Boning up

Is there a market for boneless — I think the proper term is “deboned” — bangus in Maasin? Unless Metro Gaisano has a supply problem, I say there is: they are perennially out of stock.

From videos I have seen online, removing milkfish bones (all 214 of ’em) is not particularly hard. Quite fussy, yes, but that’s why boneless retails for a bit more: you are spared the hassle of having to pick the cooked fish apart yourself to make sure that you do not choke on one of the finer bones. In any case, TESDA includes deboning as part of its course in fish processing; see, for example, the Fish Be With You project in rural Bolinao, Pangasinan (incidentally, it was where my maternal great-great-grandfather was born, back when it was still a part of Zambales province).

So the question is, if the market and training opportunity exist, why aren’t local fish vendors keen on offering boneless milkfish? I hate to say it, but I think it reflects a paucity in entrepreneurial imagination. I am reminded of that time a neighbor put up a banana cue stall in front of her house, and all of a sudden everyone up and down our street had wanted to cash in on the same business model. Gaya-gaya, we call it.

Whatever — investing people with new skills translates to greater market diversity and more sales of locally-sourced produce. Until then, I deal with pesky bangus bones by pressure-cooking them into brittle submission. The first time I did, it was for 45 minutes, above water level on an open sheet of foil. The milkfish was waterlogged and looked as if it would fall apart with the slightest disturbance; indeed, it took some maneuvering to lift it more or less intact out of the pan.

(Which reminds me: if you intend to cook the fish whole, make sure that it fits your pressure cooker.)

The challenge, then, was to find that juncture when the bones had cooked enough to be edible while still being able to hold the fish together during the next stage of cooking: frying. For my latest attempt, the result of which is pictured here, I seasoned the fish with the usual salt, garlic (granulated), and cracked black pepper, then wrapped snugly in foil so as to avoid direct exposure to steam. It cooked for 15 minutes (above water, as usual). Then I poured away whatever liquid had pooled inside the foil, salted the fish just a tad more to make up for whatever had leached out, and placed the fish in the freezer for 30 minutes (still in the foil, for easier handling). From there, it went straight to the frying pan.

As you can see, the bangus held up pretty well. The bones might not have come out of the pressure cooker as “cooked” in the 15-minute version as it was in the 45, but the hot oil soon took care of that. Everything was edible, and by that I do not mean serviceably so. Of course, by “edible” I also mean to our surviving dog, a hopelessly spoiled mongrel named Palang, who has of late refused to eat food that does not come from our table. She gets the tail (sometimes the head, if I’m full). Too bad TESDA does not offer a course for pushover canine owners. Saying no to a dog — now there’s a skill I need to learn.