Fish Head

This may sound odd but does anyone know where I can get fish heads in the city? Tensuke in Elk Grove Village has a great selection but I hate fighting traffic on the weekends to get there. The wife loves them but I think there has to be a place closer that sells them.

Isaacson and Stein on Fulton St has them. You might also call Dirks on Clubourn to see what they could arrange. I am sure there are others. H-Mart in Niles, but that's not saving you a drive. Maybe in Chinatown?

There is an old school kosher fish monger on Devon, who certainly would have heads. Cannot think of the name right now though, but I am sure someone on the board will come up with it.

How are you preparing the fish heads? Just curious...

Remember, if you take them out to see a movie, you won't have to pay to get them in.

She likes to make soup out of them or poaches them. Either way she like the meet that's on the cheeks. She says it's the best part of the fish.

butter674 wrote:There is an old school kosher fish monger on Devon, who certainly would have heads. Cannot think of the name right now though, but I am sure someone on the board will come up with it.

Good Morgan

Good Morgan Kosher Fish Market
2948 W Devon
Chicago, IL 60659
773-764-8115

Yup, that is it. Thanks G Wiv!

Octarine wrote:Remember, if you take them out to see a movie, you won't have to pay to get them in.

Praise JuJu that I was not the only one who thought this.

Hi,

At the new 88 Market on Jefferson Street, they offer a range of fish. They also sell Salmon fish heads and frames for 99 cents a pound. When I saw this a few weeks ago, I suppressed my impulse to buy until I had a plan what do to with it.

I found on seriouseats.com two promising recipes:
- Fish head soup
- Thai fish head curry

I selected two fish heads weighing in at 3 lb 11 ounces. The fishmonger removed the gills and split the heads in half at my request. I had seen a video recently where Asian Carp were split in half with a bandsaw before processing. I thought splitting the head would be a good approach to processing my Salmon heads. I also took the gills home. I wasn't sure if I needed them, but did not want to learn later I could have used them. I did not use them.

I went with the Thai recipe, because I just bought some Thai basil. I also found I had a tin of the It-Girl Thai curry paste from Maesri. How far ahead of the curve was I? Its best-buy date was from 2013! I opened to find it was perfectly fine and used it as the base. I used a medium sized Dutch oven to provide a snug fit for the fish heads. The rest of the process you can learn from the linked recipe.

When it came time to serve lunch, I reheated some leftover Jasmine rice, set the bowls out and a bone plate. This is a meal you cannot wolf down, because sorting through the bones is part of the process. These bones are also quite entertaining with various shapes, functions and an array of teeth.

My impulse to split the heads worked out well, because each half was a serving. For our small family of three, we could have easily used one salmon head. All the broth, eggplant and my addition of some Chinese broccoli provided a full meal with leftovers.

Too bad none of my sisters were present, because this meal really needed a jolly round of fish heads!



Regards,
Cathy2

Years ago when my Finnish Mother in Law was alive, I would make her a Finnish Soup called Kalamojakka. Usually made it after fishing Lake Superior. We would filet the Lake Trout and Salmon and I would take the head and bones and make this soup. I loved having my wife and kids check out the eyeballs floating on top during the simmer. The soup was always greatly appreciated by my MIL.

Fish heads are a crucial component of the broth in which gefilte fish cooks. The few times I've made it are the times I've actually sought them out.

=R=

Puckjam wrote:Years ago when my Finnish Mother in Law was alive, I would make her a Finnish Soup called Kalamojakka. Usually made it after fishing Lake Superior. We would filet the Lake Trout and Salmon and I would take the head and bones and make this soup. I loved having my wife and kids check out the eyeballs floating on top during the simmer. The soup was always greatly appreciated by my MIL.

Is this recipe about right?

That was really nice gesture to make this for your MIL. I hope you liked it, too.

Regards,
Cathy2

Pretty much. I used tarragon as opposed to dill though. She absolutely loved it as I was the only one to ever indulge her with this. After straining (including the eyeballs), you pick the meat off and bring it back into the pot later.

Hi,

I don't know how long this will work: I am using facebook as my image host.



Now you get to see the Thai fish head curry in all its glory.

Regards,
Cathy2

Cathy2 wrote:Now you get to see the Thai fish head curry in all its glory.

He's kinda cute!

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