Pork Sinigang Recipe

As much as I’d like to limit our pork intake not only due to swine flu scare but more so because of the amount of calories and fats we would be stuffing ourselves with, I just couldn’t resist the temptation especially when I know that there’s a half kilo of pork sitting in the fridge.

It’s been a while since we had sinigang and since I still have plenty of sinigang mix brought from the Philippines, I decided to make pork sinigang.

Sinigang, or sour soup in English, is another famous Filipino dish and seems to be everyone’s favorite. It is always present on the menu in any carinderia or Pinoy restaurant.

Sinigang is typically cooked in a lot of water, meat, a selection of vegetables, and should be very sour in taste (although some people would prefer to reduce the sourness).

There’s a variety of option for sinigang's main ingredient. One can choose from pork, beef, chicken, shrimp or fish. The sourness of the soup can also come from a range of sour fruits, such as tamarind, kalamansi (citrus), kamias (bilimbi) or santol. I also know some people who use green mango but using it may seem difficult to achieve the exact sourness compared to using other sour fruits.

For my sinigang, I used the ready mix sampaloc sinigang with gabi (taro). It’s convenient for pinoy travelers and OFWs who aren’t able to find the fresh ingredient in their country of work. The sour taste is nearly authentic. The original ready mix sampaloc sinigang was without bits of taro, the mixture with taro was just introduced later on. I like the taro version more than the original sampaloc mix because it tends to slightly thicken the soup.

Here’s my pork sinigang recipe.

Ingredients:
1/2 kilo pork, sliced into 1 inch cubes (use parts with fat layers or boney parts, whichever of these two is just as great)
4 pieces tomatoes, cut each into 4 parts
1 large onion, cut into 4 parts
1 bundle okra
2 pieces radish, sliced thinly
1 bundle Pechay (buk choy) or kangkong
3-4 pieces green chili (long)
3-4 pieces small taro (optional)
1 liter water
Sinigang mix (tamarind with gabi)

Cooking Instructions:
1. Put pork in a pot and cover with water. Bring to boil.
2. Add sliced tomatoes, taro and onion. Let it simmer.
3. When pork is tender, add sinigang mix and season with salt. Then add radish and cook until half done.
4. Add okra and long beans. When half done add pechay and cook until wilted.
5. Serve with steamed rice.

Preparation and cooking time: 60 minutes
Serving: 2-3