Sinigang 1.0

Time

3-4 hours and a bunch of patience.

Ingredients

Meat

• 1kg pork neck and 1kg spare ribs - revised version

Veg

• 1 tomato cut into eighths
• 1 taro peeled about 15 cm in height cut into discs. Each disc is then cut into half, each half cut into 3
• Handful of snake beans aka string beans
• 1 radish peeled, cut into diagonal discs about 25cm long
• 3 handfuls of ocra
• 1 onion cut into lengths
• 2 medium sized talong (eggplants) cut in irregular diagonal discs.

Pop into a bowl of water to prevent it from oxidising and turning brown.

• 2 bunches of kangkong (water spinach), destemmed and washed
• 3-5 long green chilli (the more chilli, the spicier so add according to your taste)

Seasonings

• 375g of sampaloc (tamarind) pulp, dissolved into water. Pass liquid through a strainer or cheese cloth if you have one. If you have neither, when pouring the tamarind water into the pot, do your best to leave the solids behind
• 4 calamansi, juiced and ready for pouring into the soup

Served with

• 3 tablespoons Patis (fish sauce) with soft chillis from the soup mix
• 4 cups of jasmine rice, serves 6

Optional side

• Fried fish, we shallow fried snapper in vegetable oil so that each side becomes crispy. Traditionally fish is eaten with sinigang.

1. Over medium fire sauté the garlic, add onion then tomato in separately.
2. Season with a tablespoon each of freshly ground pepper and salt, 3 tablespoons of oyster sauce for added flavour. Cook until the onions soften, garlic starts browning and the oil turns a red tinge from the tomato.

This is a sign that the flavours are coming together.

1. Add the taro in the mix and take out once all the sides are coated so that the taro will retain its shape later. Leave as much of the onion, garlic and tomato as possible this is the base flavour and colour of the soup.
2. Sauté the pork, mix well and add 4 tablespoons of salt. Cover with the lid for 5 mins.

It's important to season as you so the meat does not taste malansa (fishy).

1. Give the pork another mix, you will notice the colour of the meat has now turned white but it should not be fully cooked through.
2. Add another tablespoon of salt, 15 whole black peppercorns and 5 tablespoons or 5 good shakes of fish sauce. Mix the seasoning through and let it simmer for a minute to allow the fish marinade to get to know the meat.
3. Pour in water until the water level covers the meat. Take note of the time, it takes about 1.5 hours for the meat to tenderise and fully release it's flavour.
4. When the soup comes to a boil, add half of the taro back into the pot. This will thicken the soup.
5. After 30 mins, add the tamarind water.

You can choose to add more tamarind depending on your personal preference for sour. I'm team asim (sour).

1. Cook your rice.
2. About 10 mins after the tamarind water is incorporated, put 2 green chilli's to introduce a low heat to the soup.
3. After 15 mins add the calamansi juice and 2 more shakes of fish sauce.
4. Add back the taro.

Every time we add ingredients we're layering flavour, the taro will soak this all up.

14. After 20 mins, test the meat and taro tenderness, a fork should be able to go through easily.

If the fork goes through easily it's ready to do next steps. If not, keep checking in 10 min increments until it is - every pot and cooktop is different so times may vary here.

15. Add the radish, eggplant, any additional chilli's and cover. Let the vegetables boil for 2 mins.

Make sure there's enough chilli for everyone in case they're not up for sharing.

1. Once the ocra turns a vibrant green add the kangkong.

This should take a minute to cook and chlorophyll to brighten.

Similar to bulalo, sinigang is served with patis (fish sauce) and one soft chilli from the soup on a side plate. The salty, acid, fishiness really compliments the broth.