Kitchen Confidentials - Salmon Sinigang

In most Filipino kitchens rarely would they run low on onions, garlic, tomatoes or ginger; toyo (soy sauce) and/or patis (fish sauce) - good God I think we have bags of these that would last us the whole month. Not to mention some sort of "sour soup"  (Sinigang) base powder. 

This morning I did an inventory check of the pantry and saw that I was still good with the "usual suspects", the only thing I had to do was find out from my tribe which kind of Sinigang they wanted - beef, pork or fish.

Since it's been a while this is what they requested...

The usual suspects:

1 large onion, sliced
1/2 cup sliced ginger
3 medium tomatoes, chopped into 8 piece wedges each
Tamarind soup base
patis
salt (if needed)


Accessories:


Tamarind leaves, 1 pack (1/2 lb.) 227 g
Okra, 12 pieces
Petchay, 1 bag - cleaned and trimmed of white stalk, green leafy part only
*optional: Banana pepper for spice


The Culprit:

3.5 - 4 lbs. Salmon head + cheeks

F.O.B. Fridays ~ Split Mung Bean Soup

When I was a kid I never did like "munggo" (mung bean soup), I always thought it was yucky, grainy, looked weird and murky. I realized that my first experience eating this dish wasn't pleasant so all my bad thoughts stuck with me till a couple years later. I ate this again (can't remember where) and was surprised that it actually tasted good.... really good! I took a good look at the soup and at the same time each spoonful I put in my mouth I tried to get a sense of the difference. Then it hit me! This was smoother in texture because there was less skins on the beans and floating in the soup.

{note to self}

That gave me the idea to cook this for my family now with the attempt to remove the skins. But one day while I was at an Asian grocery store walking down an aisle, I spotted on the shelf a packet of yellow mung beans. At first I thought it was a different type of mung bean altogether but it was the same bean just skinless and split into halves (happy dance). Since then I've been using this type of packaged mung beans when cooking this soup.

Here are the ingredients:
1.5 cup split Mung beans
1 3/4 lbs. pork belly
1.5 tsp minced garlic
1 medium onion, diced
2 medium tomatoes,  sliced into wedges (8 per tonato)
1 sweet pepper or banana pepper
1 pack (0.5 lb) frozen pepper leaves, thawed
Kosher salt
3 cups chicken broth
1/4 cup Patis (fish sauce)

1 tsp sugar

ground black pepper to taste

*optional: malunggay (horseradish) leaves are an alternative leafy greens for this soup dish.

PREP & PRECOOK BEANS:
Soak the mung beans for at least 1 hour. Rinse and boil in 3 cups water in a small pot, simmer on low for 10-12 minutes or until beans are cooked. Water will have reduced to the volume of the beans and will appear almost mushy. Turn off heat and add 1 tsp salt, mix well and set aside. 

PREP AND PRECOOK PORK BELLY:
Cut pork into half inch (or one inch if you prefer) pieces. Saute with 1 tbsp canola oil in a deep sauce pan on med-hi heat, season with 1 tsp salt, stirring occasionally while meat is still pink or pale in color. Cover and cook for about 10 minutes. Then adjust heat to low and cook till a golden brown color, stirring frequently. Spoon out about half of the rendered fat or oil and proceed to sauté the rest of the ingredients.

BEFORE (stir occasionally)

AFTER