Fish Heads and Frugality

I guess I'm a failure at frugality. Actually, this comes to no surprise to anyone that knows me well. Judi was the only frugal one in the family. Debbie and I, instead of inheriting those Nelson genes, got the what-the-hell genes as far as money and frugality is concerned.

Ernie and I decided to order fish from Cheese and Crackers for our anniversary. We decided on halibut but I was also tempted by the salmon heads. After perusing various posts and stories on fish heads I ordered three and figured I would use them as an appetizer or something. Actually, that had nothing to do with it, I just wanted to see what it would be like to cook fish heads.

You know what? It's a pain in the ass. I made Ernie cut the heads in half of course and clean the gills out etc. Then we sprinkled them with salt and drizzled them with olive oil before roasting them in a medium (350ish) oven for about half an hour.

We took them out, let them cool, and commenced to picking. I kept laughing and saying, "o.k., this is kinda fun but I am never doing this again." I'm sure we could have gotten more meat out if we were patient or persistant. I'm not even sure what I'm doing with the meat we picked....I'll use it tonight in something.

you can tell by Ernie's hands that he's saying, "What the hell?"

Our halibut was delicious. I just seared it in a pan (I love crispy fish skin) and put it on a bed of some small gold potatoes roughly mashed with the skins on, a big batch of sauteed green onions (the ones we get from farmer Greg are huge, as big as leeks....so they  work as kind of cross between the two), and some quickly sauteed Chinese cabbage and a bit of that Asian vinaigrette that I like so much over everything. It was delicious and a lot easier than fish heads....

a lousy picture of the final product because, well, my pictures of the final product are always rotten!

 And yes, you know I had to post this video.....