The Story Behind Singapore’s Fish Head Curry | From Book to Cook

How many leaves are we looking at? That's not what I will do, I do this. Ah yes, show me. Actually, I try, I try. Hello everybody, my name is Paddy, your librarian host. And welcome back to another episode of From Book to Cook. The show where we uncover Singapore's heritage, one recipe at a time. Today, we are diving into a bold and flavourful icon of Singaporean cuisine, fish head curry. And here to tell us more about it is culinary instructor, author and spice queen, Chef Devagi. Hello Chef Devagi. Hello, how are you? I am good, so good to have you back. Definitely, it's been a long time since we did the rendang, right? Oh yes, we did rendang in season one. Oh man, a lot of memories from the delicious rendang here. And today we are making fish head curry. Definitely. Got the fish head here. What do we need to do? We need to clean it first, of course. And have you ever cleaned a fish head before? I think it might be my first time, just specifically for the head. So I will give you some work, you learn how to clean today. Okay, you teach me, you teach me, I follow you. Okay, so we start with cleaning this fish head. The fish head, yes. Right, and I've noticed we've cut, we split it, like butterflied it or something? No, I split it into two because it's easier to know the fish is cooked. In the restaurants, they steam the fish head first and then they lower it into the curry. Oh, okay, so they do some pre-cooking. Yes. All right, okay, so how do I get started? So what you do, you take out the fish. Okay, this one is not clean. Okay, over here, so we need to... And then using the scissors, you cut off the fins first. It's easier later, yeah, just cut it shorter. So we're snipping the fins off? Yeah. Because we don't want all this bony stuff. Before you buy, you always have to make sure that the eyes are very glossy, shiny, bright. So I know before we actually buy the fish head, you need to open up the gills. Open up the gills here. It has to be fresh red, not like a dark or dull rust color. Yeah, so this would be ideal, yeah. So we know that this fish was very recently alive. Yes, correct. So now you can actually scale the fish. Okay. So you know, like when you, you can't do this when you're wearing the best clothes. An apron would have helped, I guess. Right, because it will start flying everywhere, right? So yeah, I'll finish it for you later on. Let's look at how you need to do the gills. Okay. You see, you just have to pull out the gills. Use your scissors to just cut it off. Okay. We don't want the gills. So now I'm going to surgically remove the gills, basically. Actually, basically, chefs are also surgeons. True. Yes, sharp, right? Yeah, bony. Very bony. Okay, throw that away. Okay. Okay, then now, of course, after you have scaled the fish, we need to wash this to remove the blood clot. Okay. And then we are ready for cooking. All right. Yeah. Right, so we've got our prepared fish head over here. Yes, so what we have to do is, because before we start cooking, we can actually season the fish if you want. Okay. So we put a bit, sprinkle a bit of salt. So I'm just using my hands with this? Yeah, or do you want me to do? Oh, no, no, just all over the outside. Plus the back and the front, the same salt you got to use. Okay, give it like a little facial and then the inside as well. So we'll do that for both sides. Yeah, right. Whatever I have on my hands. Okay. Okay, then what's next? So, you know, there's many ways of doing fish head curry, right? For this, because sometimes people use coconut milk in their curry. Yes. But I'm going to use grated coconut. I'm going to blend it into a base with shallots. And then we'll have cumin and fennel seeds. Yes. Okay, all this will be going into the blender with water, and then we'll just blend it into a base. Okay. Put everything in here. Okay, everything in? Yeah. Okay. Fennel and cumin seeds. And shallots. Okay, then with a bit of water. So what are you looking for when we're blending this? I'm going to blend it into almost a semi-fine consistency. So if it's very rough, we have to carry on blending. Okay. We'll check. Yes, consistency check now. Okay, looks a bit better. Better, yes, correct. Yeah, I can actually use this now. Okay. Okay, so we'll just pour this into a bowl. And this is the base for our curry paste. Our curry paste, yes. And this fish head curry recipe that we're making, this is, when did you learn to make this? I learned how to make a fish curry first. I mean, we never cooked fish head curry as in our houses before, long ago. So I learned how to cook fish curry when I was maybe around 10, 11 years old. Wow. Yeah, so I could cook. But I never liked fish curry. But I only liked it when I started cooking it myself. So I like my fish curry with a lot of ginger. Okay, so what I have here is actually chilli powder and fish curry powder. Okay. So when I say fish curry powder, there are spices like coriander, chilli, cumin, fenugreek and all that, right? And that is the uniqueness of a fish curry powder because when we talk about fenugreek, it's slightly