Sinigang na Tilapia Recipe

Sinigang is a common dish for Filipinos. It is a soup characterized by its sour flavor. Different fruits can be used as souring agent such as tamarind (which is the most common), guava, green mango, kamias or bilimbi and santol. Back home, my most favorite fruit ingredient for sinigang is kamias or bilimbi, next is tamarind. We have a kamias tree in the backyard that bears fruits abundantly when in season. I hope it is still alive up to this day. That’s one of the things I would check when we go home this December for vacation.

Nowadays, powdered soup base or cubes have become popular in place of the natural fruits, especially for OFWs like us. They are commonly known as sinigang mix and are made of tamarind or guava. The tamarind powdered soup base is what I used for my sinigang na tilapia recipe. I usually like my sinigang to be really sour. Fortunately, hubby likes the same and so I used the whole sinigang mix pack.

It is best to add an assortment of vegetables to sinigang. I used pechay and banana blossom for this recipe. I learned from my mother that the banana blossom will make the soup white in color. Just be careful on the timing of slicing the banana blossom. I suggest slicing it seconds before it is added in the stew. Slicing it early will darken the color of the banana blossom.


Sinigang na Tilapia

Here’s my recipe for the Sinigang na Tilapia:

Ingredients:
2 pcs whole tilapia fish
1 bunch pechay
1 pc banana blossom, sliced to ½ inch thick, remove tough petals
2 pcs tomatoes, quartered
1 thumb-sized ginger, sliced thinly
1 onion, sliced
2 pcs banana chili
1 pack sinigang mix (use only half if you prefer less sour soup)
2 cups water
Salt

Cooking Procedure:
Bring to boil 2 cups of water. Add tomatoes and onion. Simmer until the tomatoes and onions are tender. Add sinigang mix and ginger. Cook until sinigang mix has completely dissolved. Add tilapia and vegetable ingredients. Season with salt. Cook until tilapia is done. Adjust the seasoning according to your taste.

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