Fish Head Salmon Chowder

I'm still not sure what kind of grandma I want to be. The sweet, jolly, hand-holding kind, filling the kids with sweets and stories, or the stern, crotchety no-nonsense kind, who will tell you exactly what's what? Well, I suppose that's why I've got so many years ahead of me to practice. Today, I'm feeling like the latter, and today, what's on the menu is fish head chowder.

In the evening, floating in the soup!

Yeah, I could have called it "salmon chowder", and just happened to mention in passing that oh yeah, you can use a fish head if you want, but no. You came here to learn how to cook real, nutritious, tasty food at a price you can afford, and in order to do that, you're going to use a fish head. Don't give me any of that whining about "ooh, it has eyes". So do fillets, it's just someone else has been to the trouble of chopping them off for you (and you've paid them for that privilege). If you can't handle where your food comes from, you've got no business eating it.




Besides, the head is full of delicious fat, which is where both the flavor and the nutrients are in a wild-caught salmon (which you can buy since you are buying the least expensive cut and which is a fish you really shouldn't bother buying farmed). One head will give you meat for one pot of soup and bones for a good gallon of stock. Go head or go home.

Fish Head Salmon Chowder

Ingredients: 
1 large fish head
about 4 medium potatoes, chopped into medium chunks
1 large onion, large dice
*1 bunch scallions
*1 large turnip, medium chunks
*2 cups frozen peas
*2 large carrots, medium chunks
*thyme
*yogurt
*salt and pepper


*optional - replace with something similar or leave out, like you do with soup.

Instructions:
Chop your onions, potatoes, turnip and carrot, if using. Wash your fish head.

Saute the onions in a bit of oil until they are just starting to turn golden. Then add the potatoes, and turnip. If your fish head is frozen (mine was), add it here. If not, just add enough water to cover everything and let it boil lightly for five minutes or so.

Try and get the head out whole;'
the bones get EVERYWHERE otherwise

Add the head (if not frozen) and your color-vegetables - peas and carrots are always reliable. I bet this soup would be decent with cauliflower or broccoli, or even celery. Simmer about 20 minutes.

Delicately - you see from the picture how it's coming apart? - remove the head and place it in a large bowl. Have a second bowl - or, save time, a stock-pot - on hand for the bones. Run some cold water over it to cool it down. Wash your hands well - you're going to be getting very close and personal with the head.

Oh yea, sorry about the zested lime.
I'm making tom yum on the other burner.

You'll see right off where the meat is on the neck. Just ease that right off and pop it back into the soup. Then carefully start to disassemble the head. There are little deposits of meat on the cheeks - they'll be lighter in color than the body meat - and along the nose. And  look at that delicious skin! Who would pay good money for fish oil pills when you have the real thing right here?

This should be basically the only solid bit left of the head.
Some people like the eyeballs, but I'm not a fan. 

Since I'm making this soup for other people, though, I will reluctantly save the skin, with the rest of the bones, for making more stock. The bones are full of collagen - a connective tissue protein that will give the stock a thick, creamy texture. It's the stuff you make gelatin out of.

Put the water and the fish head meat back into the soup pot, and put your bones and bits on the back burner for stock. Add spices (I used thyme and scallions; dill is also good), salt and pepper and let the soup simmer a little bit longer, until the potatoes are tender. Don't simmer till the peas turn brown.

Stock options! Ah ha ha ha!

You now have a couple of options for this soup. You can eat it just as it is, and if you simmered that head properly, it should be plenty thick and creamy. If you want to add some dairy in there, as is common for chowders, try stirring in about half a cup of yogurt. (Incidentally, use yogurt just about every time a soup recipe tells you to use cream. It's cheaper, tastier, and just as effective, unless you use the fat-free stuff.)






Look at that beautiful soup! Eat it up, yum.

Can't get enough fish heads? SeriousEats has a great recipe (and a great series, The Nasty Bits, which should be required reading if you want to keep eating meat while keeping your costs under control).







Price:
Salmon Head: $1.50
Potatoes: ~$1
Onion: $.25
Turnip $.75
Scallions: $.50
Carrots $.50
Frozen peas: $.50
TOTAL: $5
SERVES: 6-8 people.