Pork Sinigang (Sinigang na Baboy)

Although hubby is not too welcoming of any dish with thin soups (except New England Boiled Dinner, but he leaves the soup out), I and my boys still crave them, and this sinigang is one of the favorites. Of course, sinigang can make use of pork, shrimps, or fish. I have not tried sinigang na manok, although I love sinampalukang manok (I just don't have access to the tamarind leaves).

So, for my boys who love this dish, it is very simple and easy to make as long as you have sinigang mix, whether Mama Sita's or Knorr.

Ingredients:
1 lb pork cuts (some fat is desirable)
2 bay leaves
3 cloves garlic
10 peppercorns
3 big tomatoes, cut in half
1 big onion, cut in half
salt
water to cover meat and veggies
1 eggplant, cut in wedges
handful of okra (optional)
1 icicle radish, sliced across thinly (about 1/4 cm)
2-3 pcs taro or gabi (optional)
handful of green beans (sitao if you have)
sinigang mix
1/2 of cabbage

Procedure:
Boil pork with bay leaves, garlic, peppercorns, onions and tomatoes, with 1 tbsp salt for about 30 minutes. Add the veggies except cabbage and cook another 5 minutes. Add sinigang mix and some more salt to taste. Add cabbage and cook another 2 minutes or so. Eat with plain rice.

Shrimp Sinigang

My younger son is so fond of shrimps. When we were in the PI, my mother would steam shrimps and just let it sit in the fridge as fingerfood of her favorite apo (grandson). So, even if shrimps are quite expensive here (they are expensive even in PI), I buy them from time to time for variation. One of the favorite shrimp dishes is the sinigang. Never fails with the kids. I don't bother offering it to husband as he is not fond of seafoods (would only eat scallops and haddock and red salmon, as far as I know).



I think the sour-salty taste of sinigang is characteristically Pinoy. So I don't attempt to offer it to foreigners.



I usually buy from the grocery store the E-Z peel uncooked jumbo shrimps. These shrimps already are beheaded, and veins removed (to my dismay! I could use those for seafood broth to be used in pancit!).



BOIL in a saucepan (all amounts approximations only' serves 3 persons):



3 cloves garlic

5 peppercorns

1 medium onion

2 med tomatoes cut in half

2-3 cups water

2 small peeled taro



until the tomatoes are throughly cooked and incorporated in the mixture very well.

Add:



1/2 lb shrimps

green beens (or later if you want it crispy)

salt to taste

sinigang mix (about 1 tbsp)



Wait for about 2 minutes or until shrimps are cooked. Then add the greens. Suggestions are:



a handful of:



cabbage

chinese cabbage (this looks like the baguio pechay in PI)



and turn off the heat. Let the residual heat wilt these last additions. Serve immediately with plain rice, placed in individual serving bowls.



My boys usually ask for a separate small bowl of just the broth and slurp it down as a finale.