Filipino Sinigang Tamarind Soup Recipes

SINIGANG NA BANGUS (FILIPINO MILKFISH IN TAMARIND BROTH)

Steps:

• Pour water into a pot. Add onions and tomatoes, cover, and bring to a boil. Add milkfish, eggplants, beans, radishes, okra, and green chile peppers. Boil for 5 minutes. Stir in watercress and tamarind powder. Cover, reduce heat, and season with salt. Boil for 5 minutes until fish is cooked through.

SINIGANG (TAMARIND BROTH WITH PORK AND VEGETABLES)

Steps:

• In a large pot, heat the oil over medium-high until shimmering. Add the garlic and cook until toasted, 1 minute. Add the pork, season with 1 1/2 tablespoons salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned, about 4 minutes. Add the tamarind, onion, fish sauce, serrano chiles and 10 cups water, and bring to a boil over high.
• Once the mixture comes to a boil, lower the heat to medium, cover and simmer until the pork is softened but not fully tender, about 1 1/2 hours.
• Stir in the daikon, cover and continue to simmer until daikon is tender and the pork is yielding, about 30 minutes.
• Uncover and discard the chiles. Add the long beans, eggplant, tomatoes and spinach and cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are tender, about 20 minutes.
• Stir in the lemon juice. Serve over rice.

PORK SINIGANG

Steps:

• Heat the vegetable oil in a skillet over medium heat. Stir in the onion; cook and stir until the onion has softened and turned translucent, about 5 minutes. Season with salt. Stir in the ginger, tomatoes, and pork chops. Cover and reduce heat to medium-low. Turn the pork occasionally, until browned. Pour in the water and tamarind soup base. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat. Continue simmering until the pork is tender and cooked through, about 30 minutes. Stir in green beans and cook until tender.

VEGETARIAN SINIGANG (FILIPINO TAMARIND OR SOUR SOUP)

Steps:

• Chop all vegetables. If you use chayote, just cut it in half from where the dip is. It's similar to a mango with the shape of the pit being flat, but the pit is soft unlike in a mango so there's no need to cut around it. Remove the pit/seed from the two halves. Dice, peeling is not necessary.
• A note about the tamarind soup mix: If you're vegetarian or sensitive to MSG check the ingredients on the packet. I think they all have MSG, and most have pork, fish or beef in them. I found tamarind broth cubes (listed as tamarind powder b/c Zaar doesn't recognize it) which have less of those things in them which is great, but the best is if you can find real tamarind. I have found both of these in Asian grocery stores in the US, though you can occasionally find them in the ethnic foods isle of a grocery store. If you're using tamarind remove the hard outer shell. The insides feel and sometimes smell like the insides of raisins or prunes. If the tamarind tastes sweet it's not going to give you the right flavor for the soup, but can still be close with kalamansi or lemon juice added. It should be a sour taste. Soak the tamarind pulp, seeds and all, in 1 cup of warm water. Mash this with a fork to remove most of the tamarind from the seeds. Fish out the seeds and the membranes and reserve the liquid to add after potatoes are cooked.
• Cook potatoes in water with a touch of salt for about 10 minutes, or until almost cooked through.
• Add remaining veggies and seasoning and cook 10-15 minutes more, or until veggies are cooked to desired consistency.
• Taste broth and adjust water and tamarind seasoning and salt to your liking. Keep in mind that if you're serving this with rice, as I always do, you probably want more intense flavors and a more stew like consistency.
• I typically double this recipe since it keeps well in the refrigerator and it gets eaten quite quickly even with just me and my husband. It is important to cook the potatoes before you cook the other veggies because the acid from the tomatoes and the tamarind mix prevent the potatoes from ever cooking through if you add them straight away. The quantities are still an approximation as I've never measured, so if you make this I'd love if you gave me feedback about your input on amounts of water, what seasoning you used etc.