Sinigang na Sugpo-Prawns Soup with Vegetables

Today at the public market in Boac, Marinduque, my cook was able to buy one kilo of prawns. It cost her P650 (about 15 US dollars) for one kilo, but the prawns were so sweet and yummy after she made it into sinigang. Sinigang is a Pinoy soup with mixed vegetables, a little bit on the sour side, but my wife and I enjoyed this dish very much. It was one of the best lunch we had since our snowbirding sojourn here in Marinduque-our second home. I devoured 5 prawns in 15 minutes, my wife eat her prawns slowly and we gave one prawn to our cook. Normally this size of prawns, our cook would make tempura but I wanted a soup dish today. Here's my cook recipe for the sinigang dish.

Prawns Sinigang Ingredients:

1 kilo prawns, 10 pieces

3 tomatoes, sliced

2 onions, diced

5 cloves of garlic, minced

5 pieces of pechay or baby boc toy or kangkung ( whatever is available)

100 grams String beans

12 pieces of okra

2 pieces sili pag sigang (green finger pepper)

200 grams sampalok (tamarind)

1 liter of rice wash or water

Sinigang Cooking Instructions:

Boil sampalok in water until the shell shows cracks. Let cool then peal off the shells and with a strainer, pour samplalok (including water) into a bowl. Gently massage the sampalok meat off the seeds, strain again.

In a pot, sauté garlic and onion then add the tomatoes. Let simmer for 5 minutes.

Add the string beans, pechay or kangkung, okra and sili (for spice-optional). Last add the prawns ( washed_) and Let boil for 2 minutes or until the prawns turn red. Serve piping hot.

Sinigang Cooking Tip:

Instead of sampalok fruit (tamarind), you can substitute it with any commercial souring seasoning like Knorr sampalok seasoning or tamarind bouillon cubes for this sinigang recipe.