Holy Thursday-Freshwater Prawns In Sour Soup

Even though my mother is Catholic, we never obsereved Lent or Easter when I was growing up.  Since I spent the first 12 years of my life in the Middle East where Islam is the dominant religion, I am much more familiar with Ramadan's rules of  fasting.  It's quite straightforward.  It's a complete abstinence from all forms of pleasure of the body including eating, drinking and smoking from dawn to sunset. 

In the Christian faith, Catholic specifically, I soon learned that fasting is an abstinence from certain types of foods such as meat and dairy products when I moved to the Philippines.  It wasn't about complete abstinence as I had initially thought.  It's about eating seafood, seafood and more seafood!  Well, in my eyes anyway.

Freshwater Prawns in Sour Soup ( Sinigang Na Ulang Sa Sampalok)

On Holy Thursday, my hosts allowed me to help them in the kitchen by cooking sinigang, a sour soup dish that is common throughout Southeast Asia.  This is the first Filipino dish that I ever mastered.  It is quite easy and simple to make, as it does not require any kind of special culinary skill.  This was also the first time anybody has ever tasted my Filipino cooking. 

Many say that this is the Filipino version of  the Thai tom yung goong, that famous hot and sour prawn soup. Although similar, I will have to disagree.  I believe this other Thai hot and sour prawn/crayfish  soup with tamarind leaves (tom klong goong nahim jeut) is much closer to this prawn sinigang.

Green and orange are so striking together, don't you think?

Unlike most Southeast Asian sour soup dishes where the aim is to achieve a balance of hot, sour and salty,  the Philippine version tends to be bolder in that there is one single dominant flavor.  Tartness is the dominant flavor and the heat from the green long chillies is more of an afterthought.  In fact, these long, green chillies do not contain much heat.  They simply provide a bite, whereas those small bird's eye chillies provide more of a shove.  

If this soup dish were a complete sentence, the sour/tart flavor would be the subject, the juice from the tomatoes, sweetness of the onions and the prawns' flavor would be the predicate part and the heat from the chillies would be the period that ends the sentence. 

This sinigang is a tamarind-based broth.  The juices are extracted from the pulp of  unripe, green tamarind pods by boiling them.  I am quite surprised that most people over here use those instant powdered soups to make sinigang.  It seems like not too many people here know how to make this from fresh tamarinds, which is quite a shame since it's so easy to do.  I have been fortunate enough to be taught by a Filipino lady of the older generation who would dare never go near those instant stuff.

Philippine mustard leaves are wider than Chinese mustard leaves.

Usually, swamp cabbage or kangkung leaves are used as the primary vegetable.  Somehow, it wasn't available at the market that day, so I used the local Philippine mustard leaves instead.

It is best not to peel and remove the heads of the prawns.  The shells and head provide a depth of flavor that complements the soup's tartness.   This dish is all about the soup.  Even the freshest prawns and vegetables won't be able to compensate or remedy a bland or poorly made broth.

I am quite happy to say that my hosts loved my sinigang.  They are one of those many Filipinos who make their sinigang from those powdered versions.

Similar recipe: Thai version

The orange color comes from the tomatoes and the prawns' heads.

Freshwater Prawns In Sour Soup (Sinigang Na Ulang Sa Sampalok)

Serves 4

500 g freshwater prawns, unpeeled and with its head intact
250 ml tamarind water
175 g tomatoes, quartered
100 g onions, sliced 1/2 inch
1.5 L rice wash
100 g daikon radish, sliced
100 g string beans ( aka snake beans or yard long beans), cut 5 cm long
75 g swamp cabbage or mustard leaves
150 g long green chilli peppers, cut 70g in half
fish sauce, to taste

1. Combine rice wash with tamarind water.  Boil tomatoes, onions, and 75g of cut green chilli peppers.

2. Reduce the heat, add the daikon radish and string beans.  Simmer for 8-10 minutes.

3. Add the prawns, swamp cabbage or mustard leaves, and the remaining uncut chilli peppers.
Simmer for about 2 more minutes.Season with fish sauce.Transfer to a soup tureen or bowls and serve immediately.