Smoked eel is a delicacy with high taste and nutritional qualities.
The tender, sweetish meat of this fish has a lot of useful properties and is highly appreciated in world culinary.
Smoked Eel - General Cooking Principles
Eel is sea and river. Both species have a pleasant taste and are actively eaten. Smoked fish is used to make salads, snacks and other dishes. Also in stores you can find fresh, frozen and chilled eel. For home smoked it is better not to use the product that was frozen.
Before smoking, it is important to remove all mucus from the surface of the eel. It spoils not only the taste, but also the appearance, and during the preparation process it can give the product a gray and unsightly appearance. Slime can be removed with a knife, newspaper, coarse sand or salt.
Like any other food, you must marinate it before cooking. To do this, use spices, salt. It is advisable to salted the fish well so that there are no leaves inside.
Smoke eel can be both cold and hot. At home, you can use both conventional and electrical units. The fish is hung on hooks or laid out on wire racks. Cooking time depends on the temperature and size of the fish. You can cook whole carcasses, but at home it is better in small pieces.
Recipe 1: Smoked Eel at Home
Eel has a fairly soft meat, which passes the smoke well, absorbs odors. The main difficulty that can be encountered is the ichor along the ridge. Therefore, large fish is not recommended to be smoked whole.
Required ingredients
• eel;
• salt;
• Bay leaf;
• pepper peas.
You will also need a smokehouse, wood chips or sawdust from fruit wood, alder or oak.
Cooking method
1. We prepare a brine from water, salt, spices. For 1 liter of liquid is 100 g. salt. Bring to a boil, cool.
2. Prepare the eel. We clean the mucus from the surface with a knife, then thickly sprinkle with salt. After a few minutes, along with it, remove the remnants of mucus, carefully clean the gills. Unzip the belly and remove the insides. If necessary, cut the carcass into several parts.
3. Soak the eel in brine, stand for at least 5 hours. It is better to leave the fish for two days so that it is well marinated. In this case, even if it is not smoked, it will still be ready.
4. We wash the fish with running water. We hang the whole carcass on a hook, put the pieces on the grill. Let the eel dry well.
5. We fill the smoking shed, we spread chips. If they are too dry, they should be slightly moistened to prevent fire.
6. Put the fish in the smokehouse, bring to readiness. It is determined by the appearance of the carcass. On the skin should appear transverse folds. If the fish is whole, then the abdomen will open.
Recipe 2: Smoked Eel in a Barrel
Option cooking smoked eel for those who do not have a special smokehouse. You will need a large barrel, a small electric stove, as well as a frying pan, in which you will need to put sawdust.
Required ingredients
• small acne;
• salt;
• tarragon;
• pepper.
To smoke need sawdust, juniper berries, a piece of sugar. For hanging eels pieces of wire.
Cooking method
1. Clear the eel from mucus, thickly fall asleep with salt mixed with pepper and tarragon. In the cleaned belly put a bay leaf. Leave the fish to salt for at least 10 hours.
2. In the barrel set tiles, turn on the average temperature. On it a griddle with sawdust, hop cones, put a piece of sugar on top.
3. Wash the eels under running water.
4. We make hooks from wires, put on fish, hang them in air and dry them.
5. We hang eels in the barrel, closer to the walls. Cover with a lid. Leave to cook for 4-5 hours, then open, take out one eel and take a sample. If necessary, the process can be extended.
Recipe 3: Smoked Eel with Rice
One of the simplest dishes of smoked eel, which can be cooked at home. You can use plain white rice, but if you want to add a dish of unusual and useful, then an unpeeled brown color will do.
Required ingredients
• 0.4 kg of eel;
• 0.3 kg of rice;
• 3 tbsp. tablespoons of soy sauce;
• black pepper, spices, greens.
Cooking method
1. Wash rice in several waters, boil until cooked in plenty of water. Then we discard the rice in a colander, let the water drain.
2. Mix soy sauce with any spices to taste, add black pepper. Mix well.
3. Add the sauce to the rice, mix. We spread it on a large and flat dish.
4. Cut the eel into thin plates, spread over the rice. Sprinkle with fresh herbs.
Recipe 4: Smoked Eel with Egg and Bell Pepper
Smoked eel salad appetizer with a divine flavor and taste. It does not require much time and looks elegant. Great for a festive table.
