I stopped by at a Korean grocery store after running errands today. As I was passing by the fish display, I remembered something Daniel Boulud said during the panel discussion as part of 'Daniel Boulud in Film and Conversation' last night. "Sometimes things become leftovers or get thrown out because people don't know what to do with them." and gave an example of fish heads - how people from other countries would make a great fish head stew that can feed a whole family.
Being proud to be one who can make use of fish heads, I bought a salmon head (based on availability). Start with a base broth - a sliced carrot, radish (Japanese daikon), onion, garlic cloves, soy sauce, liberal amount of gochugaru (Korean pepper flakes) and gochujang (Korean pepper paste) brought up to a boil then reduced to a simmer, for good 30 minutes to draw out the vegetable flavors. Then add the fish head and simmer until completely cooked. Just before removing the stew from heat, add sliced scallions and crown daisy (쑥갓 [ssook-gat] fresh, young leaves are commonly added in Korean stews). You can make the stew with just regular fish meat only, but the head part deepens the flavor.
It is not the easiest to eat, because of course you have to fish out the bones yourself. I think that's part of the fun. Oh, for the picture and for eating, I had to turn the eye-side down. I am still not used to having the eyes stare at me....
On a side note, after picking up the fish head and placed it in my fasionable, beige grocery bag (that I always carry in my purse just in case I have to pick up an emergency fish head), I made a quick stop at Macy's to look for earrings... I kept wondering how often 'fish heads' and 'Macy's' are used together in one sentence.
Korean vocab...
| fish (as in food) | 생선 | (seng sun) | ||
| pepper flakes | 고추가루 | (go chu ga ru) | ||
| pepper paste | 고추장 | (go chu jang) |
