Though often overlooked parts of fish to utilise, the head and wings are prized delicacies in many cultures. This recipe uses 1-1.5kg of fish heads to make six large bowls of chunky, tasty chowder. The head in the photo was a huge 4.6kg hāpuku head, which obviously required a very large pot and a longer cooking time (around 25 minutes) than shown in the recipe below, so make sure the size of the head suits the recipe! There’s a surprising amount of meat to be picked off fish heads – I managed to glean 1.2kg of beautiful, tasty flesh from this particular head.

Ingredients

•    1-1.5kg fish heads, gills removed, rinsed of any blood and loose scales, wings attached (will give you more flesh)

•    1 onion, peeled and thinly sliced

•    ½ stick celery, thinly sliced

•    1 carrot, scrubbed then sliced or diced

•    4 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced

•    2 bay leaves

•    400ml can coconut milk or cream 

•    1 tsp smoked paprika (more or less to taste)

•    ¼ cup miso paste (optional – but adds a lovely depth of flavour)

•    1-2 kumara, scrubbed and diced (about 400g)

•    ¾ cup cooked rice (any type of rice – if you don’t have it, make it without it)

•    6-8 mushrooms, thinly sliced (I like to use shiitake)

•    2 silverbeet leaves and stalks, thinly shredded (both stalk and leaves)

•    1 corn cob – cut the kernels off (or ¾ cup frozen corn kernels)

Method

1.    Bring a pot of 3 litres of water to the boil with 2 tsp of flaky sea salt.

2.    Add the fish heads, onion, celery, carrot, garlic, and bay leaves and bring back to the boil, then reduce heat to a gentle boil and cook till the heads are done – they take less time than you think. A large snapper head will take 12 minutes.

3.    Remove the heads from the broth, and when cool enough to handle, pick the flesh from it – the cheeks, the forehead, and the wings all have plenty.

4.    Bring the broth back to a boil and add the coconut milk, smoked paprika, miso, kumara, and rice – reduce heat and gently boil for 30 minutes until the kumara is cooked.

5.    Stir in the mushrooms, silverbeet, and corn and cook for a further 4 minutes.

6.    Taste for seasoning.

7.    Place the fish flesh in your bowls, then ladle the hot chowder on top.

By Peter Gordon, @chefpetergordon, friend of The Kai Ika Project