Miso Soup with Kingfish Head (Kingfish Arajiru)

Today’s soup, Miso Soup with Kingfish Head (Kingfish Arajiru), is a rich miso soup with umami-bomb stock that is made from a kingfish head. It is a filling miso soup containing root vegetables and the kingfish flesh on the head bones as well as the collars.

Miso soup usually uses dashi stock to cook ingredients, but I didn’t use dashi stock today because the kingfish head makes a very good stock.

About Arajiru

Soups made with fish head, collars, and bones is generically called ‘arajiru’ (あら汁). The word ‘ara’ (あら) means fish scraps after removing fillets out of a whole fish, removing guts, and trimming the fins. What is left is the head, the collars and the bones.

The word ‘jiru’ (汁) is the same word as ‘shiru’ meaning soup as in ‘misoshiru’ (miso soup). For easier pronunciation, the sound changed from ‘shiru’ to ‘jiru’ when preceded by the word ‘ara’.

You can use other fish to make arajiru. Commonly used fish includes snapper, bream, kingfish, cod, salmon, alfonsino, red emperor, rockfish, salmon, etc. You can also mix a few different species.

Different fish give you a different flavour of miso soup. For example, snapper arajiru is a lighter soup than kingfish arajiru and salmon arajiru. The broth of the salmon arajiru has a distinct salmon flavour. The photo below is Snapper Arajiru, made with ara of two snapper. 

Although ara includes head, collar, and bones, you don’t need to use all of them. Today, I only used a kingfish head with collars intact. You will be surprised to know that there is so much flesh on the fish head and around the fish collars is oily and rich.

Kingfish Arajiru contains a good amount of vitamins and collagen, which goes so well with root vegetables. If you want a rich arajiru, winter is the best season to make it because the fish is fattier.

Eating Arajiru Can Be A Challenge

If you have been to a sushi restaurant in Japan, you might have seen arajiru listed on the menu. It is quite common for the sushi restaurants, including sushi train restaurant chains, to serve arajiru made with mixed fish heads.

You can easily imagine the sheer quantity of fish heads left behind after making sashimi fillets for sushi. It only makes sense for the sushi restaurants to make delicious arajiru.

Because the fish head is cut into bite-size pieces and cooked in the broth without removing the flesh from it, every piece of fish comes with flesh and bones.  Depending on the section of the head, you might find that there are so many bones (small and large) attached to and embedded in the flesh.

Whole head and back bones cut into pieces.

You will need to search for some flesh from a piece of fish and carefully remove it off the bone or from a small cavity of the bone. After you finish eating arajiru, there will be a large amount of inedible bones left. For this reason, it is common to serve arajiru with a small bowl to put the bones in.

It is a tedious process, and you definitely need a pair of pointy Japanese chopsticks to eat it. But to me and many Japanese people, it is almost an enjoyment to take the time to scrape the flesh off the bones.

I am afraid Arajiru is not suitable for young children unless you carefully remove the flesh off the bones and transfer it to a bowl with the miso soup.

What’s in My Miso Soup with Kingfish Head (Kingfish Arajiru)

You can make miso soup with nothing but a fish head, but I wanted my Arajiru to be just like how Japanese sushi train shops make it.

• Kingfish head with/without backbones, cut into 5cm/2” long pieces
• Boiling water (not in the photo above)
• Daikon, thinly sliced
• Carrot, thinly sliced
• Green onion, diagonally sliced
• Miso
• Water (not in the photo above)

I used kingfish head with collars intact and I did not use the backbones. You can use almost any fish. As listed in the earlier section, some species are more commonly used for Arajiru. I personally think that flesh that does not become mushy is better suited for Arajiru.

Ask the fish shop to cut the kingfish head into 5cm/2″ long pieces after halving the head vertically. If there are large pieces (which you often get even if you ask for small pieces) cut them into smaller pieces.

A half side of kingfish head.

You can also cut the kingfish head yourself using a cleaver knife or a Japanese fish knife called a “deba” knife. It’s a bit of a challenge, especially the first vertical cut. I also use kitchen scissors when trimming the thin opercular bones that cover the gills.

Do not damage the eye when cutting the head because the damaged eyes makes the soup cloudy. If you accidentally damaged the eye, remove and discard it.

How to Make Miso Soup with Kingfish Head (Kingfish Arajiru)

Preparing the fish head

You might think that using fish scraps would make the soup fishy, but you can remove the fishy smell in the broth by taking an extra step to prepare the fish before cooking the fish head and vegetables.

1. Put the fish pieces in a large bowl and fill the bowl with boiling water to blanch the surface of the fish pieces.
2. Clean each fish piece under running water.

