A Pork Sinigang Recipe Plus Eight Tamarind Soups To Try

After poring over each recipe, I settled on making pork sinigang, which is a Filipino recipe. Sinigang is a soup that has a base of tamarind, tomatoes, and onions. A choice of meats or seafood are added, and then vegetables such as green beans, bok choy, potatoes, and daikon radish. Sinigang is very sour, and served over rice. I already had most of the ingredients, so I didn't really have to do a lot of extra shopping for this.

First stop for me was the Manila Oriental Market in San Francisco, which is a really great place for Filipino and Southeast Asian ingredients. At the market, they had Knorr brand Sinigang soup mix packets, but I didn't like the fact that they contained monosodium glutamate and other preservatives, which I wasn't too keen on. I did a google search to see if I could just make the soup with tamarind concentrate (I already had a jar at home!) and sure enough, it seemed that I could. Reading the ingredients on the Knorr packet showed me that it was also comprised of tamarind powder, powdered shrimp, and salt, so I picked up a package of dried shrimp, thinking I could experiment with that and get the right balance of flavors.

I added the tamarind concentrate to the soup a tablespoon at a time, tasting, wondering how much it would take to get the sourness that makes a sinigang. As it turns out, it needed a lot! I ended up adding the whole 14-oz. jar. In the end, it turned out very yummy. Next time, I'd like to experiment with tamarind pulp or fresh tamarind and see how it tastes.

As this was my first foray into Filipino cooking, I have no idea how authentic my recipe was, so I hope Filipino readers will read my recipe and tell me what they think. I read several different recipes for pork sinigang - there are many! - and picked different elements that I could work with. It came out more like a stew than a soup, but as it's meant to be served over rice, this worked out just fine. So tasty!

Kathryn's Pork Sinigang Soup Recipe

Ingredients:
3 lbs. pork ribs, cut in 1-inch chunks. I know, this seems like a LOT, but they shrink when cooked, and there is a lot of bone and cartilage included. You need these, though, as they give the soup its flavor.
1 medium onion, quartered and sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp. vegetable oil
4 cups water
1 14-oz. jar of tamarind concentrate
1/4 cup of small dried shrimp
1 tbsp. fish sauce
1 tsp. salt
1 cup chopped tomatoes with juice
2 white potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 carrot, peeled and cut in chunks
1 cup daikon radish, sliced (optional)
3 cups of baby bok choy, halved

Preparation:
In a soup pot, saute the onions and garlic in the oil until golden. Add the pork and cook until evenly browned. Add the water, the tamarind concentrate, dried shrimp, fish sauce, salt, and tomatoes. Simmer, covered, for a hour or 2,stirring every so often, until the meat is very tender and falling off the bone, and the flavors have developed nicely. Add the potatoes, carrots, and daikon, and simmer for 10 more minutes, or until the potatoes are tender. Turn off the heat and add the bok choy and stir it in until it is nicely wilted - you won't need to have the stove heat on, the soup itself is hot enough to cook the greens.

Serve over rice.

Would you like to try more tamarind soups? Here is a small list:

Spicy Tomato And Tamarind Soup
Vietnamese Tamarind Soup with Catfish, Pineapple, and Okra (Canh Chua Cá)
Thai Prawn & Tamarind Soup
Thai Sour Fish Soup
Buddhist Tamarind & Vegetable Soup
Spicy Sweet Potato & Tamarind Soup
Sinampalukang Manok (Chicken in Tamarind Soup)
Sambar - Vegetable and Tamarind Stew

(Image: Kathryn Hill)

hollerrr!! SINIGANG! It totally hits the spot on a cold cold day. I myself do not make it, but my mom does and it's pretty amazing. I will have to try this out to see if I'm capable!

posted by ceereelyo on October 19th 2009 at 2:42pm
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One of my favorite Filipino dishes. My family doesn't use tamarind concentrate, and the soup we get afterward is usually clear. Yours looks a little different from the family recipe, but I'll definitely give yours a shot though.

