Cooking Sinigang in Dried Woods
Yesterday evening I went to the public market to buy ingredients for our viand, I was thinking to cook with soup that's why sinigang comes to my mind. I only bring 200 pesos which is enough for our dinner viand. I saw bangus that's why I picked one and pay it to the seller. When I got home, I was surprised that our stove runs off LPG fuel, my brother didn't tell me it was drained before I went to market.
I went outside to gather wood from our neighbors, there are lots of fallen branch trees that's why I picked them up and used them as fuel to make a fire. I am an expert on making fire using dried wood cause in our province before, I am the one who's cooking using dried wood.
I was cooking beside plants since our house is full of plants however I assure you that everything is safe and I always check the burning wood. As you can see in the photo above I simmer Bangus or milkfish together with onion and tomatoes, I forgot to buy pepper since it helps to remove the smell from fish.
It only took me 15 minutes to simmer milk fish unlike using a stove which took me 30 minutes, but before that, I prepare other ingredients that will be mixed with what I'm cooking. I already put tomato earlier but I added more to add more sour flavor then a green chili which is always present to all my dishes since it gives a spicy flavor and not easily get spoiled. Next is water spinach or kangkong in Tagalog in every type of sinigang, water spinach is always present since it adds flavor to sinigang.
Lastly, the most important ingredient of sinigang is a sinigang mix, it had a combination of tamarind and different spices that gives aroma and good taste to sinigang. It cost 19 pesos or 0.34 USD however it became expensive unlike before when it only cost 13 pesos, I can feel the effect of inflation and it really hurt on wallet.
I checked milkfish and see that it was soft already that's why I put all the remaining ingredients and simmer it for 3 minutes, I don't let water spinach cook too much that's why I immediately remove the pot from the fire. To avoid accidents, I killed the fire using water, I make sure that everything was put out.
And tadaa here's the final result, it's already served on my bowl since I feel so hungry, I tasted it and I can say that foods cooked using dried wood are better than those cooked using the stove.
Parang nakaka-ingganyong kumain ng sinigang ayy. Prefer ko din yung gagamitin ay kahoy Dong. Maliban sa makakatipid ka sa gas, eh, parang mas lalong sumasarap yung pagkain kapag sa kahoy mo niluto.