The praises of sinigang, a tamarind-based Philippine soup, often go unsung. Perhaps this is because sinigang is usually not a flashy party dish, but more an every day meal. With its mouth puckering sourness and spoon-soft chunks of fish or meat, it’s a comfort food, and often enjoyed solo. Unfortunately, despite its simplicity, the tradition of making it from scratch is a dying art.
“A lot of Filipinos who were born here have never tasted the real soup,” said Dominic Ainza, chef of the global Asian restaurant Mercury Lounge. “This is partly because families have stopped cooking, but it’s also because of the packet.”
“The packet” is a Knorr brand pouch containing, among other things, powdered tamarind, salt, onion flavoring, shrimp flavoring, and MSG. It has become so ubiquitous that even serious Philippine cookbooks call for it in recipes, which is as unsettling as Mario Batali calling for Schilling Italian seasoning for pasta.
“The weird part is you can get tamarind in any Asian market,” Ainza said.
Although unripe tamarind can be difficult to find, Asian markets usually sell the liquid concentrates, as well as processed pulp. When made from scratch, the broth consists of meat or chicken stock, onions, tomatoes, and daikon, as well as a souring agent such as tamarind, lemons, lemongrass, or guava. Fish sauce provides a lingering savory-sweet backdrop to its piquancy.
Once the broth is made, any number of ingredients can be added to it. Philippine dishes have long been resistant to a strict set of food rules. “Everyone has their own version of sinigang, everyone has their own version of adobo,” Ainza said. Pork, fish, and shrimp are most common, but Ainza likes to cook manila clams in to the broth. Traditionally, the soup is served more like a stew, drenching a mound of white rice.
Lamenting the lack of cooking in Filipino households, Ainza said that people have stopped sharing recipes for foods; instead they end up exchanging restaurant phone numbers. He taught himself to make the food of his childhood by talking to his mother, reading books, and checking out websites. Now he teaches weekly classes on the fading tradition. “Time is precious. People don’t want to make lumpia anymore. Philippine cooking is being slowly lost or fusing with other things. Taco trucks are pushing sisig tacos — adobo is there, but not as much. The trucks are dictating what the food is.”
Pork Sinigang (Sinigang na baboy) (Serves 4-6)
Recipe courtesy of Dominic Ainza
Ingredients:
3 qts water
2.5 lbs pork shoulder , cut into large cubes (with bones)
1 small onion, diced
4 roma tomatoes, sliced and seeded
Half a large daikon, sliced in 1/4 inch rounds
1.5 cups of tamarind concentrate, or 1 pound of unripe tamarind, or to taste
¼ cup of fish sauce (patis), or to taste as brands vary in concentration of flavor
1 lb of green beans or long beans trimmed and cut into thirds.
Good handful of water spinach or spinach
Directions:
1. Place the pork in a heavy pot and add the water. Bring to a boil, then lower to medium, simmering until tender. Remove the pork from the broth and reserve.
2. Add the onion, tomato and daikon. Turn down the heat to medium, and simmer for 20-30 minutes.
3. Prepare the unripe tamarind, if using, while the broth simmers. Boil the tamarind in enough water to cover until the shells start to crack. Let cool, then peel off the shells, and with a strainer, pour tamarind and water into a bowl. Gently massage the tamarind meat off the seeds, and strain again.
3. If desired, strain the simmering broth and return it to the heat. Add tamarind and fish sauce to taste. It should be sour enough to make your salivary glands to start working. The fish sauce should simply create an undertone—it should not be obviously fishy.
4. Add pork and long beans and simmer until cooked through, about 10 minutes. To a serving bowl, add the spinach leaves, and pour the soup over it. Serve with plenty of white rice. Flavor improves with age.
Variations:
For other meats, substitute 2.5 pounds of stewing beef or chicken for the pork, and adjust cooking time as necessary. For seafood, substitute meat broth with three quarts of chicken broth, and use in Manila clams, prawns, or meaty fish steaks such as salmon or cod. Common vegetables to add include taro, peeled and left whole, okra, eggplant, and mustard greens. Simmer until tender and remove from the pot if other items have not finished cooking, then add it back at the end.
For a vegetarian version, substitute rice rinse water for the stock, and salt for fish sauce. Add tofu and the vegetables of your choosing, as noted above.
