The Best Pork Sinigang Recipe

Pork Sinigang is one of my family’s comfort foods. When the windshields are frosted and the cold’s biting our hineys, expect hubby to request it for dinner.

My brother-in-law Z shared his wife’s pork sinigang recipe with me, but because I’m never happy when I don’t tweak anything—including precious family recipes handed down from generation to generation—I twiddled with it a bit and came up with a truly signature dish. ;)

What’s Pork Sinigang?

For those who want to surprise their Filipino friends and loved ones, sinigang is a meat stew (pork or chicken) with a sour flavor, usually with tamarind, guava, calamansi (calamundi), young mango or any sour tropical fruit as flavor base.

The meat is stewed over low fire, with enough water to cover it, until it’s tender and the fat has been rendered. And you don’t use plain water but the water from rice washings, so part of my routine when cooking pork sinigang is cooking the rice as well.

IMHO, the perfect pork sinigang is a confluence of many things—a thick, starchy soup with the fat from the meat coating the top; crunchy but cooked vegetables; just the right balance of sour and spicy flavors; and juicy, tender meat with its fibers still attached to the bone.

Let's Cook Pork Sinigang!

You’ll need:

• 1 1/2 lbs pork tips, cut into bite-sized pieces
• Rice washing, enough to cover the meat
• 2 medium-sized white onions, sliced
• 5 large tomatoes, sliced
• 2 cups calabaza (squash), cut into bite-sized pieces
• 1 packet (20g) Knorr Sinigang sa Sampalok (tamarind) Mix
• Patis (fish sauce)
• Daikon radish
• Okra
• Yardlong beans (sitaw)
• 1 jalapeňo pepper, whole
• Spinach, Napa cabbage, or kangkong (water spinach)

The how:

1. To clean the meat, rub with coarse salt until you can smell the stink (believe me, it does!) and the meat is a bit slimy. Wash off until the water is clear (no blood left).
2. Place the meat together with the rice washing in a large saucepan, with the water just enough to cover the meat. Bring to a brisk boil on high heat, sloughing off scum as they rise. 
3. Once the water boils, lower the heat to medium, then top with onions, tomatoes and calabaza. Let simmer for about an hour, or until the meat is tender and fat has been rendered. You can add more water if you want more soup.
4. Flavor with the Sinigang Mix and fish sauce, according to your tastes. A li’l bit of caution though: add the flavor mix a little at a time until you’ve achieved desired sourness. 
5. Add the vegetables: first, the radish, cooking it for 10 minutes; then the okra and beans, for 5 minutes. Add the whole jalapeno once the beans are halfway cooked.
6. Add the kangkong or napa cabbage and cook for another 3 minutes, then take the saucepan off the fire. Best enjoyed with plain rice.

Things To Remember

• Don’t boil the meat on high heat too long as that dries up and toughens it. Makes for a contentious eating experience. Between you and the meat, that is.
• You can use any vegetables you like, but be careful not to overcook. My rule of thumb when cooking vegetables: 10 minutes for okra, and eggplant; 5 minutes for beans; and 3 minutes—tops!—for leafy veggies. All the rest—5 minutes.
• And as soon as cooking time is done, take the pot out of the heat as the vegetables will continue to cook. Matter of fact, 3 minutes after I put in the leafy vegetables, I transfer the dish to a serving tray to halt the cooking process.