Beef Ribs Sinigang sa Sampaloc at Gabi

I have just recently joined the Kulinarya Cooking Club and July's "Sinigang" challenge would be tfirst entry. Now that it's about into August we have actually prepared Sinigang a few times already since the theme was announced. Unfortunately, I was not able to take a photos of the prawn ang pork sinigang I have previously made. See, Sinigang is truly a comfort food for our family. We all love pork Sinigang of course, but given the circumstances living in Qatar, we rarely have the opportunity to prepare it. A couple of times within the last two weeks, we have had prawn Sinigang which is the favorite of our Small Ate and then Sinigang na Lapu-Lapu once. 

You would have noticed, there is just about a number of ways to cook Sinigang. It is a very popular Filipino dish wherein the meat or seafood is boiled in sour broth which could be made within a variety of souring agents such as tamarind, guava, santol or kamias. My own personal preference is tamarind and I was growing up in the Philippines, I used to make it  with fresh tamarind but then when the instant broth cubes and packets came around, I had converted to using those. I mean as long as I can still achieve the same flavors using those packaged products then I don't see why I would limit myself to cooking sinigang only when the fruit is available. As I said, this is one of my family's favorite dishes and I don't see I couldn't make it here in Qatar as often as we'd like :)

Another characteristic of sinigang is the inclusion of a variety of vegetables, mostly the green ones so I am really lucky that with Sinigang, I was able to expose my girls to vegetables at an early age. Now I don't have a problem serving them a variety of veggie dishes. As usually the case, our Sinigang would have okra (Small Ate's favorite), sitaw or yardlong beans (baby Oyen's favorite) and Kang-kong or water spinach (Big Ate's favorite). I also usually (but not always) include radish (as I love them too, unfortunately this time, I am not able to do so) and a couple of Chili Peppers. And of course, it will not be complete without mashed gabi or taro. Since only the Expat Daddy eats taro in our Sinigang, what I do is to include it while tenderizing the meat, overcooking the taro so I can mash it to blend with the broth.

As I will be cooking beef sinigang, I have used a pressure cooker to cook the dish to minimize cooking time. Also, I am not a fan of slow cooking beef as i feel that it makes the meat dry and rough. Using the pressure cooker, I was able to cook this Sinigang dish in about 30minutes where as if beef would be simmered in a pot, it would take me about 1-1.5 hours to finish. 

What I have prepared this time is a very traditional Sinigang dish. Would have wanted to experiment a bit just for the challenge, but then realized... what's the point, I cook for the love of my girls anyway :)

Ingredients:

1kg beef ribs, chopped to serving sizes

4-5 cups water

3 tbs Mama Sita's Tamarind Broth powder

2 large tomatoes

3-4 small gabi (taro), peeled and halved

yardlong beans, cut to about 2in long

spring onions, cut to about 2in long

8-10 pieces okra

water spinach 

salt 

Method:

Put the beef in a pressure cooker with 4-5 cups water and tomatoes. Put over medium heat and bring to a boil, remove the scum as it rises.

When the water comes to a hard boil, add the gabi and cover. When the pressure cooker starts letting out steam (stage when you hear intermittent whistling sound) wait until about 15 more minutes then turn off heat. Let the pressure cooker let out the remaining steam (about another 10 minutes) then open. 

Turn on the heat again and add the sitaw and okra. Take out the gabi and mash with a little broth (you can also mash the tomato at this point), then put it back into the pressure cooker. 

Continue cooking without cover. Adjust taste by adding salt and tamarind broth a little at a time checking if the salty and sour flavors have already suited your taste. Adjust by adding more. If too sour or salty, add a little water. 

Add the rest of the vegetables, let simmer for a couple more minutes and turn off the heat. Cover. The remaining steam will continue to cook the vegetables.

Transfer into a serving bowl and serve with hot rice and a dipping sauce combination of fish sauce and lemon (or calamansi) --- of course you can also mash your chili pepper with your dipping sauce, just as I like it. Enjoy!

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