Sinigang na Baka (Sour Stew Beef)

My hubby requested me to cook him sinigang and I told him sure although some of the ingredients might not be included there particularly the veggies in which I can only find in my country Philippines. I haven’t seen kangkong in India. About the sour based ingredient, I bought it back home so no need to sweat over sour tamarind mix to put in my Sinigang.
We bought ½ kilo of beef and asked the vendor to slice it in cubes so that I can prepare to cook it for dinner. SInigang is a favorite Filipino dish which can also be cook in different varieties like Shrimp Sinigang, Pork Sinigang, Fish and Beef. I don’t know about Chicken Sinigang but definitely it will never be my type if you ask me. Sinigang will never be complete if you don’t use any sour based ingredient which can also be in variety like tamarind or it can be a tomato, guava or simple vinegar.
The very main trick for Sinigang is that you don’t put the sour base ingredient without assuring that your veggies are all cooked first, else they will be as hard and rubbery particularly the string beans, eggplant, radish, okra and your kangkong. Below is a sample list of ingredients for you to know.
Ingredients:
½ kilo beef meat (or any meat you like, this excludes chicken)
1 medium sized onion
2 cloves garlic
2 tbsp. vegetable oil
1 lady finger chili
1 beef bouillon cube (or beef stock)
String beans
Eggplant
Okra
Kangkong
Radish
2 small gabi
Tamarind powder based (for sinigang soup)
Fish sauce (patis)
Ground Black pepper (for seasoning)
Salt (for seasoning)

Preparations/ Methods for Cooking Sinigang na Baka (Sour Stew Beef):

You need to boil the beef first on a separate cauldron. Make sure that your beef is tender so that you won’t have any trouble chewing it. While making your beef meat tender, include salt in it and big slices of onions.

Once your beef is tender, you can now sauté on a separate pan by placing the oil and let it heat. After that you can now put the garlic followed by onions. Put a pinch of salt on your onions so that it can be cook faster. Once your onions are translucent in color, you can now place the tender beef meat and stir it all together with the garlic and onions and then put the beef bouillon cube and then place the beef stock along with it. If you think your stock is not enough, then just put water and keep it to a boil before putting veggies like gabi, radish and string beans. Once the veggies are half cooked, you can now put the remaining veggies like eggplant, okra and kangkong.

Sprinkle some ground black pepper and fish sauce if you think the soup still needs more flavor. Once your veggies are all done, that is the time you put the sour based ingredient in which what I use was the tamarind powder mix. Taste the soup if you have achieved the required sourness of your Sinigang. By the way, don’t forget to put your lady finger chili while placing your second batch of veggies. Sorry I don’t have a photo of this recipe at the moment, but I can surely catch up and add if I ever happen to work my camera next time. Hope you learn something from this recipe and write me if you have any questions to ask, happy cooking!