I've been craving Filipino food for so long.

Ever since we moved to the mountains my filo food intake has been few and far between. Before not only was Mum and Dad just around the corner with a seemingly endless supply of left overs, but there were also plenty of asian grocery stores if not restaurants to choose from to get my fix.

Now.. Up here... Not so much. Ok nothing.

Everything is about an hour drive away ~ Mum, shops, restaurants. And then we were vegetarian for 9 months ~ Only just started eating meat again.

I figured now that meat is back on the menu why not cook filo food.

Are there any vegetarian Filipinos out there? Are you hungry?

The most depressing thing about being a vegetarian filo was the food cravings, in particular pork crackling. I thought about it long and hard and came up with only a handful (if that) of filipino foods (not dessert!) that could be suitable for vegetarians. The rest, the good stuff, were all meat dishes.

Now, I'm not the best cook on the planet. I'm impatient, terrible at following instructions and I generally go rogue and veer off the recipe to experiment. So I usually go for something easy with the least amount of ingredients and steps. Preferably made in the slow cooker.

Sinigang na Cornbeef

If your tastebuds enjoy lemons and limes, this dish might be for you. It is a beefy sour soup that makes you make the face, but keeps you coming back for more.

Hubby has Italian taste buds. He loves his tomatoes (any way he can get it) and he eats lemons like it's an orange. I figured he might enjoy this, get behind it so I can add it to my recipe list.

This dish has a very strong lemony lime vibe but the sour taste actually comes from the tamarind. There is no lemon or lime in this recipe, although the original recipe suggests using lime if tamarind is not available.

The original recipe also asked for radish and okra which I substituted for potatoes. The cornbeef/silverside I got ended up being more than the recipe asked for and I had to change a few more things.

In the end, it came out awesome.

Aside from Chicken Adobo, this has got to be one of the easiest most satisfying and impressive dishes to make.

Never tried Filipino food before? This could be your gateway.

Sinigang na Cornbeef (Cornbeef in Sour Soup)

Ingredients

1.3kg Silverside/Cornbeef
1kg Baby Potatoes
4 Med Green Chillies
3 Tbs Tamarind Paste
12 cups of water
2 large tomatoes cut in 8 segments each

Cook time : 8 hours in the slow cooker on high or until beef and potatoes are tender.

Serves 8

Step 1

Wash the Cornbeef.

If you don't you might end up with super salty soup. I washed mine a few times until I couldnt feel the gooey outside anymore.

Step 2

Cut them up to 1x2 in portions & put them in the slow cooker.

The original recipe asked for 2x2 inc slabs, I decided to slice them in half to 1x2 in to quicken my cook time

Step 3

Add 3 tablespoons of tamarind paste and 12 cups of water. Cook on high. Cook on high.

Give the paste a stir to mix it in the water.

Step 4

Prep the veggies.

Peel the baby potatoes then cut in half.

Step 5

When the cornbeef can be forked with minimal resistance, add the veggies.

Step 6

Cook for a further 1.5 hours or until potatoes are done.

And that's it! Did I mention it came out awesome?

A few things

I did nurse this dish, making sure to check the meat's forkability (I think I just made that up, I hope you know what I mean lol). If the meat didn't slide off the fork easily then it wasn't ready for the veggies.

Same with the potatoes. If they were still tough, I couldn't stop cooking. But I also didn't want them to get mushy and all starchy.

Don't worry about the chillies. They're big but they're harmless.

You can cook rice if you want (I did) or it's just as good as a soup.

The fact that it was all done through the slow cooker made this dish so simple to make. Seriously, I was shocked at how easy it was to make and that it tasted as I remembered it.

Last tip before I go.

If you don't have a slow cooker you need to go get one!

You put ingredients in, leave it a few hours and BOOM! you gots dinner. It's the most amazing thing ever.

I even cook my Champorado (Filo Chocolate Rice "Pudding") in it. Recipe coming tomorrow!

Good night Steemit.
🌙 Arly