What's Cooking With Dive? Sinigang Redux

I know I started this whole cookery thang off with sinigang, but apparently there is sinigang and sinigang and Joy tried to describe to me how her mum makes it in Manila, so even though this is bound to turn out nothing like Joy's mum's sinigang I'll have a crack at it at least.

One of the major differences between this and our first sinigang is the introduction of gabi. The gabi are those tuberous things at the bottom right and are essential to Joy's mum's sinigang.
Plus we found a wonderful thing in the Pinoy Store: fresh tamarind pulp, prepared and de-seeded. These (the things that look like … er … poodle poo, nestled in the loving embrace of the wibbly-wobbly-worm beans) give considerably less of a "kneading fresh poo" experience than tamarind paste (see the first sinigang post for icky, poo-related mayhem).

Like the first time I posted a sinigang recipe I'll be upsetting my Muslim and Jewish friends and eating a cloven-hoofed cute little organic piggy.
Though this cloven-hoofed business never made any sense to me as the ancestors of all ungulates - pigs, horses, cattle, sheep, deer, antelope, etc. - started off with five toes and only later evolved their more specialised pedicures. I put all of this down to some Hebrew writer around three and a half thousand years ago who was frightened by a pig as a child. Once these stupid rumours and superstitions start there's no telling where they lead. Hey ho. You all know my views on the Abrahamic religions.

Anyhoo … whatever you decide to kill, whether it has a cloven or an uncloven hoof, fins, wiggly fingers, tentacles or leaves, or if it stands there in the kitchen screaming "Mummy, Mummy, No! Put the cleaver down!", chop it up into bite sized pieces and brown it off.
With my squealy little piggy I added some piggy bones and fat to give a more authentic flavour and texture to the dish.

Soften garlic and onions just like the first time (you'd best go back and read that, too if you intend to actually make this dish as there's lots of crap back there that I won't be bothering to repeat this time).
Then chuck in your meat/fish/veggie/child and add a whole load of fresh tomatoes from your garden - or more specifically, from the vast mountain of tomatoes that you seem accidentally to have grown this year after telling yourself "never again" and to which your neighbours sneakily add several tons each night.

Do you get that around your neighbourhood in the late summer? Wake up at midnight and sneak out dressed in black with your wheelbarrow piled high with tomatoes to deposit them on neighbours' doorsteps only to find the street is full of ninja neighbours with wheelbarrows doing exactly the same thing?

So anyhoo …
Add to this about a pint of yummy home-made stock (for many sweary imprecations on this subject see previous cooking posts).
At this point add a couple of chilis, a diced aubergine, a decent sploosh of organic soy, a generous dash of Thai or Vietnamese fish sauce, the gabi and the tamarind juice and - should you be unable to find calamansi in your local market - squeeze one lemon and one lime in there, too.

Preparing the fresh tamarind is much the same as preparing the icky-poo paste; simply put about a mugful of hand-hot water into a bowl and throw in the tamarind, then get down and dirty with your fingers, squashing and squishing and generally having the kind of fun you remember having when you were three.
Squeeze all the wonderful tamarind goodness out of the pulp and then strain the liquid and gloopy poo-mess into the stock.

As for the gabi, Joy apologised to me after I'd made it, having omitted to tell me before that when you peel and chop up gabi they emit an aroma redolent of a student dorm. However, being anosmic, I hadn't noticed and will quite happily continue to prepare gabi without a gasmask on. The texture is worth the pong according to folk with functioning noses.
One thing she DID warn me about - thankfully - is that gabi should only be peeled while wearing gloves unless you really like itching for days afterward.
I hemmed and hawed for a while about wearing some nice elbow-length black lace dress gloves but in the end plumped for rubber Marigolds.

Hokay … Here's where you bring that lot to the boil, stirring away, and then set it to simmer, pop the lid on and wash up all the mess you've made.
Also, this is the time - should you, like me, want to freeze a couple of pints of sinigang broth for use later - to top up the pot with boiling water.
I must confess that this sinigang broth was so delicious that I've not been using it as stock but simply heating it up and drinking it on its own. Maximum intense yum!

Right … having entertained yourself in whatever manner floats your boat for around forty minutes or so, get back in the kitchen and lift that lid.
If you're the kind of person who tastes their broth and then adds salt and pepper you won't need to bother this time. The flavour that hits you is so incredibly intense that it will knock you out of your socks.
This is where Joy would add sugar, but as adding sugar to coffee or tea or anything else makes me gag, I'll be leaving it out of my sinigang. If you want sugar in it, add it at the table.

Also at this point, grab yourself a slotted spoon and fish out the gabi chunks, quickly mash them and add the mashed gabi back in. This will add a wonderful texture and also help to thicken the broth.

Remember those wibbly-wobbly-worm beans? I hope you've already washed them and chopped them into finger-length pieces because this is where you toss them in to the mix and give it a good stir.

Now pop the lid back on and dish up a yummy bowl of jasmine rice from your steamer … What do you mean you forgot the rice? I told you not to make this unless you read the original recipe. It's all back there. Sheesh!

We're not adding Chinese leaf to this version so now it is ready to dish up.
Here's a slightly out of focus bowl of it.
Believe me, there are "taste sensations", then there are "explosive taste sensations", and then there is sinigang.
This stuff is more addictive than crack cocaine … and somewhat tastier, too.
Plus, it is legal.
Go for it!