How to Make Fermented Rice-Fish Mix ("Buro") at the Fish Farm
Last week, we drained a grow-out pond, and took out the remaining fish stock. We caught, among others, tilapia. At the market, we sold most of them. We left a few for cooking at the farm house and gave away the rest.
From the remaining tilapia, my farm overseer picked up about 30 pieces of small sized ones to make fermented tilapia-rice mix (“buro”).
"Burong tilapia", for locals, is a delicious side dish to a main meal (usually fish and boiled vegetables, such as okra).
"Buro", with its salty-sour flavor, makes the taste buds of regular eaters come alive. It whets one’s appetite and makes a simple meal of cooked rice, boiled okra, and fried fish extra special indeed.
"Buro" however, is one of those food items which are acquired tastes. Not great to some at once, but when you get used to it, it slowly grows on you, and you get to love it and crave for more. Just like blue cheese, or a local favorite - "balut" (boiled fertilized duck egg).
"Buro"-making is just one of the common methods of food preservation that rural folks in our locality adopt. Generally, they’re used to cooking only what they can eat in one meal. The family consumes any leftovers in the next meal or, at most, the following day. Beyond that, spoilage will set in due to warm weather and action of bacteria.
There are a few times when fish, vegetables, or fruits in excess come their way. Examples are small tilapia after a harvest, or green mangoes picked from the tree, or a bunch of kamias hanging from the tree at the backyard, or santol fruits given by a neighbor.
These are all perishable food and to keep them longer, farm folks (including my overseer and cook), preserve them. Just like what their parents, and grandparents did.
Here are the most common and cheapest methods of preserving food among rural folks.
1. Sun-Drying
Pangasinan in Northern Luzon (and entire Philippines for that matter) has lots of sunny days especially during dry season. So preservation through sun-drying is a common practice and part of a tradition that goes back a long way.
Our way of making sun-dried tilapia is described in my blog post “How to Clean and Make Sun-Dried Tilapia”. Click this.
By the way, the popular “tuyo” fish (dried salted Philippine herring or “tunsoy” in Tagalog) is another example of the sun-drying method of preservation. "Tuyo" however goes through the process of brining before sun-drying.
2. Pickling
This is another way of preserving vegetables or fruits through immersion in water-vinegar-salt mix. In our fish farm, my cook usually makes pickled kamias, green carabao mango, and santol.
 |
| Home-made pickled mango |
The procedure is quite simple.
· Kamias - wash the kamias fruits and cut off a bit at the upper and bottom portions. Set aside.
· Mango - wash the fruit, peel off the skin. Cut the mango fruit lengthwise down to the seed (in half inch width). Set aside the sliced pieces.
· Santol – wash, remove the rind of the santol fruit. Make around 5 incisions on the body of the santol lengthwise. Remove the seeds. Set aside the fruit pieces.
· Insert the fruit(s) into the bottle. Add one level spoon of rock salt.
· Mix equal quantity of water and local vinegar (such as nipa or sugar cane vinegar) in a container. Fill up the bottle with the water-vinegar mix until the fruits are fully immersed. Shake. Cover tightly.
· Wait for two weeks for kamias, three weeks for mangoes, and four weeks for santol. They will be fermented and ready to eat by then.
3. Fermenting (such as the Making of Rice-Tilapia Mix or "Burong Tilapia")
Procedures are described below.
a. Prepare the following ingredients:
- boiled rice
- salt
- fresh tilapia (cleaned up, ready for fermenting). Click this to see my blog post on how to clean tilapia.
- glass jar
- diced garlic
- diced ginger
 |
| Fresh and newly cleaned up small-sized tilapia |
 |
| Newly boiled rice and a jar of salt |
 |
| Two glass jars, diced ginger and garlic |
b. Sprinkle salt on the plateful of rice.
 |
| Adding salt to the plateful of rice |
c. Sprinkle salt on the tilapia in the plastic basin. Note: to allow fermentation and softening of fish bones within three to four days, add only half a tablespoon of salt.
 |
| Applying salt to the tilapia in the basin |
d. Crush the diced ginger and mix it with the rice on the plate.
 |
| Adding diced and crushed ginger to rice |
e. Crush the diced garlic (or mince it some more) and mix it with the rice.
 |
| Adding diced and crushed garlic to rice |
 |
| Inserting first layer of tilapia into the jar |
g. Cover the first layer of tilapia with the first layer of rice in the jar.
 |
| Covering the first layer of tilapia with the first layer of rice |
h. Continue inserting the second alternating layers of tilapia and rice; follow with a third layer, fourth layer and so on.
 |
| The glass jar showing four layers of tilapia and rice |
i. Continue inserting the layers of fish and rice, one after the other, until the glass jar is full (total of seven layers in our own jar).
 |
| A full jar with seven layers of tilapia and rice |
j. Fill up the other glass jar with the tilapia and rice mix in alternating layers until all ingredients are used up.
 |
| Two full jars ready to be covered |
k. Cover the glass jar with a piece of aluminum foil. Secure the foil over the jar by tying down with rubber band or string. Then cover tightly with the plastic jar lid.
 |
| Two covered jars of "burong" tilapia ready for fermentation |
l. Store the bottles in a cool place and wait for three to four days for the "buro" to fully ferment. After four days, saute the entire content of the bottle in cooking oil, minced garlic and onions and a pinch of "Magic Sarap" seasoning.
Other Food Preserving Methods
1. Sugar Curing – addition of sugar is one way of protecting food such as (coconut, kamias, santol) from spoilage because of its ability to inhibit the growth of bacteria or microbes. My farm overseer knows how to do this.
2. Smoking – involves two main steps: brining and smoking of the fish in a smokehouse. A common product of this preservation method is the “tinapang galunggong" (smoked mackerel or scad) available in the market or “tinapang bangus” (smoked bangus).
This method is not a common household activity. It's mostly adopted by a family engaged in the backyard business of making and selling smoked fish.
If you want the unique taste of a smoked deboned bangus, go to a smoking shop at the Dagupan fish center to have your deboned bangus smoked for a fee.
3. Canning applies mostly to shrimp paste ("bagoong alamang") in our locality. A cannery in Lingayen City packs the foodstuff in a can for a customer who ships the canned shrimp paste as gift item to a relative or friend. Canning is not done by ordinary folks at home. They’d rather just buy canned goods which they can stock for a longer time.
4. Bottling as preservation method is mostly done by those engaged in the business of selling bottled products (such as bottled bangus sardines, or bottled gourmet “tuyo” (“dried salted Philippine herring”)).
5. Freezing, for sure, is beyond the means at this time of the ordinary rural family. Initial cost of buying a freezer or even a fridge is high enough. But added monthly electricity cost would be a burden.
For a complete list of Fish Pond Buddy blog posts on fish farm-related topics, please click the Index page.
No comments:
Post a Comment