Collar / Kama

[JimmyJam]

Yellowtail (Jack) makes a great collar when marinated in Teriyaki for a day and then broiled.

What other fish has a good collar bone for eating?

What about White Seabass?

[mnguy]

I'm Vietnamese so I'd say any collar is good. When I get in a good day of spearing I'll usually filet the fish, and use the heads/skeletons to make a broth and then trim the fins off of the collars and use those to add the meat to the broth and use the filets somewhere else. Recipe is as follows, though it goes by the old pinch and eyeball system.

The broth:

A day's worth of heads and skeletons for the broth (usually something like 2 or 3 corbina heads, a couple of bass heads and assorted others)
1 Onion, quartered
1 stem of green onions
1 leek, cleaned and the greens chopped into 1" long segments. The white part slice into thin strips.
A ginger root cut into sections.
A little bit of salt.

Get a pot large enough to fit all your heads and skeletons and a good amount of water. Add some oil to the pot and fry the leek whites until they brown up and get a little crispy. Put the heads/skeletons, white onion and the ginger into a cheesecloth bag and tie it up. Add the bag of heads, water and green onions and boil until you get alot of brownish/greyish foam on top. Skim the foam and pull the bag out. You can pick the meat off of the heads now if you like.

The soup
The broth is very versatile so you can do alot with it. This is the old family recipe.

Get all your collars.
the Leek greens from earlier
Peel 2 fat carrots and cut into sections and quarter them.
Peel some small potatos(white and yellow work the best, with red in a close second and the brown russets unsuitable) Cut them into halves.
Get a handful or 2 of snap peas, not the snow peas but the ones that look like regular peas but with edible pods.
Chop the rest of the green onion bunch into little (about .5cm) rings.

Add the leek greens, taters and carrots to the pot. Boil for about 5 minutes. Add the collars and the snap peas to the pot. Boil for about 5-10 more minutes, until the collars and potatos are done. Float the green onions on top, add some black pepper and serve in a large bowl in the center of the table with a ladle with a pot of white rice.

The traditional eating method is with a bowl of rice for each person, and a big bowl of the soup in the middle. People can either pick out the stuff they want and eat with rice or they can ladle the broth and goodies onto the rice and "drown" it and eat it like a porridge.

To mix it up, we will sometimes scratch the taters and instead go with a can or two of the italian style stewed tomatos and a good amount of home-made pickled mustard greens.

edit: forgot to add asian basil to the list. Chop it up into a rough chop and float it on top with the chopped green onion as well. It is very good in the mix, though not a requirement if you don't have it. Italian sweet basil will do OK, though it is not preferred.

Also forgot to add that you can always use just some of the broth to make the soup and save the rest for later. Vacuum seal it in bags or use the ziploc bag and sink of water method to fill up bags and refridgerate.

[JimmyJam]

Thanks Mike
I love family style food, sounds like a good one.

Do you eat the eyes of some fish? I have heard they are awsome on YT

[mnguy]

Do you eat the eyes of some fish? I have heard they are awsome on YT

Nah, they're too gooey for me. That, and their backs aren't to the sun ;)

[southbound]

Sound's killer Mike thank's for sharing. :beer: :beer: :beer:

[Christof]

I'm Vietnamese so I'd say any collar is good. When I get in a good day of spearing I'll usually filet the fish, and use the heads/skeletons to make a broth and then trim the fins off of the collars and use those to add the meat to the broth and use the filets somewhere else. Recipe is as follows, though it goes by the old pinch and eyeball system.

The broth:

A day's worth of heads and skeletons for the broth (usually something like 2 or 3 corbina heads, a couple of bass heads and assorted others)
1 Onion, quartered
1 stem of green onions
1 leek, cleaned and the greens chopped into 1" long segments. The white part slice into thin strips.
A ginger root cut into sections.
A little bit of salt.

Get a pot large enough to fit all your heads and skeletons and a good amount of water. Add some oil to the pot and fry the leek whites until they brown up and get a little crispy. Put the heads/skeletons, white onion and the ginger into a cheesecloth bag and tie it up. Add the bag of heads, water and green onions and boil until you get alot of brownish/greyish foam on top. Skim the foam and pull the bag out. You can pick the meat off of the heads now if you like.

The soup
The broth is very versatile so you can do alot with it. This is the old family recipe.

Get all your collars.
the Leek greens from earlier
Peel 2 fat carrots and cut into sections and quarter them.
Peel some small potatos(white and yellow work the best, with red in a close second and the brown russets unsuitable) Cut them into halves.
Get a handful or 2 of snap peas, not the snow peas but the ones that look like regular peas but with edible pods.
Chop the rest of the green onion bunch into little (about .5cm) rings.

Add the leek greens, taters and carrots to the pot. Boil for about 5 minutes. Add the collars and the snap peas to the pot. Boil for about 5-10 more minutes, until the collars and potatos are done. Float the green onions on top, add some black pepper and serve in a large bowl in the center of the table with a ladle with a pot of white rice.

The traditional eating method is with a bowl of rice for each person, and a big bowl of the soup in the middle. People can either pick out the stuff they want and eat with rice or they can ladle the broth and goodies onto the rice and "drown" it and eat it like a porridge.

To mix it up, we will sometimes scratch the taters and instead go with a can or two of the italian style stewed tomatos and a good amount of home-made pickled mustard greens.

edit: forgot to add asian basil to the list. Chop it up into a rough chop and float it on top with the chopped green onion as well. It is very good in the mix, though not a requirement if you don't have it. Italian sweet basil will do OK, though it is not preferred.

Also forgot to add that you can always use just some of the broth to make the soup and save the rest for later. Vacuum seal it in bags or use the ziploc bag and sink of water method to fill up bags and refridgerate.Man Mike, you are making me drool for a good bowl of Pho Tai.... It is my most favorite meal, and I cannot find a good Vietnamese restaraunt near here... I did find a good one up near Cocoa beach though... Time to go back....

Vietnamese food is the bomb....