Sinigang

So I was watching the Hairy Bikers show, Mums Know Best  the other day and thought about a recipe my mum makes that makes me feel happy. There are loads of Filipino dishes on the list, from Pinakbet to Adobo, Lechon to Pancit, but right next to Arroz Caldo sits one dish that always makes me happy- Sinigang.

The hot tangy soup is refreshing yet warming, the dish has a 'clean' taste, white rice, tender fish, clear ginger broth, watercress. When my mum came over the other day to make this, it instantly lifted my spirits and I was surprised to find that such a fond dish was so simple in its ingredients, preparation and method. So I'm going to share it with you as a beginner's guide to Filipino classics.

The broth is made with tamarind, ginger, onion and tomato. The tamarind provides the tangy flavour, the ginger adds warmth, onion to make it savoury and tomato to make it slightly sweet. I also add a couple of green birds eye chilies that have been split lengthways to add extra heat. I used a tamarind stock cube that I bought from my local Thai supermarket, but there's no reason why you can't use tamarind paste instead as these are more regularly available from the bigger supermarkets. You will need to check the back of the paste jar to see how much to use per litre of water.

This dish is normally served with white rice and in Philippines my family always wash the rice. I know this removes the starch and makes the rice lighter, I'm not sure why else they do this other than to clean it. My mum's family own a large area of rice paddies in Pangasinan so I was taught to cook and respect rice from an early age. I was told that for each grain of rice I leave on my plate, I will die a day sooner. Not a single grain was thrown away, any left overs were either used at a later meal or given to the cats and dogs to eat with other protein.

When my mum cleans rice, she puts the rice in a pan, pours cold water over it, and stirs the rice with her hands in the pan. She then drains most of the water and repeats the process until the water turns clear. For this dish, the first drain from the rice (the one with the most starch) is used as a base for the broth. It definitely does something to the flavour, so it's important to do this part. What's also important is to ensure you don't add too much water as this weakens the flavour of the broth. I put in just enough to cover the fish, but felt this was a little bit too much. Don't worry about not cooking the fish if it's not covered with water, as you can put the saucepan lid on the top to part steam cook the fish.

I cooked this dish with trout that I got from Abel & Cole, but traditionally my mum would make it with Tilapia and king prawns. The prawns definitely add to the sweetness in the broth so are worth adding if you can get some. I know a lot of other parts of the Philippines add pork as the protein, or chicken and beef. Though we have a differnt dish called Sinampalukang manok, which is a similar chicken dish that's a bit spicier but just as tasty.

If you use fish, don't be afraid to put the head into the broth as this will flavour it even more. You can always fish it out [;-)] later if you want.

For veggies I'm using watercress, also from Abel & Cole, which definitely add to the fresh feel of the dish. I have used spinach in the past, french string beans, okra and eggplant. The other day I only had a couple of broccoli left and white cabbage. My mum said I could use the broccoli stalk to add to the dish. I've never eaten broccoli stalk before, but it tastes really good, it still has a brocolli flavour but is much lighter. So I will be eating my broccoli stalk along with the florets from now on.

Once the fish and veggies are in, it's important not to overcook them so keep an eye on your ingredients. The timings I gave work for my trout given their size but will not work for everything. Also the cress, if you use it, tastes much better barely cooked, you can see how little cooking they've had from the green-ness in my pictures. If you over cook it, they will turn to a much darker/brownish green and a lot of their flavour will be lost.

All this prepared and cooked in 30 minutes. I was transported home and I ate the whole lot because Byron doesn't like fish. Awesome!

Ingredients
1 whole Trout, cut on the diagonal into 3/4 pieces
large bunch of Watercress, washed
1 Tomato, quartered
2 inches worth of Ginger, sliced
1 Onion, sliced
1 Tamarind stock cube
3 green birds eye Chiles (optional)
1/2 cup of Rice
2 cups of Water

Recipe
Prepare the rice, retaining ~1 cup of starchy water for the broth and start cooking.

Prepare fish, (de-scale, clean..etc), rub with regular table salt so the skin is not slippery and cut on the diagonal. Put to one side.

Get a medium sized saucepan with a lid, and start boiling the starchy water from the rice with the tamarind cube. Add another cup or so of water. Then add chopped ginger, tomato and onion. Cooked until boiling then simmer for 10 minutes.

Taste broth and season if necessary. Add fish and chillies and simmer for another 7 minutes. Add watercress and simmer for 2 minutes or until wilted.

Rice should be cooked now, so spoon rice into a bowl and pour broth and fish over. Eat.