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Pork and Rhubarb Sinigang

Pork and Rhubarb Sinigang - Burnt Lumpia: Filipino Food | Filipino Recipes | Culinary Hijinkswindow.fbAsyncInit = function() { FB.init( { apiKey: 'a279adbe87e2b3c505e777af99a5260d', xfbml: true } );};( function() { var e = document.createElement( 'script' ); e.async = true; e.src = document.location.protocol + '//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js'; document.getElementById( 'fb-root' ).appendChild( e );} )();Burnt Lumpia: Filipino Food | Filipino Recipes | Culinary HijinksLumpia FillingAbout Burnt LumpiaFilipino Food Recipe ArchiveLinks Get My FeedWelcomeRecent PostsPork and Rhubarb SinigangChicken Adobo and 40 Cloves of GarlicCookbook Update: Manuscript & Photos DoneHome-Cured Corned BeefA Journey with LinamnamCookbook Recipe Testers Wanted!Turkey, Sweet Potato, and Cranberry EmpanadasPapaitan: Offal & Bile SoupAn Interview with Claude TayagFresh Mango Pudding From Rasa Malaysia's New CookbookCategoriesAdobo RecipesBeefBeer, Liquor, & WineBL OriginalsBL Restaurant ReviewsBooksCookbooksDessertsFruits and VeggiesGiveawaysHolidaysHow to Make LumpiaKalamansiKinilawLasang PinoyMy Cookbook!On The GrillOtherPancit (Filipino Noodles)PorkPoultryRiceSeafoodThe BL FamThe Manila MachineTravelUbe RecipesVinegar (Suka) « Chicken Adobo and 40 Cloves of Garlic |Main

May 28, 2012Pork and Rhubarb Sinigang

The Filipino sour soup known as Sinigang can contain any variety of meats, poultry and seafood, and is typically studded with a variety of local vegetables. Depending on the region of the Philippines, a range of native fruits can be used to give Sinigang its trademark tang. And although vinegar is a vital ingredient in Filipino cooking, it is never used as a souring agent for Sinigang.

The typical souring agents that can be used include unripe tamarind pods and leaves, kamias (a very sour green fruit pod native to the Philippines), guava, starfruit, tomatoes, as well as lemon, calamansi and dayap (another variety of Philippine lime).

But since Rhubarb is so plentiful this time of year in my neck of the woods (and also because tamarind, kamias, guava, starfruit and dayap don't grow in my neck of the woods), I decided to try and use the sour red stalks to bring the tang for a Pork Sinigang.

Rhubarb? In soup? Yes. And it works wonderfully! Although rhubarb is typically used in desserts, a savory Sinigang application isn't as crazy as it sounds. Besides lending the necessary sourness for a proper Sinigang, rhubarb also provides a nice crunchy texture in much the same way that daikon or taro traditionally would in the Filipino sour soup.

And besides, using Rhubarb in Sinigang will trip out even the most palate-progressive of all your Filipino friends. It's a culinary curveball!

"rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb"

In fact, I myself was hesitant with this experiment. But after my first bite, the rhubarb quickly reminded me of a Fish Sinigang soured with Kamias that I had in the Philippines a few years back. So, plop a bowl of this sour, ruby-studded soup in front of the most hardened of Sinigang purists and they'll quickly come to believe in the savory souring power of rhubarb.

Pork and Rhubarb Sinigang

To make this Sinigang, you will need a total of 1-1/2 pounds of fresh rhubarb. 1 pound will be needed for the broth, and the other 1/2 pound will be chopped and added to the soup at the last minute to provide more sourness and texture. When buying rhubarb, choose long, slender, and firm stalks that are deep red in color.

I also used boneless country-style pork ribs in this recipe, but regular pork spareribs would work great, but so would shrimp or even salmon. Sinigang be flexible, folks.

