sayur asem — Indonesia

Sayur asem, also spelled sayur asam, is a vegetable soup built around a tamarind-soured broth. It is associated with Sundanese cuisine from West Java and is eaten across much of Indonesia as an everyday dish, its sour and slightly sweet flavor working as a counterpoint to fried or grilled foods. The soup is reported as part of daily cooking among the Sundanese of West Java and Banten, and it is also a staple of Betawi cooking around Jakarta. It typically appears alongside steamed rice, a chili paste such as sambal terasi, and a fried or grilled side such as fried chicken, fried fish or salted fish. A base of water is seasoned with galangal and a sour tamarind pulp, then vegetables are added in stages according to how long they take to cook: raw peanuts and corn on the cob go in first, followed by firmer vegetables such as chayote and long beans, and finally quicker-cooking leaves. A ground paste of shallots and chilies is stirred in along with palm sugar and salt, and the soup is simmered only until the vegetables are tender rather than soft. The exact vegetables used differ by household and by season: melinjo leaves, young jackfruit, banana flower or ambon banana are added in some versions, and corn was not part of the dish in earlier periods since it reached the Indonesian archipelago only in the 16th century. What stays constant across versions is the sour tamarind base and the practice of pairing the soup with something fried.