Salmon head and chayote tops soup
November 19, 2009 • Hello. I am currently out of the country and unable to respond to comments and e-mails. Rest assured, however, that future posts have been scheduled so new recipes will go live almost everyday during my absence. I'll be back soon with lots of stories and photos. Ciao for now! ~ ConnieUnlike my fried chicken and cabbage fried rice, this soup dish was something I planned and prepared for. Well, more like a five-minute planning, actually. I saw the salmon heads in the supermarket and couldn’t resist the thought of having fish head soup for dinner. Then, there were the chayote tops that just looked so enticingly fresh. The picture inside my head of a simple soup spiced with lots of ginger was just too irresistible. So, I gave in…
From experience, there are far too many scales still attached to the fish head when I buy them. I use a small serrated knife to scrape off the scales. It’s just not fun eating fish heads if one has to pick the scales after they’re cooked. Make sure, too, that the gills have been removed before you place the fish head in the cooking pot.
Cooking fish head soup is very simple, really. You need a thoroughly cleaned fish head about 600 grams in weight (salmon, maya-maya, talakitok, lapu-lapu). You need vegetables (you can substitute malunggay leaves or pechay for the chayote tops), spices (garlic, onion or shallots and lots of ginger for that extra bite), a little cooking oil, patis, pepper and water.
As a guideline (works for me), use half a head of garlic, an onion or two shallots and a thumb-sized piece of ginger for every 500 grams of fish head. Crush the garlic, thinly slice the onion or shallots and the ginger then saute them all together in about 2 tablespoonfuls of hot oil. Pour in about 8 cups of water. Add the fish head and trimmed chayote tops (or whatever greens you’re using), season with patis and some pepper and bring to a boil. Lower the heat, cover and simmer for another 10-12 minutes and it’s done. Simple, eh?
The trick to cooking a good fish head soup is to allow the fish to flavor the broth. That means you have to cook the fish in the water long enough to allow it to do that. At the same time, however, you don’t want to overcook the fish because you really don’t want to pick pieces of fish meat from the broth. You want to be able to scoop out the meat from the cheeks in one piece and peel off the skin especially around the mouth.
I must admit that the first time I made fish head soup, I undercooked the fish. The second time, I overcooked it to death. The third time… ah, it was perfect. To be on the safe side, allow 10 minutes of simmering time for every half kilo of fish. That way, you get a wonderfully flavored broth and a fish head cooked just right. 
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wow, delisyoso!
mmm… sounds good. i’ve been hunkering for some sinigang na salmon for a while now. our neighbours gave me some salmon bones as well as some fillets in exchange for letting them store their fresh caught salmon in our freezer. too bad i havent found out where the salmon heads go (or maybe they dont come with heads?
:lol:) as they would make wonderful soup. i guess i better go and thaw my fish. that’ll be great to ward off the chill from that wonderful white stuff covering the ground right now. joy! 
Nakakagutom. Initially, I thought you were preparing a sinigang since salmon head is always attached to sinigang sa miso. Parang itong recipe mo ay pesa (this is not a suam, isn’t it?).
I’ll try your recipe on Saturday.
yep, noemi, it was. although lots of foreigners will faint at the idea of eating fish heads. LOL
Enjoy, Cel. A hot soup is always great when the weather is cold. Getting chilly here in the Philippines too. And there’s a typhoon coming.
Trosp, more like pesa although I didn’t use the vegetables that traditionally go into pesa.
Too bad foreigners don’t share our enthusiasm. My husband’s cousin ( she’s only 16) once asked me, if I eat fish heads in the Philippines. I replied, of course! Totally horrified she shriek.How could you do it if they(fish heads) are STARING at you?! LOL.
Hi Connie,
I never tried chayote leaves before,what’s it taste like?
Got chayote growing in my garden maybe i will try it sometime.
I had fish head curry when i was in Singapore man it was die for.
You right lots of foriegner will say yuck that’s disgusting.they missed out on good stuff eh!lol
Walang pasok today. I’ve asked my wife to try using your recipe but what we have is lapu-lapu. Bukas pa mamamalengke si kumander.
Super!
I’ll ask my wife to use the salmon head next week.
Gena, there’s really no distinctive taste but then maybe t got drowned by the ginger. What I noticed though was that the broth turned greenish. And one thing about chayote leaves, they don’t cook in a jiffy like kangkong leaves or talbos ng kamote. They need to be cooked longer.
Trosp, yung lapu-lapu kasi pag malaki matigas yung laman. Eh pag fish head soup, mas masarap kung malaki yung isda.