kitchen

Something smells fishy and savory…

I love fish. Don’t you?

Instead of eating red meat or poultry, I’d rather eat seafood. I enjoy the light flavor and the variety of dishes I can make out of the many kind of seafood in the market.

I grew up eating fish because my Dad loves to eat fish. Growing up, I remember going to the “Palengke” or wet market. Fresh caught fish, shellfish, octopus, crustaceans and even sea cucumbers and sea urchins can be bought. It’s simply a delight learning easy fish recipes but what makes me extra happy about this particular recipe is that my family gave me a high score on this 🙂

Ingredients:

3 pcs. Basa fish fillet
3 tbsp. Capers, washed and drained
1 Lemon
Ginger, julienned
Shallots. thinly sliced
Olive oil
Salt and pepper

Cut the Basa fish fillet into bite sizes. Cut the lemon in half. Juice half of the lemon while slicing the other half into very thin round slices.

Into a non-stick pan, heat 1 teaspoon of olive oil. Saute the ginger and shallots until fragrant. Add the fish, some salt and pepper, the capers and the sliced lemon. Cook for 2-3 minutes on medium high heat. Add in the lemon juice and drizzle with some more olive oil. Cover the pan and cook for another minute.

Very easy!!!!

Philippine tamarind pork soup.
Originally uploaded by doyd74

Today, I want to share this all-time family favorite dish. Sinigang (as how we call it in Filipino) is a Philippine soup characterized by it’s sour flavor. To me it is somehow similar to Thai’s tom yam soup.

All the children in our family, both father and mother-side loves this soup. If we want the kids to eat a lot for dinner or lunch, just cook Sinigang 🙂

Here’s how to make it:

1 pound of Pork (short ribs, neckbone, belly, shoulder or even tenderloin)
1 large Tomato
1 medium Daikon (you can use Korean daikon too)
1 bunch or pack of Spinach
4-5 pieces of Taro corms (Gabi)
1 pack of Sinigang mix (can be purchased at a local Chinese/Filipino supermarket)
1 teaspoon of Fish Sauce

Cut/chop the pork into large bite sizes. Wash it well.
Boil 8-10 cups of water. Upon boiling, add the pork. Let it simmer for a few minutes. Remove all the pork scum or brown bubbles that forms on top of the soup making sure nothing’s left.

Add the tomatoes, sinigang mix and gabi. Reduce the fire to medium and cover the pot. Let it simmer for about 30 minutes.

Once the pork is tender, add the daikon and fish sauce. When daikon is cooked according to how you want it to be, you may add the spinach and simmer for another minute or two.

I call this my American Sinigang because I make it using the ingredients we have here in America. Originally, when I was small, my Dad would use pork neckbones and he would simmer it until the soup really tastes so good. Then he added water spinach (“kang-kong”) or yardlong beans/chinese string beans (“sitaw”), sometimes even eggplants and okra.

Most Filipinos like to cook Sinigang with a piece of green finger pepper. Here in the US, I use Korean green chili or anaheim peppers to enhance the taste while adding a little kick of spice to the soup.

Sinigang… a best-loved dish from my kitchen. Try it!!