For the past few months, I had the privilege of sampling my mom’s dishes. Thus, I never needed to cook because her cooking (especially Chinese food) is just the best! However, since my mom left the Philippines already, I needed to get back to cooking. So today, I decided to cook two dishes. One of them is Pork Sinigang.

Whenever I cook pork belly dishes, I always wanted the pork to be cut in small pieces. I don’t know why but I feel that the flavors will be better distributed if the pork are small. I also tend to believe that psychologically, we tend to think that the dish can serve more people if the pork is cut smaller.

Another thing that I changed from usual sinigang is the vegetables. Usually, people put string beans (sitaw) or spinach. In my case, I stuck with an old favorite, kang kong. I used two bunch of kang kong leaves for this recipe. Cooking sinigang is a long process due to the time that we need to simmer the mixture to soften the pork. However, it’s not a labor-intensive process. After you finish up cooking the pork sinigang, you will feel that all the effort and time put to it is so worth it. It’s no wonder that pork sinigang is always a staple in most Filipino homes.

Pork Sinigang

Course Soup

Servings 6 people

Ingredients

1 tbsp olive oil
1 piece onion minced
1 kilo pork belly cut into small cubes
3 tbsp fish sauce
2 liters water
2 pieces tomato quartered
2 pieces taro/gabi quartered
3 pieces green finger chilies
1 pack sinigang mix good for 2 liters
2 bunch Kang Kong

Instructions

Heat a large pot with olive oil.
Add onions and sauce until color is translucent.
Add pork belly and cook until the pork’s color is light brown.
Add fish sauce and mix all the ingredients in the pot.
Add water and bring the mixture into a boil.
Add taro and tomatoes then simmer for 45 minutes (make sure pork is tender right after).
Add sinigang mix and green finger chilies.
Add Kang kong stems and simmer for another 5 minutes.
Add the rest of the Kang kong leaves then turn off the heat and cover the pot.
Let the Kang Kong cook using the steam in the pot.
Serve and enjoy!