Here is another one of my mom's hearty soup recipe; don’t hesitate to try it out. I’m sure that whatever she learned as a graduate Bachelor of Science in Nutrition from the Philippine Women’s University is useful in a lot of ways better than for your weight loss diet.
If you read my previous post about Sizzling Sisig, you would find that the famous Filipino hearty sour soup called Sinigang is actually closely related as both have originated from Sisigan, a cooking method were food is poached with an acidulant like vinegar or broth that is soured by fruits like tamarind, calamansi, green guavas, green mangoes, tomatoes, kamias (bilimbi), pineapples, or just about anything you can throw in to give it that characteristically sharp taste (no dirty socks please). The one thing I don’t like in my kitchen is a sour face. Prepare this dish by making the sour soup base first. As much as possible, please avoid ingredients that come in packages; you would find that it’s really healthier to stay away from many of the contraptions favored by the western world.
You need an earthen pot to make it look like authentic Filipino food or something like my mom’s Pyrex cookware. I do not like the taste of food cooked in stainless steel pots, especially for sour soups because it tends to lend a taste of something like rust; and please, never try cooking with a microwave – unless you are cooking Pangat – no not that recipe, I mean Pangat-long Init or twice reheated food. By the way, Pangat is also very similar to Sinigang, but I would say more delicate and less tangy.
My daughter loves pork and Bangus (Milk Fish) belly, and they are certainly the most popular ingredients for Sinigang, but you can have as many variants as you would an Adobo. We have already let her watch Babe and Charlotte’s Web and seen her cry over our seeming inhumanity to God’s creatures and asked her if she still wants to eat pork – I guess she’s just like most of us because she really enjoys eating the other white meat very much. The fat of the pork or the fat from the fish belly really makes the dish tasty. You could have it done according to your dietary needs but nothing beats the taste of something fat and juicy.
While waiting for the meat to become tender – and I do like the meat to almost fall off from ribs or bones but never for the fish please – you can prepare the vegetables and add them when the meat is almost done. For my Pork Sinigang, I would always like to add gabi (taro) because it adds a little creaminess to an otherwise light soup; and also, it can’t go without Siling Mahaba or Long Green Chilies because of its particular aroma and hotness. My wife likes her Sinigang with labanos - radish is best when it’s in something sour like Kilawin or when it’s pickled. I developed an aversion for it when I smelled it Binuro or fermented, something like Kimchi. The other vegetables that go well with Sinigang would be the same ones that can be cooked as an Adobo: okra, eggplant, string beans, and water spinach (kangkong). Don’t wilt the vegetables, because you’ll want them crisp and fresh to give variety to the food’s texture, and have something in contrast to the tenderness of the meat.
I certainly do not want to rush the cooking process, just as I do not want to rush eating this kind of meal. So, I prefer to eat it at supper or lunch on Sundays. I need to say this again – if you are on a weight loss diet, there is hope for you to enjoy this dish because you can have the seafood variety: like shrimp, black prawns, or tuna belly to name a few. You are going to miss a lot though if you don’t have it with steaming rice. When I’m done with this Souper Supper, I usually just sit back and relax until I doze off to sleep.
If you read my previous post about Sizzling Sisig, you would find that the famous Filipino hearty sour soup called Sinigang is actually closely related as both have originated from Sisigan, a cooking method were food is poached with an acidulant like vinegar or broth that is soured by fruits like tamarind, calamansi, green guavas, green mangoes, tomatoes, kamias (bilimbi), pineapples, or just about anything you can throw in to give it that characteristically sharp taste (no dirty socks please). The one thing I don’t like in my kitchen is a sour face. Prepare this dish by making the sour soup base first. As much as possible, please avoid ingredients that come in packages; you would find that it’s really healthier to stay away from many of the contraptions favored by the western world.
You need an earthen pot to make it look like authentic Filipino food or something like my mom’s Pyrex cookware. I do not like the taste of food cooked in stainless steel pots, especially for sour soups because it tends to lend a taste of something like rust; and please, never try cooking with a microwave – unless you are cooking Pangat – no not that recipe, I mean Pangat-long Init or twice reheated food. By the way, Pangat is also very similar to Sinigang, but I would say more delicate and less tangy.
My daughter loves pork and Bangus (Milk Fish) belly, and they are certainly the most popular ingredients for Sinigang, but you can have as many variants as you would an Adobo. We have already let her watch Babe and Charlotte’s Web and seen her cry over our seeming inhumanity to God’s creatures and asked her if she still wants to eat pork – I guess she’s just like most of us because she really enjoys eating the other white meat very much. The fat of the pork or the fat from the fish belly really makes the dish tasty. You could have it done according to your dietary needs but nothing beats the taste of something fat and juicy.
While waiting for the meat to become tender – and I do like the meat to almost fall off from ribs or bones but never for the fish please – you can prepare the vegetables and add them when the meat is almost done. For my Pork Sinigang, I would always like to add gabi (taro) because it adds a little creaminess to an otherwise light soup; and also, it can’t go without Siling Mahaba or Long Green Chilies because of its particular aroma and hotness. My wife likes her Sinigang with labanos - radish is best when it’s in something sour like Kilawin or when it’s pickled. I developed an aversion for it when I smelled it Binuro or fermented, something like Kimchi. The other vegetables that go well with Sinigang would be the same ones that can be cooked as an Adobo: okra, eggplant, string beans, and water spinach (kangkong). Don’t wilt the vegetables, because you’ll want them crisp and fresh to give variety to the food’s texture, and have something in contrast to the tenderness of the meat.
I certainly do not want to rush the cooking process, just as I do not want to rush eating this kind of meal. So, I prefer to eat it at supper or lunch on Sundays. I need to say this again – if you are on a weight loss diet, there is hope for you to enjoy this dish because you can have the seafood variety: like shrimp, black prawns, or tuna belly to name a few. You are going to miss a lot though if you don’t have it with steaming rice. When I’m done with this Souper Supper, I usually just sit back and relax until I doze off to sleep.
