fish head curry(gulai kepala ikan)

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I over catered
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Wow, Mick!  That looks fabulous and your pictures are really beautiful!  Thanks for providing the detail about prepping the heads, too. 

Looks like a great meal, hope the Butcher's Daughter enjoyed it too!

Have a great weekend!
Clarissa
 
Wow, Mick!  That looks fabulous and your pictures are really beautiful!  Thanks for providing the detail about prepping the heads, too. 

Looks like a great meal, hope the Butcher's Daughter enjoyed it too!

Have a great weekend!
Clarissa
Had to take pics with phone ,battery on order for camera. There are some great bits of meat in the head really sweet,fiddly to get to but if you don't overcook it really good eating.

As curry goes its actually a bit new to me.I haven't made one with okra & tomato in it.It really tasty & I will do it as a prawn(shrimp) curry for next dinner party. Its a really interesting set of ingredients,tamarind ,curry leaf etc.My usual curry is from a homemade paste in more of a thai style.

Once you get the sauce down you can simmer any sort of seafood in it.
 
I agree with Clarissa, not sure if you are that good a cook or an excellent photographer, But those are outstand pictures. Sure wish I could taste it. I know it isn't, and not meaning insult here but it really looks like a cajun red fish creole. Thats the closest think I have to imagine a fish head curry.

Really nice Moikel, I know I would like it.
 
OK, I obviously don't know sheeet from shinola when it comes to seafood, but hope that Mick or others following this thread might be able to help me out. 
biggrin.gif


I called my local fish guy and asked about fish heads.  He said that he has salmon heads available daily (already gilled, yay!) but that is pretty much the only kind of fish heads he usually has.  Are salmon heads good eatin',  suitable for Mick's curry, or not?  Any thoughts?

Thanks!!

Clarissa
 
OK, I obviously don't know sheeet from shinola when it comes to seafood, but hope that Mick or others following this thread might be able to help me out. 
biggrin.gif


I called my local fish guy and asked about fish heads.  He said that he has salmon heads available daily (already gilled, yay!) but that is pretty much the only kind of fish heads he usually has.  Are salmon heads good eatin',  suitable for Mick's curry, or not?  Any thoughts?

Thanks!!

Clarissa
Howdy....  My mom and grandma made salmon head fish stock...  used it to flavor any salmon dishes....  It adds a real punch of salmon flavor to stuff....   also the omega fatty acids are good for you.....   I do believe you have to be a salmon lover to use and like it.....   add to pasta water when boiling if making scampi/linguini type thing...  I'd eat the broth with saltines... like chicken broth...  onions, garlic, celery etc.....    

I'm getting hungry for old time food now.....      Dave
 
Howdy....  My mom and grandma made salmon head fish stock...  used it to flavor any salmon dishes....  It adds a real punch of salmon flavor to stuff....   also the omega fatty acids are good for you.....   I do believe you have to be a salmon lover to use and like it.....   add to pasta water when boiling if making scampi/linguini type thing...  I'd eat the broth with saltines... like chicken broth...  onions, garlic, celery etc.....    

I'm getting hungry for old time food now.....      Dave
Hi Dave,

Thanks very much for the info!  Salmon has a pretty distinctive flavor, but both my husband and I really like it.  And of course, there is no beating the taste of nostalgia!  Gotta love those foods we grew up eating!

Thanks again, and have a great night!
Clarissa
 
Clarissa, we don't have too much salmon here, but ocassionally someone makes an Alaskan fishing trip (drinking and hunting/fishing). The guys learned to freeze and bring back some heads and bones for stock. It makes a kick-ass smoked salmon terrine with dill and lemon infussion. Its good enough to ocassionally be asked for for partys.

But thats nothing compared to what Moikel does. He does more with less than anyone I ever saw!
 
I agree with Clarissa, not sure if you are that good a cook or an excellent photographer, But those are outstand pictures. Sure wish I could taste it. I know it isn't, and not meaning insult here but it really looks like a cajun red fish creole. Thats the closest think I have to imagine a fish head curry.

Really nice Moikel, I know I would like it.
I love the fact that it looks like a creole dish 
yahoo.gif
. Its really about what you have around you. In Malaysia things like lemongrass,turmeric,curry leaf ,tamarind grow like weeds. Its also on that spice route so theres fenugreek,star anise etc. Then theres the mix of people,Indian,Malay,chinese & cooking styles.

I like the tradition/heritage that comes with it. The okra is intriguing but very Malaysian. Former British colony,same with Singapore so the food was here way before Thai or Viet.The Malaya restaurant in Sydney opened in 1963,still going strong. Got a lot of good competition now from more recent outfits. All do a fish curry like this,no exceptions.
 
OK, I obviously don't know sheeet from shinola when it comes to seafood, but hope that Mick or others following this thread might be able to help me out. 
biggrin.gif


I called my local fish guy and asked about fish heads.  He said that he has salmon heads available daily (already gilled, yay!) but that is pretty much the only kind of fish heads he usually has.  Are salmon heads good eatin',  suitable for Mick's curry, or not?  Any thoughts?

Thanks!!

Clarissa
Clarissa we all know you can cook
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 so its just a matter of working with what you have. 

I am not sure about salmon.I have eaten plenty of it in Canada ,loved it but not so sure about curry.

