Salmon head soup sounds quite scary, right? Actually, every good chef knows that the best flavours in a fish are hidden in the head and in the bones, and the most tender, juicy part is the cheek.
Salmon head soup is a comforting and super affordable dinner idea that should definitely enter in your family recipe book.
A lost wisdom: making the most of what you have
Fish head soups are indeed present in every traditional fish cuisine repertoire and for a good reason. If our grannies didn’t waste anything, our fishwives ancestors in particular had definitely one thousand ways to reuse every possible fish part. In the past, less noble fish, which was not meant for the market stall, and leftovers from the filleting definitely did not end up in the bin (like today in the western world), but had a very important place on fishermen tables.
That rich culinary knowledge of making the most of what you have is often gone, today. Lesser cuts need time, and time is the most valuable good in our days. Industrialisation improved massively our living conditions, but deprived large segment of population of the time and the pleasure of cooking meals from scratch. In the last 70 years, this pleasure was even largely disincentivized. “Don’t loose time at the stove, buy ready made meals”, was the 50’s most common approach in the food industry advertisement in the most industrialised countries. And it worked!
We live now in a continent where children believe that milk, chicken breast and fish fillets come straight from the supermarket counters. Despite the invasion of so called “food porn” in the media, the connection with the whole process behind food production has been cut for large part of the population.
So, we need more than ever to rediscover our food heritage, and our grannies (and maybe great-grannies) culinary expertise. Not only because food waste is a luxury that we cannot afford anymore, but because that heritage also includes a huge amount of wonderful dishes that younger generation have never tried.
This post is the first one of a series dedicated to fish, meat cuts and veg parts that can be considered scary at a first sight. But scary is fun, right? Since our childhood scary stories are fundamental to overcome our ancestral fears (Grimms’ Fairy Tales anyone?) Maybe a little bit of scary recipes can help us to recover the connection with our past food culture and our capacity to see the value of what today is generally considered waste.
So, fasten your apron, and Salmon Head Soup it is.
Salmon Head Soup
Ingredients €0.00 (4 Servings)
- Salmon heads 3 units
- Courgettes sliced 2 units
- Pasta for soups (crushed spaghetti or small shape pasta) 200 gs
- Shallots 2 units
- Ginger small piece units
- Garlic garlic clove units
- Extravirgin Olive Oil 2 tbsps
- Flat parsley small bunch units
Remove the gills from the salmon heads (use kitchen paper for a better grip) and wash them very well under running cold water.
Put them in a large pot and cover with cold water. Let simmer until cooked (around 20 minutes).
Let cool down in the stock. And, with a good dose of patience, separate the meaty parts from the rest.
Strain the stock and keep aside.
Gently fry the garlic, ginger and shallot mix until soft tender. Then, add the trimmed parsley stalks and let cook for a few seconds.
Add the sliced courgette and let cook for 3-4 minutes stirring from time to time. They should soft a little bit, but retain some crunchiness.
Add the strained stock and bring to simmer (for a more delicate taste, salmon stock should never boil vigorously).
Add the pasta and stir. When the pasta is cooked switch off the heat and add the salmon trimmings.
Serve with a drop of extra virgin olive oil and garnish with flat parsley leaves.
Would you like to watch a video tutorial about this Salmon Head Soup? Here it is on Sicilianbake Instagram highlights.
Click on the image!
