I loved that Jacques taught incredible technique and celebrated the beauty of home cooking. This recipe is an ode to home cooking and celebrates classic Filipino flavors. Humble and comforting, savory and decidedly sour, it’s a celebration of home. The use of souring agents is a distinct Filipino culinary practice, seen here with tamarind, but you can experiment with other fruits, such as guava, unripe pineapple or mango, even rhubarb.

Sinigang na Hipon: Head-on Shrimp in Sour Tamarind Broth

Recipe details

Serves

4

Part 1

Ingredients

  • 1 tablespoon neutral oil such as vegetable or avocado oil
  • 1 yellow onion, thinly sliced
  • 2 Roma tomatoes, cut into 1-inch pieces
  • 1 cup tamarind pulp, recipe follows
  • 6 cups rice-wash water, see note below
  • 2 ounces taro root, cubed
  • 1 Japanese or Chinese eggplant, sliced diagonally into ½-inch thick slices
  • 3 ounces okra
  • Fish sauce, to taste
  • Rock or kosher salt
  • 2 ounces snake or green beans, cut into 2-inch pieces
  • 1 green long, hot chile
  • 3 ounces water spinach, cut into 4-inch pieces
  • ½ pound large (16 to 20) head and shell-on shrimp, backs split and cleaned
  • White rice, for serving
  • Additional fish sauce, for serving
  • Shrimp paste, for serving
  • Sea salt, for serving

Method

  1. Heat the oil in a large sauté pan over medium heat. Add the onions, half the tomatoes and salt and cook until translucent and softened but not colored, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the tamarind pulp and rice-wash water and bring to a boil. Add the taro, cover and reduce the heat to a simmer and cook for 7 to 8 minutes. Add the eggplant, okra, the rest of the tomato, green beans and the green hot pepper and simmer for 15 minutes. Don’t cut the pepper, as you want the threat of heat but not a full-blown attack.
  2. As soon as the vegetables are just about cooked through, taste the soup for seasoning. It should be pucker-sour, but also savory, and a bit thick from the starch of the taro and the stickiness of the okra. Season with a drizzle of fish sauce and/or salt. Some of the vegetables will break down during the cooking process. This adds to the texture and consistency of the soup, creating a rich, more satisfying base. Lastly, add the water spinach and the shrimp, pressing them down gently, to ensure they are fully submerged. Cover and continue to simmer until the shrimp are bright pink and cooked through, about 3 more minutes.
  3. Immediately remove from the heat. Serve the sinigang with steamed white rice and offer additional fish sauce, shrimp paste and sea salt at the table.

For the Tamarind Water

Ingredients

  • 1 cup water
  • 4 ounces peeled, ripe tamarind or dry pods

Method

  1. Bring the water to a boil and add the ripe tamarind pods. If using dry pods, peel them and add the seeds to the boiling water. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook until the pods are tender, about 5 minutes. Separate the pulp from the seed by pressing against them with a spatula. Discard the seed and set the tamarind pulp aside in a jar with a tight-fitting lid. Store in the refrigerator for up to 1 month.

Note: Rice-wash water is made when rinsing or soaking rice, reserve the water to use in the sinigang. Traditionally, it is used instead of plain water to add texture to soups and stews.