Sandwich Spread

Value adding is one way in which to increase the income potential of a product – you knew that already. One of the things we have been thinking about for the women’s fish product is finding a way to turn small fish into a saleable food product. Finally, this week, we got around to trying one of our ideas.

Tom Heller, a Canadian teacher, is here for three weeks to help out. Among his many skills is the knowledge of how to prepare fish neatly and efficiently.  Those two adverbs are not part of my skill set when applied to fish. I do a mean chicken ... but fish ... ‘nother story.

Finished product

Sandwich Spread on Bread

Tuesday morning Manuel and I went out to meet with the ladies at their fish pond. Their second batch of fish is now three months old and from 1/3 to ½ pounds. They are growing more quickly this time. Part of this is because the ladies have more management skills and are better able to see problems early on.

We bought nine small fish (about 2 ½ lbs) and took them home. Tom did the honours of scaling, cleaning and taking off the heads and fins. I cut up an onion, pressed some garlic and juiced two small lemons. Fish and so forth ready we put them into the pressure cooker. Small problem, the glass pyrex dish I had didn’t fit. Plan B. A small angel food cake tin fit nicely and in went the fish, a little salt and the onions, etc. We put on the lid, let it build to pressure and then set our stopwatches for ninety minutes.

Ninety minutes later we depressurized the pot (Tom’s first experience with a pressure cooker – no major steam jets to make it exciting) and looked to see what we had. Amazingly, the fish was perfect. The small bones were easily chewed and the flavour was outstanding. It was very much like tuna and didn’t seem to resemble tilapia at all.

We gave the fish a test drive ourselves, to Gladys, our neighbour and to the staff at the school. Everyone was delighted. What was left went into the fridge until today.

This morning Manuel and I went back to El Cipres to show the women the new product. We took a bit of mustard and mayonnaise and a couple of tomatoes along as well. Once there we had them try the fish by itself and then I mixed a bit of onion, tomato and the condiments to make a sandwich spread. We put it on a baguette and then passed it around. Four small fish became enough for everyone to have two small sandwiches – almost Biblical (but about 4994 people short).

With this way of treating the fish a number of potential things happen. The first, something I had never thought of, is that the fish is easier for children to eat. Yakie’s small daughter was delighted with the fish and was able to eat it without any worries.

Cooking the fish with bones increases the calcium available. This is important for women and children especially. Although we didn’t use the heads this time, they will make excellent soup stock. There are numbers of people in the area who enjoy munching parts of the head so that is another experiment waiting to try.

When the fish are cooked like this, each fish can be served with a plate of rice or tajadas and a vegetable for $2.00 - $3.00. Since the total cost of nine fish was $1.50, you can start to see the potential.

Whenever the women raise fish there a number of stunted ones which they have trouble selling. This is a way to use them for income generation. As well, focusing on smaller fish allows for a quicker turn around time, alternative feeds and breeding stock, less problems with theft and opportunity for higher stocking rates.

The next experiment will try to play with different flavours. Then we will look at ways to package and preserve the fish so that it can be sold. There is lots of work ahead but it was an exciting start.

Official Tester - Gives Thumbs Up

Tom helped with another experiment this week. We made Githeri, an East African Kikuyu dish. It combines beans and maize with some vegetables to make a stew that has all of the amino acids. This is a wonderful dish for people without money for meat. It is filling and quite tasty. We didn’t soak the maize and beans overnight – something we will do next time – but, with the pressure cooker to help, it turned out quite well. Some of the students didn’t like the carrots that peeked out – they said they were allergic to carrots ... hmmm. But, generally speaking, the dish was well received. The staff here who are used to new flavours and who also have a grasp of the economic and nutritional potential of things were much more eager to try the dish. It is amazing how different the cuisine is in different places even though many of the ingredients are the same.

Small note:  If you remember a few months back, we began a school in Victoria in the home of Consuelo. Today she came to the school with a woman from another village who wants to start a similar school in her home. What a pleasant surprise.

That is enough for now.

TTYL

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