Can I suggest this
439.gif
.Make it with a thick white fish steak,cod ,halibut would be great just to get your eye in. Or get some good size shrimp,shell them. Fry the heads& shells with some bits,ginger,garlic little curry powder stay inside the rope on flavour. Mash them good then add the tamarind water,bubble it THEN  strain it then add it to curry as per recipe. Add your shrimp after that.

Nostalgia is a funny thing when I was in my early 20s(I am 53 now) a few of us would go to the Malaya restaurant in Chinatown.Opened 1963 still going now. It was exotic to me because it was Asian food but a different world to that westernised chinese food,sweet & sour,chow mein,fried rice that we all new.

The flavours were wild to me then I didnt know there was curry other than Indian or the English colonial take on it. 

Malaysian predates Thai,Vietnamese, Sichuan,by a long way here. One day I will make laksa ,very much loved by Aussies but very Malaysian.
 
What about halibut heads,ling cod? Butchers daughter wasn't having it no matter what head it was so I did a bit of monkfish(NZ) in the sauce at the same time.

Fish head is just that don't waste kitchen style , any seafood will work but I would stay away from red fleshed fish ,tuna etc.

I am going to do it again in the near future ,maybe for the crew down at the little fishing town where my weekender is . I catch the odd fish myself down there. 

 
Clarissa we all know you can cook
439.gif
 so its just a matter of working with what you have. 

I am not sure about salmon.I have eaten plenty of it in Canada ,loved it but not so sure about curry.

Can I suggest this
439.gif
.Make it with a thick white fish steak,cod ,halibut would be great just to get your eye in. Or get some good size shrimp,shell them. Fry the heads& shells with some bits,ginger,garlic little curry powder stay inside the rope on flavour. Mash them good then add the tamarind water,bubble it THEN  strain it then add it to curry as per recipe. Add your shrimp after that.

Nostalgia is a funny thing when I was in my early 20s(I am 53 now) a few of us would go to the Malaya restaurant in Chinatown.Opened 1963 still going now. It was exotic to me because it was Asian food but a different world to that westernised chinese food,sweet & sour,chow mein,fried rice that we all new.

The flavours were wild to me then I didnt know there was curry other than Indian or the English colonial take on it. 

Malaysian predates Thai,Vietnamese, Sichuan,by a long way here. One day I will make laksa ,very much loved by Aussies but very Malaysian.
Sounds like a great plan, Mick.  Always can get decent shell-on shrimp, frozen and from your part of the world generally, sometimes from Foamheart's.  We've got a little Korean grocery store in town that carries other East Asian ingredients like tamarind pulp, lemongrass, etc. I think I'll make this my cooking project in a couple of weekends.

As usual, great post!  And thanks for the cooking instructions!!!!

Have a great day!

Clarissa
 
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Clarissa, we don't have too much salmon here, but ocassionally someone makes an Alaskan fishing trip (drinking and hunting/fishing). The guys learned to freeze and bring back some heads and bones for stock. It makes a kick-ass smoked salmon terrine with dill and lemon infussion. Its good enough to ocassionally be asked for for partys.

But thats nothing compared to what Moikel does. He does more with less than anyone I ever saw!
Salmon with lemon and dill is an unbeatable flavor combination!  We are supposedly having a great salmon season here in Oregon this year, so making salmon stock for use with chowder or your terrine would be a lot of fun.  Thanks, Foam!

Have a great day!

Clarissa
 
OK, I obviously don't know sheeet from shinola when it comes to seafood, but hope that Mick or others following this thread might be able to help me out. 
biggrin.gif


I called my local fish guy and asked about fish heads.  He said that he has salmon heads available daily (already gilled, yay!) but that is pretty much the only kind of fish heads he usually has.  Are salmon heads good eatin',  suitable for Mick's curry, or not?  Any thoughts?

Thanks!!

Clarissa
You bet that they are! Back when I fished there was a guy who would bring a five gallon bucket down to the fillet tables and collect all that he wanted. He really preferred the salmon heads, but would take the rockfish too.
 
You bet that they are! Back when I fished there was a guy who would bring a five gallon bucket down to the fillet tables and collect all that he wanted. He really preferred the salmon heads, but would take the rockfish too.
Thanks, Case!   I'm think going to pick up some heads on my next free weekend and give a shot to making salmon stock and cioppino, while good tomatoes are still available. 

Have a great afternoon!

Clarissa
 
Caught Anthony Bourdain on repeat last night. He was in Penang,best food & best cooks in Malaysia. Whole roasted pigs for Chinese NewYear,lots a fusion food,MAlay ,Chinese & Indian aka Nonya Baba/ grandmother food. And you guessed it fish head curry.
 
These stories remind me of my mom.... I'd catch salmon and all she wanted was the heads... Her food was always sooooo good....

I threatened her, to write down her recipes.... she'd laugh.... never wrote down one recipe.... probably figured I couldn't cook anyway.... smart woman...
 
I travel a lot and have spent a lot of time in Malaysia in the past 4 years.  Food there is a wonderful fusion of several cultures.  Have eaten so many different curries (Including fish head).  Also had monitor lizard (Curried of course).  After traveling throughout Asia since I was 19 years old stationed in Korea, I can no longer stand boring bland food.  I'm ruined.
 
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