Inside Angles: Culinary Horizons

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Like many of you, I apparently have an inherent bent to be hunter, gatherer, angler, critter cleaner, occasional cook. There is a photo somewhere, if I can find it, of a 4-year-old me, cleaning bullheads at Trigg’s Resort on East Okoboji Lake in Northwest Iowa. It’s after dark, there’s a fish-cleaning table with a light bulb overhead, I’m standing on an old fruit box, bareback, a horde of mosquitoes circling, and I’m oblivious to them, so intent am I on cleaning fish. Take a moment to Google—Bart Simpson, “Knife Goes In, Guts Come Out.” That’s me, way before Bart’s time.

In this regard, I will share something that only the tiniest group of people know. My nickname as a boy of 10 was Fish Guts.

I am at Boy Scout Camp. There is a canal connected to a larger lake running through the camp. By that age I was already way past crazy to go fishing whenever I could, so I was prepared with line, hooks, and sinkers in my pack. During free time I organized a few friends, we cut willow poles and rigged lines, and, using baloney saved from lunchtime sandwiches, we caught small bullheads from the canal.

Someone wondered about eating them. By this time, during trips to a local river to catch whatever bit, I knew how to build a fire and do fish on a stick. No need to clean the bullheads, I explained. Bonk them on the head and slide them head first on a green stick. Doesn’t take long to roast a 6-inch bullhead. Peel away the skin, or eat the skin, if you like, and away you go. Good stuff. But I also showed them that they could eat the egg sacks from the “guts” of the fish. It surprised me that this was a step too far for my Big Bad Boy Scout Friends. Thus, my nickname.

Fish Guts is an honorable enough handle for a boy of 10, but it had its drawbacks by age 12, when I decided on Valentine’s Day to leave a box of candy in a girl’s desk who I had a crush on. “Fish Guts gave me candy,” doesn’t have much of romantic ring to it.

A lot of critters and finned creatures have been cleaned and eaten along the way since way back then. I love to eat fish and I enjoy cleaning them. I can cook, but having spent time around professional chefs, I know I’m not good at it. So the “fish-head soups” that I’ve had have been prepared by those with some expertise in that regard, usually with salmon heads. It’s not hard, though, and these days there are plenty of recipes online. In fact, there’s an excellent take on it in the book I’m about the mention.

What got me started down the road to writing this was watching a TV episode with Chef Andrew Zimmern and friends eating the roasted head of a tuna. Gills removed, the head was slow roasted and the result looked delicious. There’s lots of flesh and other goodies on the heads of some fish. The head of a flathead catfish might work, for example. Lots of chewies there. Stripers, too. Any bigger fish really. The heads of fish can also be split, again, after the gills are removed, and grilled, baked, or broiled.

Hank Shaw, of Hunter, Gather, Gardener, Cook fame is a chef and gadabout in the outdoor world and all things that can be eaten. His recent book is about his love affair with fishing and fish and cooking them. It’s titled: Hook, Line, and Supper—New Techniques and Master Recipes for Everything Caught in Lakes, Rivers, and Streams and at Sea.

Most walleye anglers are familiar with eating cheeks. Many also save the “wings,” or the portion of chest-belly meat just back of and slightly below the gill arch. Once the main portion of fillet is removed, cut just behind and forward from each pectoral fin to remove a V-sGection of meat. Leave the skin on and don’t worry about the tiny scales and the two pelvic fins. There isn’t a lot of meat, but it’s delicious. Like eating an entire fish head, you have to pick around to get at all the meat, but it’s good stuff, a bit fattier than meat from a fillet.

In Shaw’s book he shares a recipe for “fish collars.” There’s a collar on each side of the fish’s head, which includes the meat from behind the head and behind the gill arch. A collar also includes half of the portion of meat on the fish’s chest that would otherwise be a wing. It’s just a different way to process a portion of the carcass that would otherwise be wasted. The fish have to be big enough for this to bother with, of course. And, as Shaw suggests, it works best with fish with a bit of fat. Striper is ok, but king salmon is better.

Shaw says grilling works best, but if you can’t, you can broil them. Shaw: “Just keep an eye on the collars so they only burn a little. I generally use a simple ponzu marinade, which is basically a soy-citrus mixture.   

“Grill the collars over high heat, painting them with sesame oil, until they are cooked through and a little charred. Generally, this is pick-it-up-and-eat-it food . . . Serve with a salad, steamed rice, and plenty of beer.”

You might also try grilling the remaining boney carcasses of the fish you fillet. Leaving the tail on makes each carcass easy to handle. (Removed the dorsal and anal fins before or after grilling or broiling.) Season them with whatever you want after a brush with olive oil. Grill them quickly and away you go. It’s a bit messy but a tasty start before the main event on the grill.

  A lot has changed since the early days of In-Fisherman when it comes to harvesting fish. Paging through one of the old magazines from the late 1970s, I actually found a recipe for baked muskie.

Today, we harvest fish more selectively, catching and releasing bigger fish to sustain good fishing, but also keeping some of the catch to enjoy at the table. Along with many of you, it’s one of the primary reasons I enjoy fishing.

Hank Shaw’s Fish Collars Marinade

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1/4 cup lime juice
• 1/4 cup orange juice
• 1 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup mirin or other rice wine
• Sesame oil 

Instructions

• Mix the ingredients together and put them, along with the collars, into a heavy plastic bag or lidded container. Marinate overnight or up to one day. If the collars are not submerged, turn them periodically so they get good contact with the marinade.
• The next day, pour the marinade into a small pot and bring it to a boil. Reduce it by half, and set it aside.
• Pat the collars dry with paper towels and coat with a film of sesame oil. Get your grill nice and hot.
• Grill the collars over high heat, basting with the reduced marinade, for about 10 to 20 minutes, depending on how large the collars are and how hot your fire is. You want them fully cooked and a little charred. 

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