Ever since I wrote about Strawberry Sinigang after hearing about it from fellow bloggers, I’ve wanted to try it myself. So, it was actually part of our itinerary when we went on vacation to 5 destinations, including Baguio, last December. However, due to our very “tight” schedule, we scrapped visiting the restaurant that serves it. Thus, my mother swore to try to make her own version of it at home.

Before I go ahead with the Strawberry Pork Sinigang recipe, let me share with you how active my mother has been lately with this blog. Ever since the last quarter of 2010, my mother has been fully supportive of our food blog. In fact, she’s been really eager to share her recipes and have tried making her own homemade versions of dishes we tried from our trip and dining out. She now prefers to eat at a new restaurant when we go out. Also, she’s into designing or setting up the plates of food she prepares so they’ll look good on a photo. She would even make sure I get photos of food we order before eating. She’s now more patient. Amazing, huh? A stage mom, eh? 😀

So, it’s just fitting that I include her in the official contributors of this food blog. She’s got a ton of recipes to share. She’s an AWESOME cook. And I’m not saying that ’cause she’s my mother, but because she really is. That’s why it’s really hard to lose weight over here. My friends and everyone who have tried her dishes would agree with me 1,000%!

Okay, enough intro. When we went to the Strawberry Farm in La Trinidad, Baguio, we decided to pick strawberries ’cause my mother was determined to cook Strawberry Sinigang at home. So, most of the strawberries she picked were a li’l green.

Now, on to the recipe.

Strawberry Pork Sinigang Recipe

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 kilogram pork (preferably, kasim in liempo cuts)
• 1 liter of water (If you adjust this, make sure you do the same for the rest of the ingredients, particularly the ones with *)
• 1 white onion, diced*
• 2-3 tomatoes, sliced*
• 1 small banana bud / blossom (puso ng saging)
• 4-6 string beans stalks, chopped
• 100g of kangkong*
• 2-3 green finger pepper (siling pamaksiw)*
• 1/4 tablespoon sampaloc powder*
  Yes, you still need to add this because the strawberries don’t add that much flavor to the sinigang.
  My mother decided to use sampaloc powder instead ’cause she was cooking for our reunion. So, you can use 100-200g of sampaloc/tamarind instead if you prefer that.
• 1/2 kilos strawberries*
  1/4 of this, you’ll use for the actual cooking to get that sour-sweet flavor.
  The rest, you’ll add right before you finish cooking.
• 2 horse radishes (labanos), sliced*
• 1 medium-sized eggplant, sliced*
• Salt to taste*

PROCEDURE:

1. Boil the pork to tenderize it in 1-liter of water. Prick with a fork to check if it’s tender enough.
   • Make sure you remove the excess fats that look like bubbles floating about.
   • We prefer the pork to feel like they’re melting in our mouths when we’re eating it. If you don’t want that, then, cut the boiling short and proceed with the cooking.
2. Add in the onions, tomatoes, 1/4 kg strawberries, and sampaloc powder. Simmer until the strawberries slowly lose their color.
3. Add the string beans, horse radish and puso ng saging. Simmer again until these are almost cooked.
4. Add in the kangkong, sili and eggplant. Simmer for a few minutes while mixing ’til they soften a bit.
5. Add in the rest of the strawberries when everything’s almost cooked. Thus, maintaining the color of the strawberries.
6. Add salt to taste.

That’s it! Easy, eh?

If you want more strawberry flavor on your sinigang, just add more strawberries. With this recipe, I really tasted the subtle sweetness brought about by them ’cause my mother chose to add strawberries during the cooking process instead of just before everything’s cooked.

It was really yummy. I love Sinigang and my mother makes them really good. She’s already cooked other variations of this dish and I loved them all. So, she was really happy with the results of this new experiment – Strawberry Pork Sinigang.

She’s got more recipes to share in the coming posts so stay tuned for that. Many of our relatives were asking about her Strawberry SInigang recipe so we’ll just direct them here. 🙂

When you try this at home, please, let us know what you think. If you made some adjustments, let me know, too, so I can link you here.