SAWCLicious: Sinigang na Hipon (Sour Broth Soup with Shrimps)

This dish was one of the missed Filipino food that I always crave for. Not only is it very easy to cook but it always have this fulfilling feeling after eating it. Sinigang is a sour broth made usually with a tamarind base and can either be cooked with pork, fish, or shrimps and a mixture of different vegetables. The sour broth can also be made by other ingredients like guava, calamansi, or raw mangoes. For this post, I will share how I make them with shrimps. My European friends really likes this dish whenever I serve it to them.

My favorite ingredient to use for sinigang is the ready-made mix like below. You can easily find it in any Chinese Asian shops within Brussels.

Sinigang na Hipon

Ingredients

• 2 pcs. onions quartered
• 2 pcs. tomato quartered
• 2-3 cups of spinach leaves or kangkong (local Filipino Vegetable)
• 1 cup of chopped string beans
• Knorr or Mama Sita's Sinigang sa Sampalok mix
• 500 grams - 1 kilo of raw shrimps with head
• 3 tbsp. of fish sauce
• 2L of water
• Optional: You can add other vegetables such as radish, taro, chili, eggplant, and lady's finger (okra)

Procedure

1. In a pot, bring the water to a boil.
2. Once it starts to boil, add the onion and tomatoes and let it boil for 5-10 minutes.
3. Then add the sinigang mix and fish sauce.
4. Taste the base soup. If the soup is too sour for you, add a bit of sugar, if it's bland add some more fish sauce. 
5. Add the string beans and cook for 2 minutes.
6. Then add the shrimps into the pot. The time for the shrimp to cook will depend on the size of the shrimp. When you see it turning a bit red, add the spinach leaves. Once the shrimp is red/pinkish all over, then it's ready to be served.

I would normally add the shrimps into the soup base once everyone is ready for dinner. In this way, I don't overcook the shrimps. If you are adding the "optional" vegetables, you need to  estimate the time for it to be cooked before adding the shrimps simply because some vegetables would need to be simmered longer than the other. As an example, taro would take 30 minutes to cook and eggplant around 10-15 minutes.