I was recruited by CIA - Homeland securities to work on a top secret project. (Totally wish this was true :D Cos how cool would that be?! )
Won a crap load of dollars and decided to escape the realities of life and hopped on the plane to Japan. (In my dreams!)
Signed up for the free trial of Netflix and buried myself in shows and movies. (ok. this is partly true.)
Truth is, the weather has been amazingly pleasant and beautiful. The last thing I wanted to do, after a long, cold winter in Toronto, was to chain myself in front of this laptop and write about salmon heads! But it is unavoidable. :)
I've tried to make the chopped up pieces of salmon heads in the picture look as harmless as possible. Let's be honest here, when it comes to decapitated heads sold in markets, it's stilled eye balls leering at me, dripping in sadness, having been put to the chopping block along with his whole sea of family, my compassion towards harmed living creatures is poked at for ...... 2 mins.
Salmon heads, normally discarded in North America cultures but glorified by the Asians, provide the most nutrients compared to the rest of its body and has the most flavour. The eye balls is weirdly sweet. Its quarter size cheek meat from the head is delicious. The thick gelatinous skin provide nutrients that aids in renewing skin. Fish head soups are popular staples at the dinner table of Chinese families. Fish head curry > deep fried then soaked in curry sauce is famous in Singapore. While some skills are required to eat fish heads (you'll be picking the tiny bones from your mouth every 3 seconds) the effort is well worth it. Omega fat jammed filled into your happy body. :)
While the fillets range from $5.99 - $9.99/lb, fish heads are only cost $1.99/lb. Score! To pick the freshest head, look at the eyes. :D Make sure they are crystal clear. Cloudy eyes means they've been sitting on that bed of ice for some time. Depending on which market you go to, the fish monger will clean and chop the head into smaller pieces.
Let's get right to it!
Ingredients:
2 salmon heads > with crystal clear eye balls please
4 slices of ginger
1 whole green elephant papaya
1 cup of fried tofu balls (optional)
1 sheet of dried beancurd (in the aisle of dried herb section of any Asian grocery)
All purpose flour
Directions
1. In bowl, rinse the salmon heads under cold water multiple times. Add plenty of salt to help draw out any crap and unwanted slim. Your final rinse, the water should be clear. Drain and dust with a bit of flour to absorb the liquid.
2. In a hot pan on high heat, drizzle a tiny bit of olive oil and add your ginger slices. Ginger slices help draw out any fishy flavours. Allow to fragrant for a minute. Add your salmon heads and pan fried both sides until lightly golden brown. By pan frying the fish prior to dunking into a pot of water, it provides a more milky, fragrant broth. Turn off heat once completed.
3. In a pot, fill water half way and place on stove; medium high heat. Add the fried ginger slices, fried salmon head pieces and beancurd sheet to pot. Bring to a soft rolling boil and immediately turn down heat to simmer. Simmer for 50 minutes to an hour. The beancurd sheet will naturally soften and break as it simmers.
4. In the meantime, chop the elephant papaya in chunks. This will add a nice, mild sweetness to the soup.
5. Add papaya chunks approximately 20 minutes into cooking time.
6. 15 minutes prior to completion, add in the fried tofu balls. Continue to simmer. :) Enjoy all the yummy nutrients! Seriously, if you can get pass the eye balls, you will be rewarded with a surprising sweetness and its smooth, silky texture. :)
Enjoy!