posted by icedjaminetea on October 19th 2009 at 2:45pm
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I can see why it hits the spot on a cold day, it's so rich and hearty and yummy! I've eaten 3 bowls already.

posted by Kathryn Hill on October 19th 2009 at 2:55pm
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this is the one filipino dish i cook and cook often. i have never used potato or carrot in sinigang and have never seen it with either. i would leave out the fish sauce and instead offer it as a side to add while eating.

posted by kimpinaintez on October 19th 2009 at 3:00pm
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Sinigang is as varied as the islands in the Philippines -- every island has different foods available to them and thus, the dish is customizable. Of course, the constant is the tamarind-- my family uses fresh tamarind. I'm still working on a vegetarian version for myself, since I no longer eat meat.

posted by Lorena in SD on October 19th 2009 at 4:04pm
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Instead of green beans, I use sitaw. The long long beans make me think of Sinigang. Also, it's preferable to use the fish sauce as a condiment onto the soup.

posted by ajcolberg on October 19th 2009 at 5:16pm
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so glad you featured sinigang! here is a link to a site that outlines how to make the broth from scratch:
http://www.marketmanila.com/archives/sampaloc-tamarind-broth-for-singang

posted by megamags on October 19th 2009 at 6:38pm
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I agree with Lorena in SD that recipes for sinigang can be really varied. The vegetables in our family recipe are different than the ones you use (I like potatoes, no carrots, and like ajcolberg, I use sitaw, the 'yard long' beans). Also, I haven't heard of a recipe that uses the dried shrimp and tomato, so the broth in our sinigang is clearer as well. Fish sauce is the perfect condiment, so I would leave it out of the cooking phase and just add it at the table too.
My kids love this dish.

posted by crispywaffle on October 20th 2009 at 5:15am
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Thanks so much for the input! Yeah, I did find some photos of sinigang where the broth was clear, but I figured since there are so many different recipes for it, there must be different ways to make it. I'll leave out the fish sauce next time and try it as a condiment.

posted by Kathryn Hill on October 20th 2009 at 10:36am
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This is my comfort food! I think the tamarind paste (thai or indian) may have been the reason for the dark color. Megamags' link is how it's usually done. Adding dried shrimp is very Thai. I'm curious to try it though as I've never seen it used in sinigang. In our family we add okra and lots of kangkong (swamp cabbage) for vegetables. We also use pork cubes (with fat attached) boiled in the broth until the fat is close to a pulp. Doesn't sound healthy I know but I swear the taste of the fat makes a big difference.

posted by jongki on October 21st 2009 at 7:36am
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@lorena in SD: research done by the late doreen fernandez shows that tamarind isn't really a constant. all over the philippines, any sourish fruit or leaf or even flower can be a souring agent. sinampalukang manok (tamarind chicken) uses young tamarind leaves for souring. in the southern regions, batuan (a small sour fruit) is used for sinigang. there's also kamias, guava, even green unripe watermelon.

@kathryn: the tamarind concentrate you used in this recipe is good for malaysian and indonesian assam/sour stews. sinigang generally has a light, clear broth. (except for sinigang sa miso with mustard leaves, which uses white or yellow miso to cloud the broth.) filipinos don't really use potato or carrot in sinigang. radish is almost always present. okra is sometimes used, also eggplant and long beans. but kangkong would be the leafy green most often used, added in the last few minutes of simmering to retain its crunch.

the sourness of sinigang and the lightness of its broth is supposed to be cooling in our humid tropical weather. your recipe is an interesting take that adapts to what's available there. my sister who lives in the netherlands uses lemon, salmon and mustard green for her sinigang. you can try that :)

posted by sandrita on October 23rd 2009 at 1:18am
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@kathryn: looking at your ingredients again, you can actually just double your tomatoes or use green/less ripe tomatoes to make your sinigang sour.

posted by sandrita on October 23rd 2009 at 1:23am
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@sandrita, thanks so much for your input. I'll try the green tomato trick next time!

posted by Kathryn Hill on October 23rd 2009 at 10:12am
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