You need to clean the fish as much as possible. The cleaner the fish pieces are, the clearer and less fishy the broth will be.

Making Arajiru

1. Put fish pieces and water in a pot and bring it to a boil.
2. Reduce heat to simmer and cook.
3. Add daikon and carrot pieces and cook.
4. Dilute miso into the broth.
5. Add green onion pieces and cook for a short period of time.

I used a small mesh strainer to dilute the miso. Alternatively, you can place the miso in a ladle, scoop a small amount of broth from the pot, and dilute the miso in the ladle before mixing it into the broth in the pot.

Miso Soup with Kingfish Head (Kingfish Arajiru) is a delicious miso soup packed with umami and fish flavour. It is so good that you will drink it down to the last drop. It is time consuming to eat Kingfish Arajiru, but it is worth the effort.

You can serve a large bowl of Kingfish Arajiru as a main dish too, just like a bowl of stew.

Yumiko

Watch How To Make It

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Miso Soup with Kingfish Head (Kingfish Arajiru)

Prep Time

10 mins

Cook Time

15 mins

Total Time

25 mins

 

Today’s soup, Miso Soup with Kingfish Head (Kingfish Arajiru), is a rich miso soup with umami-bomb stock made from a kingfish head. It is a filling miso soup containing root vegetables and the fish flesh around the fish head as well as the collars.

Prep Time assumes that the fish head is already cut into cubes.

Don't forget to see the section 'MEAL IDEAS' below the recipe card! It gives you a list of dishes that I have already posted and this recipe that can make up a complete meal. I hope it is of help to you.

Recipe Type: Soup

Cuisine: Japanese

Keyword: fish soup, Kingfish soup, Miso soup

Serves: 4 - 6 Servings

Author: Yumiko

Ingredients (tbsp=15ml, cup=250ml)

• 800g/1.8lb kingfish head with collars intact (cut into 5cm/2" long pieces, note 1)
• 1.5L/3.2pt boiling water
• 150g/5.3oz daikon (note 2)
• 75g/2.6oz carrot (note 2)
• 30g/1.1oz green onion , diagonally cut to 5mm/3/16" wide pieces
• 800ml.1.7pt ml water
• 3½-4 tbsp miso

Instructions

1. Halve or quarter the daikon vertically, depending on the diameter of your daikon. Then cut it perpendicular to the first cut into 4mm/3⁄16" thick slices.

2. If your carrot is very fat, halve it vertically first, then cut each piece into 3mm/⅛" thick slices.

Preparing the Fish Head

1. Place fish pieces in a metal bowl or a pot, then pour over the boiling water until all the fish pieces are submerged in the hot water (note 3). The surface of the fish pieces becomes whitish.

2. Taking one fish piece at a time, clean the fish piece under running water, removing brown bits and blood that might be left in the cavities.

3. The skin on the collars and near the fins may have scales attached. Remove all of them.

4. Transfer the cleaned fish pieces to a bowl or a colander.

Making Arajiru

1. Put the cleaned fish pieces and water in a pot and bring it to a boil.

2. Reduce heat to simmer and cook for about 5 minutes.

3. Add daikon and carrot pieces to the pot and cook for about 5 minutes or until the vegetables are almost cooked through.

4. Dilute miso into the soup in the pot using a small mesh strainer (note 4).

Recipe Notes

1. You can ask the fish shop to cut the kingfish head. Get them to halve it vertically first, then cut it into small pieces. If there are large pieces (which you often get even if you ask for small pieces) cut them into smaller pieces. Trim the fins.

You can also cut it yourself using a cleaver knife or a Japanese fish knife called “deba” knife. Trim the fins as close to the body as possible, halve the kingfish head vertically, then cut each half into about 5cm/2" long pieces. Do not damage the eye when cutting the head because the damaged eyes makes the soup cloudy. If you accidentally damaged the eye, remove and discard it.

I used only the head and collars, but you can use the back bones as well, if you like. In the case of the back bone, cut it at the vertebra into about 6cm/2⅜" wide pieces.

2. You can use other root vegetables such as turnip and burdock. I like non-starchy vegetables to go into the arajiru.

3. You may need to gently move the fish pieces around so that the entire surface of all the fish pieces is blanched.

4. Alternatively, you can place the miso in a ladle, scoop a small amount of broth from the pot, and dilute the miso in the ladle before mixing it into the broth in the pot.

Do not put the miso directly into the pot, because the miso will not dilute easily unless you stir the soup a lot. Stirring the soup a lot will also break the delicate flesh of the fish pieces.

5. You can keep Arajiru for 1-2 days in the fridge.