clean pot
2. Blend shallots, garlic, chili, and oil until smooth and form a paste. Transfer to a wok and add ground turmeric. Stir fry until fragrant and the mixture starts to dry.  Add lemongrass, galangal, ginger, and lime leaves and cook for another minute. Transfer all the mixture to a large pot (I used pressure cooker)
3. Add the blanched beef into the pot with water, salt, sugar, and tamarind juice and cook until beef is tender
4. Add pineapple and tomatoes, cook for another 30seconds. Turn off the heat and add kemangi or basil leaves
5. Serve hot with steamed rice