Shrimp paste - specialty of the lower Lam River
Having been attached to the earthworm for generations, people in the lower Lam River in Hung Nguyen district have gained a lot of experience in processing earthworms into attractive dishes, of which earthworm sauce is a famous specialty.
For the people of the “rươi villages”, the main purpose of raising rươi is the fields, and growing rice is secondary. In the summer-autumn season, if they do not grow rice, they still plow and fertilize with manure. According to the people, doing so will make the fields deep, especially when harvesting, removing a lot of stubble, adding decomposed manure, making the soil loose, the fields will have a lot of rươi, big, fat and yellow.
In the past, when the season of rươi came, people had to make torches and light lamps to collect rươi with bamboo baskets. Now the fields are covered with nets, people know how to make baskets to catch rươi, so it is less difficult. When the tide recedes, from underground, rươi crawl out to swim freely in the fields, following the water flow into the baskets.
Each time the worms emerge, each household with fields along the river can earn 10-30 kg of worms. Households with many fields can harvest 1-2 quintals of worms per season.
Hung Nguyen sandworms can be used to make many nutritious dishes, such as sandworm rolls, braised sandworms, sandworm sauce, etc. In the past, people here collected a lot of sandworms, but could not eat them all fresh. Without a refrigerator to preserve them, they came up with a way to make fish sauce to use gradually.
In the past, shrimp paste was just a rustic food, local people mainly made it for family meals. When the demand for shrimp paste in the market increased, many households focused on making shrimp paste for commercial purposes. In communes with shrimp paste such as Chau Nhan and Hung Loi, it seemed that every household could produce shrimp paste. Households who made it for food would salt a few kilos of shrimp; households made it both for their own use and to sell salt by the kilo.
Ms. Nguyen Thi Linh (48 years old) - a woman with decades of experience in making shrimp paste in Phu Xuan hamlet, Chau Nhan commune said that each shrimp season, her family harvests hundreds of tons of shrimp, most of which are sold to traders, leaving only about 30kg to make shrimp paste for her family and to sell on the occasion of Lunar New Year.
According to Ms. Linh, making shrimp paste is not difficult but requires meticulousness and skill in each step. To make a delicious batch of shrimp paste, according to the locals, the shrimp must be fresh, just brought back from the field, do not use rotten shrimp to make the sauce. After hunting, the shrimp are washed with well water, put in a basket to drain. If the shrimp still has a lot of water or during the fermentation process, the shrimp paste will be spoiled or not delicious.
People in Hung Nguyen do not salt the whole shrimp like those in the Southwest, but grind them together with spices such as shallots, tangerine peel, ginger, chili powder, etc. In the past, when there were no food processors, people often put the shrimp in a ceramic jar and used two large bamboo chopsticks to beat them vigorously until they were crushed. Nowadays, there are many types of multi-function machines, grinding shrimp has become simpler.
Depending on each household, the seasonings mixed into the shrimp paste are different. Ms. Linh's family usually makes the fish sauce according to the formula of 10 kg of shrimp paste, 2 kg of salt, 1 kg of onion, ginger, 0.8 kg of rice bran, and 1 handful of tangerine peel. The thick shrimp paste after being ground will be seasoned with a little salt and rice bran and poured into a ceramic jar, a glass jar, or a clean plastic container, sealed, and kept in a cool place.
During the first week, every morning you have to open the jar to add salt and rice bran, making sure that after 7 days you have added all the salt and rice bran as planned. During the fermentation period, occasionally take the jar out and mix it from bottom to top. After about a month, the fish sauce will turn reddish brown and have a characteristic aroma when it is ripe.
With natural spices and unique fermentation method, Hung Nguyen shrimp paste has a unique color, aroma, and flavor that not every countryside has.
On average, 10 kg of shrimp paste can make 10 liters of fish sauce (20 bottles, 0.7 kg of fish sauce/bottle). Shrimp paste can be eaten “raw”, that is, scooped out from a jar, add spices such as chili, galangal and eat immediately, or fry onions and heat the fish sauce before eating. Shrimp paste is often used as a dipping sauce for pork, goat meat, salad, rice rolls, pickled eggplant, pickled onions, etc. All are delicious and attractive.
Previously, shrimp paste was just a rustic dish, but now it has become a famous specialty, favored by markets everywhere. When the paste is ripe, it is also the time of Lunar New Year, the paste is brought out by people to be bottled, each bottle is sold for 500 - 600 thousand VND.
Mr. Vo Trung Truc in Phu Xuan hamlet, Chau Nhan commune shared: “Every season, my family uses about 50-60 kg of fresh roe to make fish sauce. Usually, my family only makes orders from acquaintances in the countryside and both in the South and the North. Every Tet holiday, the products are sold out, and there is no roe sauce to sell.”
It is known that there are currently many establishments producing shrimp paste in Chau Nhan and Hung Loi communes. Each shrimp season, a facility processes hundreds of tons of shrimp to make shrimp paste. According to local people, the shrimp paste making profession brings in a good income, the revenue can double the capital invested.