For the International Filipino, the easiest way to get transported to back to the motherland without having to shred the bank account is by cooking food that evokes feelings of comfort, harkens back to simpler, more joyous times in the province, or sometimes, just a simple Adobo that makes you want to shun proper utensils and eat with your hands, with one foot hiked up to the chair.
In his blog entry, Arvin shares one of his favorite child hood dishes, a sour chicken soup recipe that is “a truly personal one which I hope does my Tagalog relatives proud. It is simple, with bold flavors perfect for a cold night and a hot plate of rice”.
Ingredients:
1 whole chicken cut into small pieces
A large piece of ginger peeled and cut into large strips
Three chopped cloves of garlic
Dark fish sauce
A cup’s worth of young tamarind leaves
Unripe tamarind or tamarind paste
Chicken broth
Siling haba/pansigang (Philippine long green chili)
Sugar
Oil
Method
Clean and remove young tamarind leaves from the stalk, set aside. Heat oil in a pan and saute ginger and garlic for two minutes. Add chicken and sear for about five minutes on high heat. Add fish sauce and chili, lower heat to medium and cover. Cook until chicken is done. The perfect state of the chicken when this dish is served is tender, as in you-can-see-the-main-leg bone tender. Add chicken broth or water, bring to a boil. Now, this next step and be omitted if you have enough young tamarind leaves, if you don’t then add unripe tamarind. Cook until tamarind is soft. Take out tamarinds and put into a small bowl with some of the soup. Mash until you coax all the thick paste from the fruit, add more soup and sieve back into the pot. You can skip this process with tamarind paste or the champion, Knorr Sinigang Mix. Add a small dash of sugar and adjust seasoning with fish sauce if needed. Turn off heat, add tamarind leaves and stir.
Blogger: Arvin William Dauz
Blog: http://apisoforyourthoughts.blogspot.com
