Coleen's Recipes: Sinigang na Sardines

It's been a while since I last posted a recipe on my blog.  I guess I was a bit overwhelmed with all the good food, beauty products and new places that have been popping up the past 2-3 years that I completely forgot about posting my own recipes (or maybe I wish to keep them secret haha).  Anyway, tonight will be different.  I've been sick the past week (since Monday, if you constantly read my blog).  I was bedridden for about three days, including New Year's Eve AND day.  I was able to walk around a bit today but I still tire easily.  Since it was only Nan, the kids, and me tonight, she didn't cook anymore.  But I was craving for some sinigang – something hot and sour to relax my tired body (and soul).  So the kids had some chicken sopas from lunch, while I decided to hit the kitchen and concoct something for myself.

I originally planned on opening a can of fried sardines and cooking sinigang soup for dinner.  But as I was rummaging through our fridge, looking for some vegetables I could add to the soup, I got tired.  I don't eat sardines straight from the can.  I always have them sautéed in garlic and onions before eating them but my body was not ready to get tired just yet.  I had to think fast.  I want hot sinigang soup and I want to try this hot and spicy fried sardines but my body is telling me to just lie down.  What to do?  What to do?  

Bam.  Why don't you cook Sinigang na Sardinas (Sardines Sinigang)?  

Yes.  You read that right.  Sardines Sinigang.  I already mentioned it in my blog a couple of times before that I super love sinigang.  I love them to the point that I've started experimenting with it.  People usually have beef, pork, or seafood (shrimp, fish) sinigang but I've since tried Corned Beef Sinigang (I'm talking about canned corned beef here – Ox and Palm, Purefoods, Libby) and Sardines Sinigang.  They are quite good.  A twist to the classic favorite.

Let me introduce you to Coleen's Sinigang na Sardines Recipe.

Ingredients:

• 1 small can of 555 Hot and Spicy Fried Sardines (P23.75)
• 1 small sachet of Knorr Tamarind Soup Base Mix (P12.00)
• 1 tbsp chopped garlic (P5.00)
• 1 tbsp chopped onion (5.00)
• 1/2 tsp cooking oil
• any vegetable you want to add (I used some leftover cherry tomatoes and radish for this one)
• siling haba or long green chilies (radish = P10.00, tomatoes = P10.00, chili = P5.00)

Procedure:

• Open the can of sardines and drain the "oil" in a sauce pan.  Do NOT include the sardines just yet.
• Once the oil is hot, add the garlic.  Saute for a bit, and then add the onions. Add a bit of regular cooking oil because the oil from the sardines will most likely "evaporate" (I'm not sure what the correct term is), but the mix will dry up unless you add a bit of oil.
• Add the sardines from the can but do NOT mix.  Try to separate the sardines gently.  Leave it to fry in the garlic/onion mix for about two minutes then flip and wait for another two minutes.

• Remove the sardines from the mix.  Once the sardines are out, add the vegetables (if you have hard vegetables in the mix).  In this case, I used tomatoes and radish so I added them first so they can cook.

• After you add the hard vegetables, add two cans of water (use the sardine can as your measuring cup) and add the tomatoes (if you like your sinigang with tomatoes so they can end up squishy).  Bring to a boil.

• Once the radish turns a bit transparent (or once whatever vegetable you used is cooked), add the tamarind soup base mix and let it boil for another five minutes.  Add a couple of siling haba to complete the dish and let it boil for another five minutes.

• Once the soup is done, slowly pour it into the bowl with the sardines.  Serve with freshly cooked rice and enjoy! :)

You can add more vegetables if you want, or make it more or less sour, depending on your taste.  I only added a couple of vegetables because those were the only veggies we had at home.  I usually add any vegetable I can – string beans, winged beans, kang kong, okra, anything.  That's what's so special about this dish.  You can pretty much add anything you have in the fridge.  It reminds me of that story I read back in elementary, about a stone soup, but let's save that for another time.  Another cool thing about this dish is that it makes one can of sardines good enough for two to four people, depending how hungry you all are and how much vegetables you add.  This dish served four people in our family (but one of them was more of a rice eater than a viand eater) and it only cost around P70.