Pike Heads with Garlic
After the autumn fishing trips, the freezer often fills up with fish heads, which we mostly use for fish soup. But sometimes, if the mood strikes, we make pike heads with garlic. This dish has fascinated me since childhood. It’s actually an appetizer – a tasty, spicy cold one that goes wonderfully with wine and good company.
I doubt there’s anyone who doesn’t remember the scribe Feofan from Leonid Gaidai’s film “Ivan Vasilievich Changes Profession”: “Twisted rabbit kidneys, pike heads with garlic, black caviar, red… yes, imported caviar, eggplant caviar.” Maybe making pike heads at home is a tribute to those memories, but the dish turns out excellent. It’s worth trying.
By the way, in Bulgakov’s original play “Ivan Vasilievich”, imported caviar isn’t mentioned. There it’s caviar and vodka – anise, “official”, cardamom and whatever you like. If you haven’t made fish soup from the heads and bones, it makes perfect sense to make pike heads instead: boil them in a rich broth, season with garlic, spices and herbs, and then, if you like, cover them with a thin layer of clear jelly or serve them as they are. Basically, all you need is the heads, garlic and a good mood.
It’s amazing how well the delicate flavor of garlic goes with meat, vegetables and fish. One of the tastiest fish dishes we make is pike-perch satsivi with cold bazhe sauce – cilantro, walnuts, spices and garlic. When we make homemade aspic, we always add garlic to it. And even the simplest homemade processed cheese salad is full of garlic, strictly for medicinal purposes.
Sometimes we don’t even freeze the heads, so we can make the dish the next day, together with pike roe.
Pike heads with garlic are best made from a pike weighing 3-4 kg. The head and neck of such a fish have enough meat for an appetizer. An important point: before boiling the heads, you need to make a rich broth. For the broth you’ll need fish bones, fins, backbones or, even simpler, some cheap fish that gives a good stock. If you use enough fish for the broth, you may not need gelatin for the jelly.
Ingredients
1 serving
- Large pike heads 2
- Water 1.5-2 l
- Fish bones, fins, backbones and small fish fish for the broth
- Onion, carrot, root vegetables vegetables for the broth
- Garlic 1 head (5-6 cloves)
- Egg (whites only) 2
- Gelatin if needed
- Greens (parsley, dill) 5-6 sprigs
- Salt, black peppercorns and ground black pepper, hot pepper, bay leaf, coriander seeds, cloves, allspice to taste
Step-by-step recipe
Rich fish broth
The head of a big pike has enough meat to be an appetizer on its own. Usually, once the fish is gutted and scaled, the head is cut off just behind the gill covers. Normally it goes into fish soup, but here we’ll make pike heads with garlic, spices and herbs.
If the heads were frozen, thaw them completely.
Take a large pot that can hold the pike heads comfortably and pour 1.5-2 l of water into it.
The broth is made from the parts of the pike that aren’t eaten – fins, bones, tail.
Peel an onion and a carrot, and the roots of celery, parsnip and parsley if you like. Chop the roots coarsely, cut a cross into the onion and put everything into the water.
Add a bay leaf, peppercorns, allspice, 1-2 cloves and other spices. Add salt, but not too much.
Once the water comes to a boil, add all the fish you’ve set aside for the broth.
You can use not only pike leftovers but also other fresh fish, which will give a good fish broth. Foam appears after it starts boiling – that’s normal and does no harm.
Reduce the heat to the minimum that keeps it simmering, cover the pot with a lid and cook for up to 1 hour.
Remove all the fish and vegetables from the broth and strain it.
Cook the heads
Season the broth with more salt and pepper to taste and bring it to a gentle simmer.
Carefully lower the pike heads into the simmering broth and cook for about 15 mins. If the liquid is below the level of the heads, turn them over while cooking.
Transfer the heads to a large platter.
Clarify the broth
If the fish you used for the broth was enough for it to set into jelly, you can do without gelatin.
Strain the broth again and let it cool to a temperature at which egg white won’t curdle – until warm, about 50°C.
Beat the egg whites – one for each liter of broth – and mix them into the broth.
Heat the broth over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the egg white curdles and the broth clears.
Strain the broth one final time through a dense cloth.
Test the broth with your fingers: if it makes them sticky, it will surely set. If not, add gelatin, dissolving it according to the package instructions.
Garlic and serving
Peel 5-6 cloves of garlic and crush them with salt and spices – black and hot pepper.
Add a little broth to the crushed garlic.
Use a brush to coat the heads generously with the garlic, on all sides and inside.
Pour 2-3 tbsp of broth over the heads on the platter and put the platter in the cold. After about an hour the heads will have cooled and the jelly will have set.
Whether to pour broth over the pike heads with garlic is a matter of taste.
Finely chop the parsley and dill and sprinkle them over the heads.
The appetizer is ready to serve. You eat the heads with your hands, picking off the pike meat – there’s plenty in the neck, throat and cheeks. There are practically no small bones in the head, and the large ones are easy to see.
Calories and macros
210 kcal
Serving ≈ 1910 g
- Protein16 g30% of kcal
- Fat10 g43% of kcal
- Carbs14 g26% of kcal
100 g11 kcalProtein 0.8 gFat 0.5 gCarbs 0.7 g
Calculated from the recipe ingredients, excluding salt and spices. Data: USDA and Matvaretabellen.
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