Sinigang Recipe
An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott
Recipe Overview
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 50 minutes
Makes: 4 serves when accompanied by rice
Ingredients Needed
- 300g/10.6oz pork belly, trimmed weight
- 1 small red onion
- 1 large tomato
- 1 long green chilli
- 1 litre/4 cups/1 quart water
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1 tablespoon Sinigang mix or tamarind paste
- 1 chicken or pork stock cube
- 2 tablespoons fish sauce
- 3 slender Japanese eggplant (around 175g/8ozs)
- 5 okra (around 50g/1.7oz)
- Half bunch kang kong or water spinach
- 300g/10.6oz or around 1/3 large daikon radish
- Steamed rice or rice noodles to serve
Step-By-Step Instructions
Step 1 SIMMER - Cut pork belly into 1.5 inch chunks. Peel onion and cut into six pieces and cut tomato into eight pieces removing the calyx. Add the pork belly pieces, onion, tomato and whole green chilli to a large pot along with water, salt, Sinigang mix or tamarind paste, stock cube and fish sauce. Bring to a boil and simmer 30-40 mins with the lid on. Skim the scum from around the edge (the amount of scum depends on how clean the pork is).
Step 2 PREPARE - While the pork is cooking, prepare the rest of the vegetables. Trim the ends from the eggplant and cut into 1.5 inch diagonal pieces and then slice in half vertically. Place in water to prevent browning. Peel and then cut the radish into cubes and trim the ends from the okra and cut in half on the diagonal. Separate the kangkong into individual leaves and then separate the stems from the leaves.
Step 3 VEGETABLES - When the pork is soft add the radish and simmer for 5 minutes. Then add the eggplant and cook for another 5-10 minutes or until the daikon is tender and the eggplant is getting soft. Lastly add the okra and kangkong and simmer for 4-5 minutes. Taste broth for flavour if it's sour to your liking or if it's salty enough. Del's tips for seasoning perfection: add more tamarind to add sourness or conversely add water or a teaspoon of sugar if it is too sour. Or add more fish sauce if it needs more saltiness. Serve with steamed rice.
Personal Note
I had two very eager "helpers" when I made sinigang this week. It was a cold week of winter and this delicious soup was perfect to warm us up. And Teddy and Milo definitely agreed (although they didn't get to try any).
Call me paranoid but for the last few months I've been worried about Teddy and Milo being dognapped. I am part of my suburb's facebook group and while I don't tend to look at it much, I did see a couple of dogs in our neighbourhood have gone missing and Teddy and Milo are small and are very easily picked up. "We need to build another gate on the side of the house" I told Mr NQN. We actually have a gate and it's a fairly tall one. But Teddy and Milo like to go outside and investigate and if someone pokes their head down the side you can bet that our two little guard dogs will be on their way and if they had something to eat, they could coax Teddy and Milo towards them.
"It's impossible, unless they have really long arms" said Mr NQN.
"No, it's difficult but not impossible, and can you imagine if we lost our babies?" I told him.
I think Mr NQN just gave up arguing with me and agreed to get a gate to block off more of the side so that the two dogs can run all the way down. Because sometimes the path of least resistance also gives you the most peace!
So tell me Dear Reader, have you ever tried Sinigang? And do you agree with the path of least resistance?