Miso Salmon Kama (Collar)

Fish heads are such an undervalued part of the fish. Freshness is key since this part gets smelly quick, but I also make sure to pick ones with large collars still attached. You can easily buy great salmon heads with collars attached for about $2-4 a pound, depending on where you are and how much you get charged for it. To me, that’s a steal to the price of fillets.

A fun thing about growing up in Hawaii is that certain words are colloquially non-English. Kama is one of them. So even though I know it’s the collar, I’ve almost always only heard and called them as kama.

The great thing about the kama (collar) is that it’s such a fatty cut, it’s very similar to the belly except it has a large bone in the center and that it’s an awkward shape. Cooking this in the oven is great and the only downside is that you can’t get any use out of the skin. It turns stiff and rubbery and I don’t think there’s any getting around to this. But again, at the relative price, I’m sure these cuts are more often than not thrown away in America.

A lot of recipes I’ve found for this marinate this overnight. Personally, I’ve found 2 days as a the sweet spot for this cut. You can go as far as 3 days as well. But once it’s been marinated in the fridge for this time, you can freeze this in ziploc bags if you squeeze out as much air as possible. These cuts are pretty fatty so they are very forgiving when it comes to cooking them.

Served with rice and vegetables, this is a dish that I can always count on when I’m short on time to make because of how easy it is. I usually try to keep a jar of saikyozuke around in my fridge so I’m ready to make it and it keeps really well. I have an earlier post of making saikyozuke as well.

RECIPE:

Salmon kama (collars)
1/2 c. saikyozuke per collar
Neutral oil

Under cold water, use your hands to gently rub and rinse the salmon kama to clean off any blood and any fishiness. Pat dry with paper towels and place in a ziploc bag.

For each kama, add 1/2 cup of saikyozuke. If you are making the saikyozuke on the same day, make sure that it’s completely cooled before applying this to the fish.

Remove as much air from the bag as possible and seal the bag shut. Gently massage the saikyozuke so it covers the salmon kama as much as possible.

Let this cure in the fridge for 2-3 days. Each day, flip the bag and gently massage to mix the saikyozuke. It’s very salty and will draw out some water from the salmon. Gently massaging it will mix it so there are no pockets of water.

After 2-3 days, it is fully cured and ready to be cooked. You can also freeze this for longer storage at this time.

If this is frozen, take this out of the freezer and defrost overnight before cooking.

Set your oven to 450F.

Meanwhile, line a baking sheet with aluminum foil. Put a little bit of neutral oil and spread this on the foil.

Remove the kama from the bag and using your hands, wipe off as much remaining saikyozuke as possible. Extra saikyozuke burns very easily because there’s a lot of sugar in this.

Place on the foil lined baking rack skin side down. The skin will not be edible, so you only want the flesh side roasting and to sear.

Place in the oven and bake for 10 minutes. Turn the heat down to 350F and continue to bake for another 10 minutes or until the center reaches 150F.

Transfer to a plate and serve with rice and vegetables. Enjoy!