Serves 4-6

For the broth:
1 pound fresh rhubarb
8 cups water

For the soup:
1.5 pounds cubed pork (I used boneless country-style pork ribs)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 onion, diced
5-6 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons fish sauce, plus more to taste
2 mild yellow chili peppers, pierced through with a knife
1/2 pound cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
1/2 pound fresh rhubarb, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
Fresh greens, such as chopped bok choy, kangkong, or spinach (I used spinach)
Lemon wedges, or kalamansi halves, for serving

To make the rhubarb broth, trim away and discard any leaves from the rhubarb stalks (the leaves are toxic). Roughly chop the rhubarb into about 1-inch chunks. Add the rhubarb chunks, along with the 8 cups of water, to a large pot over high heat. Bring the pot to a boil, then cover, reduce the heat to low, and simmer until the rhubarb is completely soft, 10-15 minutes. Strain the broth through a fine mesh sieve set over a large bowl. Using a wooden spoon, mash the rhubarb in the sieve to extract as much liquid as possible. Discard the rhubarb pulp and set the broth aside.

To make the soup, season the cubed pork with salt and pepper. Heat the oil in a large pot or Dutch oven over moderately high heat. When the oil is hot, add the pork to the pot and brown on all sides, 2-3 minutes per side. Brown the pork in batches if necessary so as not to overcrowd the pot.

Transfer the browned pork to a large platter and set aside. Add the onions to the pot and cook until soft and wilted, 2-3 minutes. Toss in the garlic and cook until just beginning to brown, 1-2 minutes. Return the browned pork to the pot, along with any accumulated juices from the platter. Pour in the rhubarb broth, stirring the bottom of the pot to scrape up any browned bits. Stir in the fish sauce, chili peppers and the tomatoes. Bring the pot to a boil, then cover, reduce the heat to low, and simmer until the pork is tender, 45-60 minutes.

Taste the soup, and adjust the seasoning as necessary with more fish sauce.

During the last 10 minutes of cooking stir in the chopped 1/2 pound of rhubarb and simmer until the rhubarb is tender, but not mushy, 5-10 minutes. If using bok choy, add it at the same time as the rhubarb. If using greens that wilt more quickly, like spinach, just stir it in at the last second after you've removed the soup from the heat.

Serve the Sinigang with lemon wedges or kalamansi halves on the side, to adjust the sourness as needed. Also serve alongside steamed white rice.

Pork Sinigang Soured with Rhubarb

Posted by Burnt Lumpia at 11:01 AM | Permalink

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Comments

where did you bought rhubarb?

Posted by:lyn |May 28, 2012 at 11:48 PM

Brilliant! Or should I say genius?

I've always wondered if cranberries can be used as souring agent for sinigang. But I'm always afraid my family will not be open to such a crazy idea. Perhaps you can do the experiment for me. :-)

Posted by:leah |May 29, 2012 at 10:03 AM

I rarely get impressed by modifications on traditional preparations, but this is very nice. Simple but innovative, and not trying too hard.

Posted by:Beth |May 29, 2012 at 11:57 AM

Yes, you are freakin' brilliant! I will use your recipe for my Iron Chef cooking party this weekend. The theme ingredient is Rhubarb!

Posted by:Vicky |May 29, 2012 at 01:06 PM

mmmmm...two of my favorite things: pork and rhubarb! They go nicely together in basic stir fry, so I think they will play very nicely together in this soup! Will have to give it a try...thanks for the idea!

Posted by:shannon |May 29, 2012 at 01:11 PM

Total genius! I've always been curious about rhubarb though I've never had the opportunity to try it. Wow that's pretty awesome.

Posted by:Michelle |May 29, 2012 at 09:59 PM

I see you're as creative (and crazy) as ever, Marvin! :-)

Posted by:Katrina |May 30, 2012 at 12:59 PM

Da-yum! And I didn't come up with this , why?!?!?
Brilliant Marvin!

Posted by:jean |May 31, 2012 at 09:19 AM

Crazy cool, man! Major props. :)

Posted by:Row |May 31, 2012 at 11:09 PM

hey marvin, the use of rhubarbs as souring agent for sinigang was GENIUS!!!

:)

Posted by:Jeff M |June 07, 2012 at 06:50 PM

I dont think Rhubarb grows in my neck of the woods, but if i see some available in the market... i would like to give this a try. :)

Posted by:tndcallphilippines |June 07, 2012 at 07:36 PM

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Vegetable Fried Noodles

Vegetable Fried Noodles pictures (1 of 4)

Even though I don’t share many vegetable recipes on Rasa Malaysia (mostly because I find Asian-style vegetables very hard to shoot), it doesn’t mean that I don’t like them. Dine in or out, I always have a vegetable dish to balance off my meal. I love all kinds of vegetables, be it plain stir-fry, in soups, or in noodles.

