Soto Lamongan (Turmeric Chicken Soup with Koya)

Variations

• Other sotos: soto is a family of Indonesian soups and most cities have their own — soto Betawi with coconut milk, soto Madura with beef. Koya is Lamongan's mark.
• Chicken fried first: some lift the boiled chicken out and fry it briefly before slicing, for a firmer surface and more flavour.
• With rice or lontong: rice in the bowl under the broth, or compressed rice cakes (lontong) alongside, make it a meal.
• Koya without crackers: pounded fried garlic on its own gives the flavour but no body. The body comes from the cracker's starch.

Tips

• Koya is a thickener the eater adds. Thickening sauces says of starch: "And once in, it must come to a boil at least once." It has to reach 60-75°C to take up water and swell. Koya is starch that has already been through that. A prawn cracker is a starch dough that was steamed, sliced thin, dried and then fried until it puffed. Pounded and sprinkled onto hot broth, it loosens and gives the broth body in the bowl, with no boiling.
• Which is why the pot stays clear. Starch in the pot makes the whole pot one thickness; koya goes into each bowl separately. Anyone who wants it clear takes a little, anyone who wants it thick takes more.
• A spoonful at a time, stirred. The same guide warns: "Tip dry starch into hot sauce and the outside gelatinises first, sealing dry powder inside a lump." Koya is already cooked, which changes things, but tipped in all at once it still clumps. Sprinkle, stir, sprinkle again.
• These are the prawn crackers nasi goreng serves. Gado-gado and mie goreng keep kerupuk beside them too, without saying what it is. Here it is used as starch rather than crunch.
• Keep the koya dry. It softens and clumps in damp air just as the crackers do. Keep the jar closed and sprinkle it just before eating.
• Fry the bumbu. As rawon says of another East Javanese broth, "The bumbu has to be fried." Raw paste straight into the pot leaves the broth tasting of earth.
• Slice the chicken, do not shred it. Shredded chicken soaks up broth and goes limp quickly. Thin slices keep their shape, and the koya clings to their surface.