Test Kitchen: Sinigang Na Baboy

I'm writing a cook book. Nothing of course for mass publication, but rather a vanity printing of family recipes cooked by my parents for me to give to their children and grandchildren. But before I record those recipes for posterity, I have to test them out. And so I've been writing zines of individual Filipino dishes for my niece and nephews--that's gonna be a separate blog post. But first a glass of Cabernet Sauvignon and a slice of home baked sourdough from Cecilia, slathered with lots of Irish butter because I hadn't eaten lunch yet that Sunday.

Once fortified, I started with boiling all the pork, neckbones and shoulder country style ribs and chopping onions and tomatoes but leaving the chili peppers whole (a little bit of heat but not a lot to make the soup unpalatable) to infuse the broth and then remove.

And washing bok choi and trimming green beans and cutting up Japanese eggplant.

 

I know I've blogged before about sinigang, but I feel like I cook it differently each and every time, the reason being that I skimmed all the scum and skimmed more fat this time or pureed the tomatoes and onion in my blender last time or may not have had all the vegetables or am using a different brand of seasoning packet.

And my usual process of boiling down the broth to load with flavor and then adding the vegetables last or even reserving them for much later cooking (they're washed and trimmed and ready to put in the soup pot)when we're actually about ready to eat.

I wish I lived closer to my blood relatives because I would be cooking sinigang for them. 

My two Filipino neighbors, Cecilia and Roseanne instead are the recipients of my sinigang kits. I tell them to come over with their own food container into which I ladle them the soup and meat and then send them away with a bag of washed and chopped vegetables too.