Vegetable fried noodles is one recipe that I make use of the different vegetables I love. It reminds me of the 9th Emperor God festival in Malaysia when we observe a pure vegan diet during the festivity. My aunt is a very good cook and her vegetable fried noodles is one of my favorite dishes during the celebration—simple noodles fried with a variety of shredded vegetables.

This is my rendition of her vegetable fried noodles. Instead of using the regular vermicelli or rice noodles, I made the recipe with mung bean noodles (also known as cellophane noodles or glass noodles). I love the slightly starchy and springy texture of this noodle. For vegetables, I used cabbage, carrot, bean sprout, fresh shiitake mushroom, and scallion. It’s simple and humble, the kind of dish that I enjoy especially when I eat too much meat for the week.

Have a great Memorial Day!

(Click Page 2 for the Vegetable Fried Noodles Recipe)

Pages: 1 2

I have been so busy recently I can hardly find any time to have a breather. If you’ve been following my blog and Twitter, you will know that working on my cookbook has pretty much consumed all my time. As a result, I have been eating out more, and cook only when time permits. In the past, I would always attempt…

When I was in Oahu, other than stuffing my face with malassadas (malasadas), sampling local Hawaiian cuisine, and feasting on shrimp, I ate Japanese food almost every day. Oahu is a real gem for Japanese food, thanks to the many Japanese tourists and also locals who are obsessed with Japanese cuisine. There are countless authentic Japanese restaurants dotting Waikiki Beach:…

(Chinese recipes, prepare authentic Chinese food now!) Vegetables are healthy and great, but they are boring and hard to cook. Unlike protein (such as meat or fish), vegetables don’t have much flavor. In Chinese cooking, the key to cooking vegetable dishes lies in the creative use of  side ingredients and sauces to bring out the taste and texture of vegetables….

This chicken noodles recipe was inspired by a recipe book that I flipped through at my grocery store. The timing couldn’t be better as I had some fresh egg noodles in the fridge, so I made this mouthwatering chicken noodles for lunch yesterday. The best part of this chicken noodles was the chicken. I marinated the chicken with some soy sauce, oyster sauce,…

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Shrimp with Spicy Garlic Sauce

Happy Friday! Quite of you seem to have tried and loved this shrimp with spicy garlic sauce recipe that I first posted in September 2010. As a nod to this recipe becoming one of Appetite for China’s most popular ones on Pinterest, here is an updated photo and recipe. This easy recipe takes about 5 minutes of cooking time, perfect if you’re out and about all weekend. I hope you enjoy it!

When I was living in China, ordering a dish of something coated in spicy garlic sauce was usually a gamble. Take pork or eggplant for example, two Sichuan dishes usually cooked with this sauce. The dish could be either perfectly manageable, or, if the chef was overly generous with his chili oil, throat-burningly spicy. Having your throat burnt isn’t necessarily bad, per se (after all, you did go out for Sichuan). But when your meal also includes mapo tofu, dan dan noodles, and boiled beef in chili sauce, it would be nice to have a little reprieve.

In the U.S., shrimp with garlic sauce in Chinese restaurants is rarely very spicy, even if the entree is marked with a big red star or chili pepper on the menu. I wanted to strike a balance with this recipe. Instead of using a lot of chili oil, like in Sichuan cooking, or a tiny squeeze of hot sauce like many restaurants here seem to do,  I used a good amount of Huy Fong (Red Rooster brand) chili garlic sauce instead. (You can use any brand of chili garlic sauce or regular chili sauce.)

Of course, because this dish is all about the garlicky taste, nothing beats freshly sautéed garlic. There is nothing wrong with adding garlic on top of garlic. You’ll want to start with sautéing a few cloves cloves, crushed or chopped. Then add the shrimp and the sauce, and the entree will be done in, seriously, 5 minutes.

