Sinigang Na Hipon - Filipino sour prawn soup

I reckon there is at least one sour soup recipe in every S E Asia country. I had Chinese hot and sour soup and Thai Tom Yum numerous times, tried the Vietnamese Cahn Chua not too long ago and last weekend I had the Filipino version of Prawn Sinigang which was very refreshing and tasty, not as herbal and fragrant as Thai or Vietnamese but is a keeper will try again with other combination.

Sinigang is a common sour soup in Philippines and there are numerous recipes, the souring agent can be tamarind, guava, green sour mango, local small lime called calamansi (or limau kasturi in Malay) or a sour fruit called camias (or belimbing in Malay) , with lots of vegetables, meat or fish including using pork, ribs, chicken and any seafood.

Here is my version, very simple recipe, low fat and tasty, worth a try:


Ingredients: (makes 2 large soup bowls)

3 cups of fish stock or chicken stock
200 g mooli/ daikon cut into chunks
150 g onion cut into wedges and split
200 g tomato cut into wedges
about walnut size wet tamarind or more if you like it sour + ½ cup of boiling water
1 – 2 green or red chilli, slit in the centre (optional if you like spicy)
180 g shelled prawns or 225g of large prawns with shell
100 – 125 g kangkong (water spinach) or ordinary spinach
About 2 tbsp of fish sauce or to your taste


Methods:

1. Heat the stock add mooli, onion and whole chilli, bring to a boil and simmer for about 15 minutes or till the mooli pieces are tender.
2. Soak the wet tamarind with boiling water and loosen to extract the juice then sieve.
3. Add tamarind juice to soup, simmer till boiling.
4. Add tomato, spinach or kangkong simmer for about 1 – 2 minutes, add prawns and boil till prawns turned pink.
5. Season with enough fish sauce.
6. Serve with rice or on its own. Best serve asap, if left overnight the green vegetable will turn brown.