Sinigang na Baka (Beef in Sour Broth)

Sinigang na baka is one of my favourites. It is a sour but tasty dish. The flavour actually enhances your appetite. This is considered comfort food especially during rainy or cold days – just like the weather now here in UAE. 

A very simple and quick Filipino dish whether the key souring agent for a sinigang is unripe sampaloc (tamarind), kamias (belimbi), green mangoes, guavas, santol, etc. The sharpness of “sour” in the hot broth screams “comfort food” for me. As for the main ingredients in the sinigang, my husband love prawns, while I love pork, beef or clams as well.  And the veggies? The more the merrier and the fresher the better!

In this version, I used beef with marrows =D, I added chopped gabi (taro root), sitaw (yard-long beans), and siling pangsigang (finger chillies) only. Others also usually put labanos (radish), okra, kangkong and other vegetables. But since my husband did the grocery he only bought vegetables that he only eats. And since we don’t have fresh sour base vegetable, I only used Tamarind Powder.

Ingredients:

• 1 kilo beef
• Tamarind (sampaloc) Powder
• 1 big onion, diced
• 3 big tomatoes, chopped
• 6 pieces gabi, peeled & cubed
• 1 bundle sitaw (stringbeans) (cut into 2″ long)
• Finger Chillies
• salt and patis (fish sauce) to taste
• water

Procedure:

1. If you're using a pressure cooker, add the water, the stewing beef, onions and tomato. Pressure cook for about 45 minutes. If you're using a regular pot, put the above ingredients in a pot to simmer for 1 hour or until the meat is very tender.  Remove any scum from the beef.
2. Add onions, tomatoes and tamarind powder.
3. Add gabi then simmer for a few minutes.
4. Add string beans (sitaw).
5. Season with salt and patis to taste then serve.