_________________________

Shrimp with Spicy Garlic Sauce

Serves 4

1 1/2 pounds uncooked large shrimp3 tablespoons soy sauce2 tablespoons chili sauce2 teaspoons sesame oil2 teaspoons Chinese rice wine1 teaspoon sugar2 tablespoons olive oil4 cloves garlic, crushed or finely chopped1 pinch freshly-ground black pepper1 scallion, thinly sliced

1. Peel the shrimp, leaving the tail segments intact. Devein the shrimp if you choose.

2. In a small bowl, mix together the soy sauce, chili sauce, sesame oil, rice wine, and sugar and set aside.

3. In a wok or large pan, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Stir-fry the garlic until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the shrimp and cook until both sides are pink, about 2 minutes on each side. Add the sauce mixture and stir so the shrimp is fully coated. Season with black pepper.

4. Remove from the heat and garnish with chopped scallions. Serve with rice or vegetables.

____________________________

More Chinese seafood recipes to try:

Shrimp Lo Mein

Shrimp and Chive Dumplings

Steamed Mussels with Ginger and Shallots

Ginger and Scallion Steamed Crab

Chinese Steamed Fish with Black Bean and Ginger Sauce

Coconut Milk Shrimp

Tagged as: Chinese, Recipes, Seafood, Shrimp, Spicy

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New General Tso’s Chicken GrubKit!

I hope everyone had a great Memorial Day weekend!

In addition to relaxing and enjoying the sun, over the weekend my friends at GrubKit and I launched a new recipe kit. Following the success of our first collaboration, the Kung Pao Chicken GrubKit, we decided to put together a General Tso’s Chicken kit based on the popular recipe from this site. 

(Read more about our collaboration with Grubkit here.)

The kit, featuring the classic Chinese-American takeout dish that was first introduced in New York in the 1970s, is aimed at cooks who want a more challenging recipe, but with the ease of having all the necessary ingredients by your side. (We use the best ingredients possible, so rest assured your dish ends up tasting even better than the one at your favorite takeout spot.) The kits also make fantastic gifts. So head on over to GrubKit to take a peak at the General Tso’s GrubKit and other Chinese, Thai, Indian, and baking kits!

Tagged as: GrubKit, News

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The Chinese Takeout Cookbook now on Amazon!

I have some exciting news to share! My cookbook is now finally available on Amazon! Entitled The Chinese Takeout Cookbook, it’ll be released on December 11, 2012 and will feature 80+ recipes for making Chinese takeout better at home, using all-natural ingredients and tried-and-true methods.

I’ve been very giddy since seeing it on Amazon over the weekend at a friend’s house. Almost two years ago, in July of 2010, I started working on a book proposal with an idea in mind for a cookbook that celebrates Chinese food in the US. Still, it was unfathomable how quickly this would all take shape (with all the recipe testing and photography and food-styling) and that two years later I’d be jumping up and down in excitement seeing my book available for pre-order.

It’s been a crazy, fun, intense, caffeine-fueled two years, and I’m so happy you guys have been along for the ride! It’d be so wonderful and a huge help if you could check out the cookbook and “like” on Amazon. Thank you so much for being a part of this journey!

Tagged as: News

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House renovation and kitchen planning, an ongoing saga

My cancer treatments are over for now, and since my body is no longer being bombarded by gamma rays and such, I am feeling quite a bit better. So now it’s time to get back to the huge task of renovating the old house we got more than two years ago. Renovations have been stalled for months due to all the other crap going on in my life.

One of the first things we are tackling is the kitchen. Folks, I am supposed to be a food blogger/writer. I’ve written a cookbook and everything. And right now, I have no kitchen. This is seriously cramping my style, to put it mildly, and accounts almost as much as my illness for the paucity of posts on my two food blogs. (I tried to keep up a positive outlook on things and had plans for recipes that didn’t need a cooktop, etc. but I’m afraid all that enthusiasm went out the window when the burglars took most of our kitchen appliances.) Due to yet another unwanted dramatic episode I don’t even have a microwave or a decent hotplate. We are getting by on one lousy cheap hotplate that was deemed too worthless to take by the burglars, and the old rice cooker. Oh, we don’t have a sink in the kitchen area either, and the beautiful new sink in the bathroom already looks banged up because we’re using it in ways it was never intended to be used, like scrubbing pots.

Sigh.

