Sinampalukan

Chicken soured with young tamarind LEAVES rather than the fruit, which gives a green sourness.

Chicken. Not vegetarian — contains chicken, fish sauce.

Ingredients

• 1.2 kg chicken, in pieces
• 200 g young tamarind leaves and shoots
• 80 g fresh ginger, in matchsticks
• 1 onion, sliced
• 6 garlic cloves, crushed
• 3 tomatoes, in wedges
• 1.5 litres water
• 3 tablespoons fish sauce
• 200 g chilli leaves or spinach
• 2 tablespoons oil
• 0.5 teaspoon black pepper

Method

1. THE LEAVES, NOT THE FRUIT. The sinigang on this site is soured with tamarind pulp and tastes deep and jammy-sour. Tamarind leaves give something quite different -- a thin green sourness, closer to sorrel -- and they go in by the handful rather than by the spoonful. There is no substituting pulp here; it makes the other soup.
2. Use the youngest shoots, the pale green tips. Older leaves are tough and bitter rather than sour.
3. A GREAT DEAL OF GINGER, in matchsticks, fried first. With a souring agent this delicate, ginger is doing half the work of the broth.
4. Fry the ginger, garlic and onion in the oil, 4 minutes.
5. Chicken in, 5 minutes, turned until the skin tightens. No browning -- this is meant to be a clear pale broth.
6. Tomatoes in, 3 minutes, pressed lightly so they slump without disappearing.
7. Fish sauce, then the water. Simmer covered 25 minutes.
8. HALF THE TAMARIND LEAVES IN, simmered 10 minutes, then TASTE. They give up their sourness quickly and how sour they are varies with how young they were picked. Add the rest a handful at a time until it is where you want it.
9. Leaves boiled for half an hour go bitter and khaki, so the second half goes in for the last 3 minutes only.
10. Heat off, chilli leaves in, lid on, 2 minutes. Pepper.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Philippines · All recipes