Spam, eggs, and rice (and then some)

Passport & Plate - Sinigang - sour, savory Filipino soup

Philippines | Friday, March 6, 2015 | 5 photos

Ingredients
For sinigang:
6 to 9 roma tomatoes (or 3 medium beefsteak tomatoes), cut into roughly 2 inch x 2 inch chunks
1/2 lb. of baby spinach
1/2 lb. of pork (can use either shoulder or butt), cut into about 1-inch x 1-inch cubes
1/4 lbs. of green beans, rinsed
2 cloves garlic, chopped
The juice of 3 lemons
6 cups of water
2 tablespoons of vegetable or olive oil
Salt and pepper.

For steamed, jasmine rice:
- About 1/3 cup dry rice needed for one serving
- Water, at ratio of 2:3 (rice:water)

 

How to prepare this recipe
For sinigang:
- Place garlic and oil into 3 to 4 quart stew pot and heat at medium high. When garlic starts bubbling at edges, stir around until fragrant (about 30 seconds).
- Season the pork with salt and pepper. Then, add to pot with garlic. Stir the pork around to get a bit of sear on the outside (about 2 minutes). The pork won’t yet be cooked all the way through, but don’t worry, it will have plenty of time to stew with the rest of the ingredients.
- Add tomatoes, green beans, and water. My mom often uses the discarded water from rinsing the rice during the rice cooking process (see details below).
- Let boil for an hour.
- Add lemon juice.
- Add spinach, slowly helping it wilt into the soup.
- Salt and pepper to taste.
- Let boil for 15 to 20 more minutes.
- Serve in bowls over jasmine rice.

For steamed jasmine rice
- You’ll need a ratio of 2:3 (rice to water) to cook your rice. You can use a rice cooker or cook on the stovetop using a pot with a lid (allowing for a small bit of steam to escape)
- Place dry rice in your cooking pot. Rinse the rice 2 to 3 times with warm water.
- Add warm water in the ratio mentioned above.
- If using a rice cooker, just set the water and rice in the pot, press the cook, button and leave it alone until the button pops up to say it’s done.
- If cooking on the stove top, heat up the pot on high until boiling. Once boiling, turn down the heat to low and place the lid on, making sure a small bit of steam can come out.
- Both cooking methods should take about 20 minutes.

 

The story behind this recipe
SINIGANG. What does this word mean? Synonyms come to mind like "warmth" or "home" or "though-i'm-sick-and-can-barely-move-i-do-in-fact-have-enough-strength-to-eat-this-if-you-make-it-mom." This also applies to the words ADOBO and LUMPIA and MECHADO. These are everyday words to people (like myself) who grew up in the United States with Filipino parents. It's funny to me that you can't find Filipino food in a strip mall in the U.S. like you can Chinese, Japanese, Indian, or even (in the DC area at least) Ethiopian food. So now that I've been a Seattle-ite for the past two months and am 3,000 miles from my go-to place for Filipino take out (a.k.a., mom's house), I've had to make this dish for myself.

Sinigang is one of many Filipino stews that are made in one pot, left to cook with minimal fussing over a couple hours. So, yes, you can shuffle out of bed, easily throw the ingredients in a pot, and shuffle on back under the covers for a nap before it's ready. My mom's version of this dish has more tomatoes than most Filipinos use. It includes lemons instead of kalamansi, the small cherry tomato-sized citrus fruit found in the Philippines but hard as heck to find in the U.S. There are also a lot of veggies, which my mom embraced since creating a vegetarian version for my sister a few years back. The result is a savory and sour soup that fills the belly after spooning it over white, jasmine rice. This is my favorite thing to eat in the whole world. I have memories (from when I was a kid and also from last year when I was 33) of a big pot of sinigang heaped tall with bright green spinach. I'd stare at the pot as the spinach slowly wilted, melding with the other ingredients over the stove top. I did this again the first time I made sinigang in Seattle. I watched the spinach wilt, took a deep whiff of the tomato-y aroma rising from the pot, and felt a little better because it felt like I was home.