So anyway, we are finally back tackling the renovation. When we started this process early last year (!), we decided that we would be our own contractors/designers to save some money. We figured, I’m sort of creative/artsy (or I like to think I am) and The Guy is an engineer, so we can do this, no problem. Big Mistake. We should have hired a contractor for sure (managing the workers and trying to get them to come on time or even on the day they promise to show up, etc.) is a huge headache. Managing the ordering and delivery of materials, likewise. And as far as the design stuff goes - well, I know now why people hire designers. More than anything, it probably halts the confusion over too much choice and the procrastination.

Right now, the kitchen still looks more or less like this:

Except that the floor has been tiled with the new tile, and the blocks have been skimmed with builder’s plaster or whatever it’s called. The plaster has to be sanded down, covered with white plaster, then an undercoat, then painted or tiled. Ugh.

I did finally order the kitchen cabinets and countertops though.

The cabinets: I did lust for a while after some made to order painted wooden cabinets from a local (well, Marseille) company, like these:

But for all the cabs we needed, it would have cost like, way too much. Besides, sometime during the last year my taste in design seems to have shifted. Before I was all gung-ho for a sort of a 1900s-traditional French style industriel look. I still like that look, but now I’m also strongly drawn to a more modern, streamlined aesthetic too. (You can see some of my kitchen design procrastinations on my Kitchen and Pantry Pinterest board.

So, after much waffling and visiting countless kitchen showrooms, I went with IKEA cabinets. Seriously, I believe they are the cabinets with the best price/performance ratio. I looked at cabinets costing 2-4 times as much that weren’t any better in terms of quality. Plus, they have all those neat things to organize the insides of the cabinets. Besides, the IKEA Kitchen Planner thing is addictive. This is how one wall looks, more or less.

Since this is supposed to be my ‘dream kitchen’ (I’ve never planned a kitchen from scratch before), and because we are in an old house with odd-angled walls and floors and ceilings at different heights and such, I’ve been spending hours and hours and hours on the layout. I wanted to ensure I had plenty of storage space for pantry items, cooking equipment and such. It’s really not easy at all.

Countertops: Initially I really wanted stainless steel countertops. I love the look of a professional kitchen, and how easy stainless steel is to keep clean. We briefly rented an apartment in Zürich that had a tiny kitchen with an old ‘system kitchen’ unit, that had a stainless steel top, and I loved it. However…here at least, stainless steel is prohibitively expensive. It’s the most expensive countertop surface you can get. The countertops alone would have eaten up my entire kitchen budget. (One reason could be that they don’t seem to be that popular here. We had the hardest time finding suppliers who made stainless steel plan de travail for home kitchens.)

I like the look of wood, but having had wooden countertops in my old kitchen in Switzerland, and knowing how it could get stained and damaged and warped a bit around the sink and things, I did not want wood again. The budget option would have been what’s called stratifié here - Formica-type laminated countertops. But…but…I just didn’t want to do that. I know they are serviceable and all, but I did not want.

Another option I looked at for a while was marble. I love the look of real marble. However, every dealer we talked to and every other website out there warned against using marble for kitchens.

So in the end, I went for a white colored quartz with a subtle faux-marble look (Compac® Carrara). This is pretty expensive and took up about 60% of our total kitchen budget, but still cheaper than stainless steel. It’s said to be very durable, and it’s a ‘cool’ surface, which is what I wanted for my future pastry making sessions. (I have a suspicion that in reality I’ll be rolling out pastry 2-3 times a year at most, but it’s the dream that counts, right?) Luckily the countertop place we ordered from had a sale going on sinks and taps, so we got those there too. (Stainless steel for those.)

(Other surface materials that I also considered and rejected: resin aka Corian (looks like bathroom material to me, not kitchen); granite (I just don’t like the look of most granite - I feel like you can never tell if it’s totally clean); glass (I know it’s very durable but we have someone in the house who is capable of breaking just about anything that can be broken…); ceramic tile (this is the traditional Provençal look, but I don’t like it and the thought of cleaning the grout all the time is too depressing); cement (is cement supposed to be good for you…?) and other natural stone like slate (just did not want a dark surface.))

So, the cabinets are supposed to arrive this Friday. They need to get installed by the 3rd week of May when they come to measure for the countertops. Maybe soon, I’ll have a kitchen again. Right now I’m still a bit pessimistic.

So, if you have any kitchen remodelling war stories to share, please do!

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