bitter, strong smelling. You will never use fenugreek in a chicken or mutton dish. It gives a kind of a bitterness, bitter taste, but it's good with seafood, not with red meats. Interesting. Yeah, so put that in as well. And then we'll mix this into a paste. Okay. So this is what we call a masala paste or a wet curry paste. Okay. So you know those days in the markets, there'll be some ladies actually selling masala in the market. Yeah. And you just have to tell her, I want chicken curry. And then she'll just mix a few things together. This is the one where they have all the big batches. Yes, correct. So this is just the washing from the blender that we cook, right? So I'm just going to add that in so that we don't waste. So this paste, we'll keep it aside. Okay. So now we have got the fish ready. We have the paste ready. Okay. Now we have another important thing and that would be the tamarind. We call it asam, right? Yes. So I have some asam in water. Right. So I'm going to macerate this. Right. Macerating is just soaking in water. No, you have to sort of mix this so that, you know, the part will release the sourness into the water. Let me just strain this. Sure. Right. Okay. So we got to strain the tamarind using our hands, just like we did in the old days. Yes. Okay. So we have this ready. And then I have like garlic slices. Yes. Ginger julienne or if you want it to be sliced. Cumin. Mustard seed. Fenugreek. Okay. Curry leaves. All this I'm going to do tempering. I remember you taught me this. It's we're giving the flavour to the oil. Yes, releasing the flavour, right? Right. So now what I have here is a clay pot. Okay. So this is unglazed. So when it's unglazed, you're not supposed to wash it with soap at all. Because the more you cook different curries, the more flavourful this clay pot will be. Ah, right, right. And cooking in a clay pot actually makes the curry tastier. And leaving the curry overnight here actually makes it even better. And the reason is because it breathes. Right, there's pores in it. There's pores in it. It breathes. So it thickens the curry slowly overnight and then it becomes concentrated and tastier. Oh, interesting. So it takes a bit of a time to actually heat up the clay pot because you cannot put it on high. If you put it on high, the clay will crack. So we'll just let it heat up for a while, slow, and then we'll add in the oil. Sure. So you have eaten fish head curry, I believe, right? And you've seen ladies' finger. Just to let you know, Indians actually do not use ladies' finger in their fish curry. Okay. This is a Singapore thing. It must be influenced from the Pranakans or the Malays who use it for the asam pedas and all that. Yeah, Indians predominantly always use green mangoes. This one here. So this version we're making is the Singaporean Indian version? Yeah, I have tweaked it a little bit. Okay, sure. What's the difference with the other Singaporean versions that we have? We have the Pranakan fish curry. Then we have the Malay fish curry, right? They're all a bit done slightly different. Then we have the Chinese fish head curry, which is always with coconut milk. Always with coconut milk. They're always served with coconut milk in the gravy. So it's a bit, I call it lemak. Yeah, more lemak. So I'm going to use the oil a bit liberally so that it covers the base. Okay, to test to see if the oil is hot, I'm going to just put in one or two mustard seeds to see whether it's crackling. Okay. So in tempering, what's important is the sound of the spices. So when you have different spices, it gives different sound. Mustard seed pops, so it's like... And the sounds tell you when they're ready. So is it hot enough? Looking okay? Is the sound telling you that it's ready? No, it's not ready. Not ready? Slowly. See, you can see slowly. We're waiting for the mustard seeds to pop. So this type of fish head curry, the very uniquely Singaporean fish head curry, was there someone who invented it or anything like that? I think his name is Marian Gomez. He is a Malayalee from India who started a stall in a coffee shop. His dish was called Gomez fish head curry. Gomez's fish head curry apparently was a favourite with the Chinese. Yeah, and he was one of the first prison knights who added in the lady's finger. I think so. Yes. So I guess Mr Gomez did the entire fish head. So he became popular. Right. Maybe there was something visual about it as well? Yeah, I think it's the visual which can either make you so excited or it can put you off. That's true. Okay, can you hear sounds? I'm hearing a little bit of... Okay. So now I'm going to add in mustard seeds. Okay. Cumin seeds. Okay. Can you greet? Okay. Add in the onions, sliced onions. Your sliced onions. So we will saute the onions until they become like a kind of a light brown. Light brown, okay. Okay, now that the onions you can see they all have shriveled a little, slightly brown at the edges. And I'm going to add in the sliced ginger. Okay. Now the reason why I'm adding in the ginger first is because ginger is heavier. Because garlic, I've sliced it, if I add it together with the ginger, it will get burnt very