#fishheadsoup

I became in love with eating fish heads at a very young age.  Growing up in a very poor country and then immigrated to the US, we didn’t have much and I  was taught to never waste foods. Also, having to watch my parents devoured that fish head made it even more delicious and that’s how I fell in love with fish heads!

I was introduced to the Fish Head Curry-Singapore from a Japanese Anime that my 12 years old watched.  In one of the episodes, one of them cooked this dish for their food competition. She came to me and asked if I have had a Fish Head Curry before. I said, no. But it does look delicious, so I looked it up on the internet.

There is such a thing! This dish is originated in Singapore and it’s how two cultures brought this dish together, the Indian and the Chinese! It’s probably one of the most popular dishes in Singapore today!

The original dish instructed to use the purple long eggplant and okra, which makes sense because it is so flavorful that you’d want vegetables that for one, soaks up the liquids, and two thicken-up the sauce and, overall to present a colorful dish to make it even more tasty! didn’t have those two ingredients when I made this dish, but in the future I will definitely give that a try!

Making the chili pepper paste was probably the hardest part since it has the most ingredients in it. One ingredient I missed was the Chinese Sichuan pepper corn. It would have made it even more flavorful! Whatever the case, I think this dish is a must try for sure!

Fish Head Curry Soup - Singapore

Servings: 4

Ingredients

1 large fish head, cleaned and halved 2 stalks lemon grass (white part only), thinly sliced 3 each shallot, thinly sliced 2 Tablespoons galanga root, about 1 inch long, thinly sliced 3 each garlic cloves, chopped 3 Tablespoons Korean dried chili pepper flakes (for making Kimchi) 1 Tablespoon sweet paprika 3 each whole cardamon 2 teaspoons cumin, ground 1 Tablespoon coriander seeds, whole or ground 1/4 cup  plus 2 Tbsp more, vegetable oil 2 cups water 1 cup coconut milk 1/2 each onion, sliced 1 cup cauliflower flowerets 1 package enoki mushroom, cut 2" off from root and rinsed 1 cup tomatoes, chopped 1/2 cup cilantro, chopped 1/4 cup Thai Basil , optional 1 each Japanese eggplant*, cut 1" thick 1 cup okra, halved 2 Tablespoons fish sauce salt and pepper, to taste 1 each lime , cut in wedges

Directions

1. Clean the fish head with cold water, halved and remove the gills. Place in a colander to drain.

2. In the meantime, to make the chilli paste: in a food processor, place from the lemon grass to coriander seeds (ingredients from 2-10) and 1/4 oil; pulse it until it becomes a fine paste. Remove. (You can also use a mortar and a pesto as well).

3. In a deep pan or wok, heat 2 Tbsp oil, sweat the onion and add in the chilli paste. Turn heat to low and cook the paste for 5 minutes, stirring and making sure to not burn the paste. If the paste is too dry, add in 2 more Tbsp oil and continue to cook.

4. Add in the water and bring it to boil. Increase the heat to medium low if needed. Add in the coconut milk, and the vegetables you want in there. Bring to boil and add in the fish head, season with salt and pepper and fish sauce. Then cover the pan with a lid and cook for 15 minutes or until the fish head is cooked. Turn off heat. Taste the final dish for extra seasoning.