Spice Up Your Dishes

Our household can't live without sinamak (chili infused vinegar), it's a staple in most of our meals. We always have it with fried fish, tapa, and other grilled foods. But as much as possible, I do not get the ready made spicy vinegar from the grocery. I like to make my own, while choosing which vinegar (white cane vinegar, coconut vinegar, etc) to use.

This time, I got this particular vinegar made out of nipa palm sap (sukang sasa) with a blend of pure honey. I carefully washed and sliced some siling labuyo (bird's eye chili)and garlic. And I threw in some whole black peppercorns for good measure. I didn't have native onions nor ginger that time so I just threw in a lot of chili. Some also put bay leaves in their sinamak. Hmm.. maybe I can throw in a leaf or two.

I let the spices sit a few days before trying it out with one of our meals. The resulting sinamak was a complementary blend of sourness, sweetness and spiciness.