fast and burnt garlic imparts bitterness. Right. Okay, so we'll add in the garlic now. You can see the ginger has become a bit like translucent, right? The idea is you must eat your garlic, ginger, onion and everything to be healthy because Indian cooking is all medicinal values. Yes. For example, venugreek, research says that it can lower cholesterol. Mustard seeds, good for body ache. Fennel, good for releasing unnecessary water in your body, water retention. Yeah, so each spice has got a story to tell. Okay, now you can see that everything has like come together like soft and nice. Yeah, looks good. We will add in the curry paste. Curry paste, here we go. So you can see once I added in the curry paste, the oil has been absorbed by the spices already. Some oil sizzles out, then we add in the tamarind water. Okay, so you're talking about like sometimes when you cook rempah. Yes. And then you know it's ready because it looks very shiny. Yes, correct, glossy. There's another method of cooking fish curry and that would be once you add in your masala, just straight away add your asam water and then you boil it longer instead of frying it. The idea of frying it and that is just number one, to get rid of the raw smell of the curry powder. Okay, I'll add in a bit of the asam water. Okay. A bit at a time. Okay, just like that, asam water. Did everybody in the family help out your mother in the cooking in the kitchen? Was it like a... We only do all the menial jobs, like peeling onion. Okay, I must tell you, a lot of people ask me questions like, how did you become a chef? I said, I like to eat. I was a greedy child. So we had multiracial neighbours, right? And I always wanted what they had, not what my mother cooked. So that's how I ended up learning and demanding that I eat a lot of other stuff. Yeah, and that's how my mother also became a better cook. Okay, we will leave this. Okay. We will bring this to boil. Oh, it already smells so fragrant, my goodness. So you want to take some curry leaves and put it in? Oh yeah, we put it in now. How many leaves are we looking at? So that's not what I will do. I do this. Ah yes, show me. Magic. I'll try, I'll try, I'll try. Done. Okay. Yes. How did it start, heads being used? It looks like something that people might not want in the fish market, right? They maybe just take the other part. So in India, apparently they don't eat fish head. Fish head is thrown away. Only the body parts are eaten and it's eaten by the wealthy people. So the poorer you are, you can't afford to buy fish. But the fish head was prized among the fisher folks and all the poorer people. And they would chop it up and make it into a curry. I still think that the Chinese influence in the fish head is still the number one for the fish head curry. Really? Yeah. Why is that? I think they are the ones who like communal eating, as in like place a food right in front of everyone and then dig in from there. Whereas the Indians don't. We just scoop and put onto a plate and we eat individually. So I think for presentation, it looked very nice. True. To have a steamed fish or a steamed fish head. True. So they must have started it. Yeah, that's true. Actually, yes, you're right. A lot of the way Chinese dishes are done for seafood, it's like you'd like to see the fish and everything. Because I know like my Indian friends from India, they will sometimes like look at, turn around and look at me. The whole fish head? Yes. How to eat? Because they think they're eating with their hand and they wonder how they're going to put their hand into the fish. I said, no, we scoop. So that itself is very Chinese already. To talk about fish head, first thing people think is about the whole head in the curry pot. So if you are going to serve it at home for a few guests, I'd say if I'm going to invite some Chinese over for my and I say, today I'm cooking fish head and then they say, okay, okay. And they're going to be disappointed if I chop it up and put it into my curry. Right, right, right. What about other kinds of dishes that people use fish head in? Are there any other lesser known recipes where we use the fish head? From the Kolkata, for example, they make a curry with it, but they also chop it, they don't put a whole fish head. And in Mizoram and Meghalaya, the areas where it's very mountainous, they don't have much fish to fish. They will eat the fish head and all because of scarcity. Okay, now I will do second round of tasting to see whether the raw taste has gone. Right. When you say raw, describe it. What does raw taste like to you? Take that and taste. Oh, just this? Okay, I'm going to try. So we don't want it to taste like that. Yeah. Okay. Now, the raw taste is gone. This one. Really? Yeah. Okay. So you need to taste this. Okay, I'll try this one. Oh, so different. Different, right? So different. This is so delicious already. Yeah, now the raw taste is gone, right? Yeah, oh yes, the raw taste. Add in the fish. Okay. Adding our red snapper in. Slowly. Beautiful red snapper. In a while, it will sub-mix. Okay, now I add in my veggies. Yes. Okay, add in the mangoes in. The tomatoes. Add in