Simmered yellowtail head ハマチの兜煮

For many non-Japanese (and even for some Japanese I suppose), this may not look attractive but stewed fish head is a classic Japanese dish and does have a quite good amount of meat to enjoy. Even my wife likes stewed fish heads. I made this from the yellowtail fish I bought recently from Hmart and was part of my effort to make sure none of the fish went to waste.  The classic fish used for this dish is perch or “Tai” 鯛. I have made this using salmon head which was very good. This yellowtail head was not very big (I should not have removed the collar or “kama” which I froze for later use. It would have added more meat). I simmered the head in seasoned broth with daikon.

Ingredients: (for two servings)
One yellowtail head, cut into two lengthwise (requires a heavy chef’s knife)
Daikon, peeled and cut into 4 one inch thick rounds
Ginger, 4-5 slices
100ml sake
100ml water
2tbs mirin
2tbs soy sauce
1 tsp sugar

Directions:
Place the two halves of the fish head in a sauce pan (they should fit snuggly).
Add the sake and water and simmer for 10-15 minutes with folded aluminum foil as an inner lid or “otoshi-buta” until cooked through. 

Add the mirin, soy sauce and sugar (I also added rounds of daikon which were precooked in water with some rice grains). I cooked until only a small amount of liquid remained (15-20minutes).

I served the fish heads with daikon and added sugar snaps cooked in salt broth スナップ豌豆の塩びたし. This was quite good. The seasoned broth was a flavorful part of the serving as were the daikon which absorbed the flavor or the broth and were nice and tender. The fish cheek meat, as is the case with other meat sources such as beef or pork was the best part of the stew. Next time I will not remove the collars since they would have provided a bit more meat.