The Manilla Recipe Connection

I haven’t felt like myself at all lately. I lost another job! What are the odds of losing two jobs in a one year time period? My ego has definitely been deflated. But, I have a great family and several good friends that have been very supportive. I’ve made a decision to work as a temp; that way if I do not like the job assignment I know that it won’t last forever and something new is just around the corner. This new endeavor has caused my creative juices to flow again. I’ve vowed to try new things, meet new people, experience new eateries, and experiment with new recipes.

My cousin Greg met a lovely young woman from Manilla named Jyrene. Since I had so much time on my hands, I started playing Café World on Facebook and discovered that Jyrene plays the game too. We took our Facebook gaming one step further and began to e mail one another too. Jyrene mentioned that she was interested in cooking. We began swapping messages on our likes and dislikes about food. I told her about my blog and promised to send her some family recipes. In turn, she promised to send me some of her favorite recipes too. So in keeping with experiencing new things and meeting new people, I am posting Jyrene’s recipe for Pork Sinigang. Enjoy!

Pork Sinigang Ingredients

• 3/4 kilo Pork, cut into chunks

• 3 tomatoes, sliced

• 2 onions, diced

• 5 cloves of garlic, minced

• 100 grams Kangkong (river spinach)

• 100 grams String beans

• 2 pieces horse radishes, sliced

• 3 pieces gabi (taro), pealed

• 2 pieces sili pag sigang (green finger pepper)

• 200 grams sampalok (tamarind)

• 3 tablespoons of patis (fish sauce)

Directions

• Boil sampalok in water until the shell shows cracks. Let cool then peel off the shells and with a strainer, pour samplalok (including water) into a bowl. Gently massage the sampalok meat off the seeds, strain again.

• In a pot, sauté garlic and onion then add the tomatoes. Let simmer for 5 minutes.

• Add pork and fish sauce . Bring to a boil then simmer for 15 minutes then add the gabi. Continue to simmer for another 15 minutes or until the pork is tender.

• Add the horse radish and simmer for 10 minutes then add the string beans, kangkong and sili (for spice-optional). Let boil for 2 minutes.

• Serve piping hot.