Sinigang na baboy, or pork sinigang, is one of the most popular dishes in Filipino cuisine and its slightly sour flavor makes it stand out and very memorable. While many recipes online call for using the famous Mamacita’s or Knorr premade sinigang packets, I chose to make my own tamarind paste out of fresh fruit!
Background
Sinigang in Tagalog means “stewed dish” and is indigenous to the Philippines. Traditionally speaking, there are a variety of different ingredients added to the soup, like tomatoes, finger chiles, eggplants, kang kong (or water spinach), okra, string beans, and gabi (or taro). It’s great to mix and match vegetables based on your preference. There are also many variations of sinigang, for example: sinigáng na isdâ (fish sinigang), sinigáng na hipon (shrimp sinigang), and more. Just like the dishes kare kare or pork adobo, sinigang is one of those quintessential Philippine dishes you find in Filipino restaurants and homes. Funnily enough since my family is from Cebu, I actually didn’t grow up with sinigang on our dinner tables (we ended up eating more linat-ang baboy) and mostly fell in love with it as an adult visiting restaurants like Salo Salo.
Sour power: the tamarind
Tamarind is one of my favorite fruits and I have so many fond memories laying out in my aunt’s backyard in Cebu–right under the ginormous tamarind tree and eating as many fruits as I could. Since then, I’ve savored tamarind in as many different variations as I could get, from tamarind candy to sinigang. After finding so many recipes that called for premade packets, I wanted to make my own tamarind paste to make a fresh version of this soup using fewer processed ingredients. I know what you’re thinking, why not just use premade tamarind paste, well I couldn’t find any locally, so I made my own. While it’s an extra step in this process, it gave me more peace of mind knowing what was going into my stew AND I got extra tamarind to munch on while doing this recipe! I found boxed tamarind pods at my local Seafood City, but you can also find it at your local Asian grocery stores too. They usually come boxed or prepackaged.
Cooking tips
Who invented sinigang?
Sinigang is a traditional sour stew from the Philippines and is known for its tangy tamarind based broth.
What’s sinigang in English?
Sinigang in Tagalog means “stewed dish” in English.
