Tips for buying salmon head

And a recipe for a citrusy fish soup.

Salmon is my favorite fish. And my favorite parts of the salmon are the head and belly. I had been craving salmon head soup for the longest time so, for lunch today, I cooked a very Southeast Asian salmon head soup flavored with lemongrass, ginger and lime juice.

I’ve rebooted my habit of taking photos of the food the go through our kitchen and end up on the dining table. Mostly, it’s to document what we eat everyday. After three bouts of stomach flu over the last four months, I think it’s wise to have a reference. If I get sick, I just have to look at the photos in my phone and it’s easy to narrow down the suspects to find the culprit. If there’s no food that raises a red flag, then, it’s probably the water. Something like that.

The other advantage is that if a dish turns out great, I can write a recipe for it and share it with you readers.

So, this is salmon head soup. And you have to have salmon head to make it. If you substitute the head of some other fish, the soup will taste different. Not necessarily better or worse. Just different.

When buying salmon head (this is true in the Philippines but I don’t know if this is true in other parts of the world), I go for the S-cut.

S-cut means straight cut. The head is cut off in a straight line so that a generous portion of the back and belly of the fish go with the head. It’s pricier than V-cut salmon head.

V-cut means the head is carved so that no part of the back or belly is sold with the fish head. It’s cheaper but you won’t get a lot of edible parts with the V-cut. You just get the eyes, the gelatinous skin and the “cheeks” underneath the bony plates that cover either side of the head below the eyes.

If you’re buying salmon head to make broth, the V-cut is good enough. You want the bones and not the flesh to flavor the cooking liquid.

But if you’re serving the fish head itself, it’s much nicer to be able to get more edible parts. The S-cut is the better choice.

Get the recipe for salmon head soup with lemongrass, ginger and lime juice (subscribers only)

More fish soups to try

Salmon belly sinigang – A mixed vegetable soup with sour broth, sinigang encompasses an array of dishes that may contain meat or seafood. The souring agent may be tamarind extract, young bilimbi, green mango or guava. In this sinigang recipe, salmon belly is cooked with vegetables and bilimbi. Get the recipe.

Fish head soup with coconut cream – Thick and spicy, the heat of this fish head soup with coconut cream comes from garlic, ginger and chilies. Get the recipe.

Fish belly and moringa miso soup – Fatty milkfish belly is cut into small cubes and combined with freshly stripped moringa leaves in this Filipinized miso soup. Chunky enough to be served with rice as a main course. Get the recipe.

Fisherman’s soup – Inspired by ukha from the 2009 Italian romantic drama “I Am Love” where a young man’s comfort food is his mother’s fish and vegetables soup. Get the recipe.

Vietnamese-style sweet sour salmon soup – Inspired by canh chua, Vietnamese sweet and sour soup, the flavor of the broth comes from the combination of sour tamarind juice and chunks of sweet ripe pineapple. Get the recipe.