The DU Lounge

Celerity

(43,463 posts) Mon Sep 5, 2022, 06:01 PM Sep 2022

What Makes Fish Heads so Damn Delicious?

From Iberian prawns to South Asian curries, they are the crowning glory of the seafood world.

https://www.thrillist.com/eat/nation/how-to-use-fish-heads

We’ve all seen travel shows where the host (maybe reluctantly at first) sucks the juice out of a fish head and, eyes widening, is always pleasantly surprised with the result. Though it can be a discarded part of seafood preparation, this crowning glory is rightly considered a delicacy around the world. Be it the herb-boiled crawfish from New Orleans, the tender prawns of Portugal, the rich South Asian curries like Keralan meen thala or Malaysian and Singaporean curries, fish heads are full of flavor and should always make it to the plate.

For Asheville-based Katie Button, co-founder of tapas bar Cúrate, she honed her craft in the kitchens of leading Spanish chefs such as José Ándres and Ferran Adrià and that’s where she fell in love with Spanish culture and cuisine. This included making use of the whole fish. “A prerequisite for flavor in rice dishes like arroz caldoso or a paella is finding use of the heads,” Button says. “Searing them to get that wonderful brown color then simmering them with water to pull out all the flavor.”

In chef Josh Nilard’s cookbook, The Whole Fish, he teaches you not only how to cut, clean, and choose a fish—but also sings the praises of fish heads. In the book, he says that one of the reasons why they’re a culinary delight is that juices in the head of seafood cook along with the meat, leading to a perfectly reduced sauce. Button explains the result: “Fish head is full of an oceanic, briny umami flavor and incredibly sweet all at the same time.”

The same can be said about Bengali, Maharashtrian, and Goan preparations where fish heads are cooked in gravy. Chef Gresham Fernandes, culinary director at Mumbai-based Impresario Hospitality, has childhood memories replete with eating fish head curry and rice. “While growing up, whenever my grandfather brought home a big fish, we would break it down into big chunks,” he says. “My mom would sit for hours cleaning out each part carefully, it would be put into a bubbling East Indian-style gravy.”

snip

STAR GAZY PIE

https://www.food.com/recipe/star-gazy-pie-393434

"This is from a Cornwall Tourism website. The original version had unintelligible grammar, so I've taken the liberty of correcting that. Star Gazy Pie is a dish unique to Mousehole (a fishing village in West Cornwall with a most beautiful harbour). Prepared in the Ship Inn, eaten on 23rd December (Tom Bawcock's Eve).