Spaghetti and Fish Heads!

CoCo and Peach were so hungry this morning!  We began discussing our favorite foods and restaurants downtown, and once we’d filled our bellies with holy bacon, we came to a logical conclusion.  Today is recipe and restaurant review day!  Get excited!

Here are CoCo and Peach’s favorite winter recipes.

CoCo loves spaghetti sauce.  She thought she was super-duper original with her particular spaghetti sauce, but now she figures everyone must feel the same way because a friend who grew up in the Florida Keys (opposite end of the country, people!) has an almost identical signature.  So here it is.  The super top secret recipe Indiana Jones must dodge rolling boulders for.  It’s pretty simple.  CoCo doesn’t even do all that organic from scratch business… which would probably make it ten times better.

First she browns a pack of Jimmy Dean hot Italian sausage along with some onion and lots of mushrooms.

 If she’s feeling garden-y or cooking for a lot of people, she’ll add bell peppers, zucchini and celery.

Then…. Then! Then she adds lots of wine.  Not a dash.  Not a couple glugs.  In goes a third of the bottle. Or two glasses of the box stuff, which CoCo keeps pretty handy.  Half a bottle for a big pot.  As most will agree, this is not so super-secret; some people use more wine than sauce.  CoCo, however loves a dark red creamy texture, so she adds red pepper sauce.  It’s right next to the regular marinara in the pasta isle.  Red pepper sauce has a bit more kick to it.

Finally, here’s the ca-razy! part.  Hold on to your smart-wool socks.  CoCo adds… are you buckled in?  She adds yellow curry!  The nerve!  The topsy-turvyness!  The heresy!  Yellow curry!

Three or four spoonfuls. Maybe its not that outrageous.  CoCo assumed it was just mixing well with the red pepper and Italian sausage.  Her much more educated Floridian friend had a technical culinary explanation of the curry blending with the red wine and anise seed (which is in the Italian sausage).

Finally, because all the other spices are just sitting there, and it makes her feel more chef-like, CoCo dashes in a bit of oregano and black pepper, and – oh – why not? Some other greenish things like sage or basil or something.  You, readers, can adjust the basic recipe to your own liking. 

Just don’t forget your noodles and garlic bread.  Remembering the red wine is given, of course.  Forgetting the red wine would be topsy-turvy heresy.

As for Peach’s favorite winter recipe… you might just want to stop right there, scroll back up and get to work on CoCo’s spaghetti feast. Let’s just say Peach’s favorite recipe is not for the faint of heart.  

Peach grew up in the middle of Colorado, a small town where Rocky Mountain oysters was a mystery.  Over the years, with a lot of travel and trying new things, Peach has acquired a taste for foods her hometown would consider strange and exotic. Her favorite is fish heads.

What most people don’t know is that the head of the fish is the most flavorful part, especially the eyes! It goes without saying that Alaska is renowned for having some of the best fishing grounds in the world, and Peach takes advantage of this amazingly delicious and miraculous resource. 

However it is a shame that the most flavorful part of the fish (its head) is often tossed away or used as chum (wastrels!). Peach has put a stop to this wastefulness and found the most favorite recipe for fish head soup by Chichi Wang (a blogger of traditional Chinese recipes). 

If you are having doubts, here is some advice: be brave, try something new, take a chance, taste something from a different culture, get out of your comfort zone, stop being wasteful.

Ingredients:

• 2 large fish heads, such as croaker or salmon, approximately 1 ½ pounds total
• 6 cups of oil for frying
• 1 tablespoon Shao Xing rice wine, or sake
• a few thick slices of ginger
• 2 green onions, sliced thickly on a bias
• one 6-ounce tin of Sichuan pickled mustard greens
• bean thread noodles, optional
• finely sliced green onions for garnishing

Preparation:

1.      In a wok, bring the oil to 400 F. Thoroughly blot the fish heads on a paper towel, and split each head in half with strong kitchen shears. When the oil reaches 400, slip the halves of the head into the oil, one or two halves at a time. Fry until golden brown on all sides. Drain and blot dry again with a paper towel.

2.      Meanwhile, bring 3 or so cups of water to boil. When all the sections of head are done frying, add the heads to the boiling water. If needed, add just enough additional water to cover the heads.

3.      Add the rice wine, ginger, green onions, and the entire contents of the tin of pickled greens. Bring the pot to a simmer and cook gently for 20 minutes, until the flesh of the heads is falling off the bones and the broth has turned a milky-white color. If a lot of oil has risen to the top, skim it off with a shallow spoon.

4.      If desired, add bean thread noodles: soften the noodles first in warm water, simmer gently along with the fish heads during the last 3 minutes of cooking. Garnish with the thinly sliced green onion, and serve immediately.

HAPPY EATING!!