Filipino Sinigang Recipe w/ Pork Ribs | Asian Recipes

Hey everyone, welcome to Pai's Kitchen. Today, we're gonna do yet another Filipino dish. This one has been requested of me many times and it is sinigang, which is a tamarind soup with lots of meat and vegetables. It's really healthy and really delicious. However, most of the time when people make it at home, they get one of these soup packets, okay? But today, I'm gonna show you how I make it from scratch. No packages needed. And it's gonna be good. Let's get started. Now, you can make sinigang with any kind of meat, but my favorite is pork ribs. Now, these are spare ribs that have been cut into small pieces and you can get them cut like this at an Asian butcher. Western butchers don't tend to sell ribs cut up like this. They'll sell you a whole rack. If that's what you have, you can just separate the ribs. You end up with bigger pieces, no big deal. But it's really important when you make soup from scratch that you use bone-in because the bones will turn your broth into a really flavorful stock, okay? So I'm gonna start by salting the ribs. Just give it a bit of an advanced seasoning before we sear these off. I'm gonna sear the ribs so I can get nice browning and browning is flavor. Do you like my new pot? We match. Just some vegetable oil, any kind of oil you're using. There we go. Now it's sizzling. And you might want to do this in a couple batches if the pot isn't big enough. So my second batch is nice and brown. I'm gonna put my first batch back in. Yes, when you weren't looking, I put on the apron because I was getting splashed with all of the sizzling. And I'm just gonna cover it with water. Just enough water to cover the pork. Perfect. And then I'm gonna season this broth with some fish sauce. And before I add anything else, I want to let the pork simmer for a while because there's gonna be quite a bit of scum and foam floating up. And then I want to scoop all that off before I add my vegetables. All right, that looks much cleaner. So the pork still has a good 45 more minutes because I want this fall off the bone tender, right? So I'm essentially braising the pork. But I want the onions and the tomatoes in there to help flavor the broth. And I also want the onions to be really, really tender if not dissolved into the broth. There we go. And if you need to add a little more water to get things covered, go for it. Now, while that is happening... Oof, that looks good already. While that's happening, I'm gonna make my tamarind juice. Now, normally, you see me use this guy, the pre-made tamarind juice. But today, I'm gonna actually use the tamarind pulp. And I've done a whole video, everything you need to know about tamarind. So you can definitely check that out. I'll put the link up here. But I want to use this today because this is more sour than this one. That is not always the case, okay? I always say that tamarind varies in acidity from batch to batch. So your jar tamarind might be very, very sour. Put some hot water over the pulp here. And just let that sit until it's cool. I mean, this still has to go for a while. So I'm just gonna let that sit until I'm ready to use it. Oh, yes, look at that. The pork is now fork tender. And the tomatoes and the onions are super soft and delicious. And it smells so good already. All right, so now, I'm gonna start adding vegetables to this. And one of the vegetables I'm gonna add is taro. And I was surprised to see taro used in this soup because in Thailand, most of the time, we use taro in a sweet application and rarely in savory. And the idea of putting it in soup, I thought, oh, that sounds delicious. So this is a part of a taro root. And I bought it from the store already peeled and cut because the whole root is massive. And so if I buy it, I won't use it all. So I'm gonna throw these in gently. And so I'm gonna let this go for about five to seven minutes until it's almost, almost done. And taro comes in big and small varieties, okay? I prefer the big one because I think it smells better and it's starchier, which I prefer. But if you like the little taro, you can use those as well. And I believe that's more traditional. All right, while the taro is cooking, I'm gonna deal with my tamarind now. So squish it with my hands just to get the pulp released into the water. All right, and now, I'm just going to strain all the pulp. Do one last squish in the strainer. It kind of helps to actually push it against the strainer, get last little bits of pulp out. Awesome. I would suggest tasting how sour this is because then you have an idea of how much to add, right? Oh, that's nice and sour. Yes, that's exactly what you want. And if you just dilute this, add a little water, you get a nice tamarind juice as a drink. Perfect. Mmm, looks so good. Look how rich that broth looks. That's all the bones and the ribs. All right, so now I'm gonna add some green beans. Now, I would have wanted long beans, but they didn't have long beans at the store, so I'm stuck with short beans or regular green beans. And these will take just a couple of minutes more. So the taro should have a total of about 10 minutes in the pot. I'm gonna add just a little more water just to make sure everything is covered. And I want to make this spicy. Now, in the Philippines, they use banana peppers. I'm gonna use Thai peppers because it's more spicy and it's the only one I have in the freezer. So just crushed. So the seeds are broken, but I'm gonna leave them whole so no one accidentally eats one. You do not have to make this spicy. This is just my version. Now, the beans are just about al dente. And if you like softer beans, definitely add this before. And you can use whatever vegetables you want. You don't have to do the ones I use. Now, I'm gonna just fork the taro just to make sure it's cooked. Yep, and you want it to split easily like that. Okay, so I'm gonna add some bok choy, or you can use water spinach. That's very common as well. I couldn't find any, so bok choy will do. Stir that in. And I don't like to cook bok choy for very long. Just residual heat from the broth is enough for me. And of course, I'm gonna finish the seasoning with the tamarind. For this soup, you want the sour flavor to be the dominant flavor, okay? It is a sour soup, but you can make it sort of, you know, as sour as you like it, obviously. Look how beautiful that is. And the tomatoes will give its acidity as well and sweeten the soup. And the onions have like dissolved into this broth. So good. All right, let's taste this. Oh, that's good. A little spicy. I will add some more tamarind. Quite a bit more, actually. I like things sour. And that is it! How easy is that? I just love how rich that broth has become. Now, I would normally have this with rice. But for you, I would taste it straight up. That looks like a nice piece. Now, for those of you who have never had this style of ribs before, don't worry about being graceful. Suck the meat off the bone and spit out the bone. That's it. And if you've cooked the ribs long enough, it'll just fall off the bones easily. Oh, so good. My Filipino friends, I love you for having come up with this dish. The pork is so tender and the ribs are quite fatty. So it's super juicy. The broth is rich and tart, yet it has a natural sweetness from the onions and the tomatoes and the ribs itself. Notice I didn't add any sugar at all. I didn't need to because it's naturally sweet. Oh my god. And the taro actually imparts an aroma, the taro aroma into the broth. It makes it super nice. Wow, what a great way to warm up on a cold night. I can really use this right now because in Vancouver, it is rainy and cold. So I hope you give it a try. The recipe will be on paiskitchen.com. I've just launched it and that's where all my non-Thai recipes will be. And then hotthaikitchen.com is where all the Thai recipes are. Makes sense, right? So give it a try and send me a photo when you try it on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. And if you haven't subscribed to the channel, please do so right here. And I will see you next time for your next delicious adventure.