Sinigang is a popular Filipino stew or soup characterized by its sour and savory taste. Tamarind is the most commonly used sour base but you can of course use other agents. Some people use miso, guava, unripe mango, and lemon or kalamansi. You get the idea. You can use different meat as well – pork, fish, shrimp, beef. And it’s served with rice of course.

With the increasingly chilly weather, I decided to cook this dish. Well, it was more like Chris requested and I complied. This was not the first time I cooked this dish. Far from it, this dish was one of my staples and I often prided myself with the fact that I could cook this dish in my sleep. But this would only be the second time I would cook this with fish, my go to will always be pork.

The Ingredients: Fresh salmon, taro root, okra, Chinese eggplant, string beans, yellow onion, Roma tomatoes, baby bokchoy, tamarind soup mix, and Serrano peppers.

Prep: I diced the onions, quartered the tomatoes, quartered the taro, cut the eggplant – nothing fancy really, cut the string beans, and separated the bokchoy. I just washed the salmon since we had the market cut and clean it for us when we got it.

I decided to precook the veggies except for the bokchoy and the peppers. I learned from my previous attempt in cooking sinigang with fish that it definitely cooks faster than any meat. We loved our veggies on the softer side so I want them cooked already before I even start cooking the fish. I let veggies simmer in salt water. Once the taro was almost on the soft side, I covered the pot, took it off the heat and set it aside. I left the veggies in the hot water though, I wanted them to continue cooking.

In a huge stock pot, I warmed up a little bit of olive oil and sweated the onions. When the whole kitchen was filled with the fragrant aroma of onions, I put the tomatoes in the pot, sauteing it for a few seconds. I then put the salmon in the pot after that. I filled the pot with filtered water – just enough to cover the fish, I added a bit of salt and let it simmer for about 15 minutes.

With that, I added the cooked veggies, the peppers, and poured 3 1/2 packets of the tamarind soup mix just because we prefer our sinigang extra sour. I let that simmer for about 10 minutes and then added the bokchoy. Let that simmer for another 5 minutes. I turned the heat off and covered the pot, letting it sit for about 15 minutes before serving.

There are different ways to serve this. Filipinos tend to serve this a la carte – in a huge serving bowl – next to huge bowl of rice to share with the family. Chris and I enjoy ours in a huge ramen bowl on a bed of rice with a small bowl of patis or fish sauce on the side. Perfect.