the lady's finger. Beautiful. Push all the stuff in. I call this loosening it up. Let some hot curry go in between the two. Yes, yes, yes. So that it cooks faster. Right, so Chef Deviki, what we have here is like what Singaporeans commonly known as curry. But from my understanding, curry is just too general a term, correct? As far as I'm concerned, curry is like a sauce. And people do sauce in different way, but they may not call it curry. Like for example, in Assam, they do chop up the fish head and they make it into stews or soups. In West Bengal, for example, they cook their fish head curry chopped up with a mustard-based sauce. So that they don't use chilli powder. So, you know, they just use mustard, which gives a lot of heat, right? Make that into a gravy. The type of curry slash gravy that we're using, how is it different from, let's say in other parts of India, like in West Bengal or... South Indians or Tamilian will always have an element of tanginess in their seafood mostly. Whereas like in Kolkata, it's not necessary. It can be like with milk, with coconut, and it did not be sour. Or maybe they might just have a squeeze of lime on their curry just before they eat. So it's different. Then in Kerala, they do a lot of grinding of coconut and other ingredients together to make the curry. And sometimes the fenugreek and everything is already ground into a paste instead of tempering like that. So some of them will actually boil the fish first and then they will temper last with coconut oil. The fish head curry should be ready by now, I think. You want to have a look? Yes, let's take a look. Okay, you can see when it's ready, right? You can see this oil floating to the top. I can't wait to try it. My mouth is watering already. I have rice and bread for you to taste. Okay. With the fish. All right, let's do that. Let's put this on a plate. Here you are. Thank you, chef. Fish head curry. Wow. You want to open it? Yes, let me do the honors. Yes, it looks amazing. Okay, you can see the red oil here. Yes. So originally our oil had no color, right? So now it has got all the flavors of the spices, the curry powders, the coconut. Everything is there, all turned into good oil. It's not meant for throwing. It's meant to be eaten. So I have a question. I mean like Chinese eating customs, normally when there's an elderly person or someone, you need to dish out for them some of the best parts of the fish. Is it true that fish eyeball is considered something that you give importance and give it to someone to eat? Yeah, I think maybe some people do that. For me, it's like we would save the fish cheeks for my mom. My mom likes the fish cheeks. So she says it's always like the tenderest part. Okay, now just help yourself. Sure. Do you want a piece of bread, chef? Yeah, I'll take one. Okay, here you go. I will take some rice. Do you want half of this? Yeah, sure. I will take a little bit. The whole loaf to yourself. I can see how different this is already to the more Chinese style. The Chinese style. Yes, the color is quite different. The Chinese style is more lemak. Lighter in color. And maybe a bit watery. Yes. Okay, I'm going to taste it. A little bit of everything. Anticipation. It's different a bit from the ones that you get at like the Zhe Cha restaurant. Yes, different. This is closer to what the fish curries that are commonly available in like Indian restaurants or like when you go to a mamak. I like the spice to it. It's a bit different. Yeah, this is more about the spices. Yes, correct. You were saying if you were to keep this overnight, it affects the flavor. Once you leave it overnight, what happens is the tanginess slightly becomes mellow as well. And the curry evaporates a little. So it becomes thicker. So therefore, you will not lose your tanginess. But the fish will absorb the entire flavor. So it tastes better. And for the fish head itself, there are different ways we can prepare the fish before we cook it, right? It all depends on the type of fish. Because some fish emits very fishy strong smell. So then for that kind of fishy smelling fish, we will rub turmeric and a bit of salt. And sometimes just a bit of lime juice or tamarind water. Most Malays will actually submerge the fish itself into a bit of tamarind water with a bit of turmeric as well. My Chinese friends actually tell me they season it with a bit of soy sauce, chopped spring onion, sliced ginger, garlic. And I leave it for a while before they start preparing it. Yeah. So it's like there's so many different ways you can do it. Yes, definitely. What I realized is everybody wants to eat fish, but they don't want the fish to be fishy. Yes. Well, thank you so much, Chef Dewi again, for coming on to the show. We learned so much about fish head curry today and how to make it. Thank you. Thank you. I'm glad that you enjoy it. Yes, I will. And I'll continue to enjoy this. Yes. And that's it for today's episode of From Book to Cook. If you want to try your hand at making your own fish head curry, head on over to the BiblioAsia website for the recipe and other related resources. Yes. My dad actually loves fish head curry.