Required ingredients
• 0.1 kg of eel;
• 1 PC. bell pepper;
• 2 eggs;
• lettuce leaves;
• 20 ml of soy sauce and olive oil.
Cooking method
1. Boil hard boiled eggs, cool and cut into cubes.
2. Put the lettuce leaves on a plate, pre-rinsed and dried.
3. On the salad lay out chopped eggs, peeled from the top of the viscera and finely chopped peppers.
4. Mix soy sauce with vegetable oil, pour a thin stream of eggs with pepper.
5. Cut the eel into strips, spread on top of the pepper.
Recipe 5: Smoked Eel in Sauce
To make this smoked eel dish, you will need demi-glace fish sauce. It is better to buy it in a store, as cooking on your own is quite difficult.
Required ingredients
• 0.4 kg of eel;
• demi-glasse 0.1 kg;
• 3 tbsp. tablespoons of cream;
• 0.5 tsp turmeric;
• lemon and herbs for decoration.
Cooking method
1. In a small saucepan, heat the demi-glace sauce, add cream and turmeric to it. It is important not to bring the mixture to a boil.
2. Cut the smoked eel into a beautiful, long straw, dip in a hot sauce and keep until completely cooled.
3. Put the appetizer in a plate, decorate with greens and lemon slices.
Recipe 6: Smoked Eel in Tartlets
A spectacular appetizer, which will replace the classic tartlets with red and black caviar, will make them more spectacular and tasty. It is not recommended to start containers in advance, it is better immediately before serving.
Required ingredients
• 0.15 kg of eel;
• 0.1 kg of cream cheese;
• Dill greens;
• 50 gr. any caviar;
• 1 tablespoon of mayonnaise.
Cooking method
1. Peel smoked eel from the skin, then cut into small cubes.
2. Dill washed, dried, finely chopped and mixed with fish.
3. Add cream cheese and mayonnaise to the mass. Knead well.
4. We put on tartlets with a mass of smoked eel and cheese. Decorate with a small amount of red or black caviar on top, you can put a sprig of greenery.
Recipe 7: Smoked Eel Rolls
Perhaps the most popular use for smoked eel is rolls. This dish has long ceased to be something unusual and many housewives enjoy cooking it at home. The recipe presents the amount of ingredients, calculated on 1 sheet of nori.
Required ingredients
• sheet nori 1 pc.;
• cooked rice 150 gr .;
• smoked eel 150 gr.;
• wasabi;
• sesame seeds;
• 1 fresh cucumber.
If desired, you can replace the cucumber with avocado in these rolls.
Cooking method
1. We put on a bamboo mat a leaf of a noriya. The rough side should be on top.
2. We spread out a thin layer of boiled rice over the entire surface, stepping back from the far edge of 1.5 cm. It is more convenient to do this with your hands dipped in cold water.
3. Top grease rice with a thin layer of wasabi. The amount depends on the taste, if you do not like spicy, then you can skip this step or apply a thin strip on one side.
4. Cut the eel and cucumber into blocks. We lay out a strip, sprinkle with sesame seeds, roll up roll. The strip of noriya left without a filling needs to be greased with water so that it sticks to the roll, and the roll holds its shape.
Recipe 8: Smoked Eel Salad and Dried Tomatoes
An interesting salad that can be prepared both in a large dish and in portions. Dressed with soy sauce with the addition of honey and fragrant spices.
Required ingredients
• 0.2 kg of eel;
• 0.2 kg of dried tomatoes;
• 0.1 kg of bell pepper;
• 1 red onion;
• vinegar;
• 0.1 kg canned green peas.
For the sauce:
• 1 tsp honey;
• 4 tbsp. tablespoons of soy sauce;
• 0.5 tsp finished mustard;
• ½ lemon juice;
• a mixture of spices for fish.
Cooking
1. Cut smoked eel and tomatoes into strips, put in a salad bowl.
2. Peel the onion from the husk, cut into thin, transparent half rings. Pour some water, add vinegar and pickle.
3. Pepper paprika peel, cut into strips and send to the tomatoes and fish. Squeeze the onion from the marinade and put it in a salad bowl, add green peas.
4. Mix soy sauce with honey, lemon juice and mustard. Add spices to the fish and mix thoroughly.
5. We season the products cut for the salad with the sauce, mix gently, you can add a little more salt or lemon juice if desired.
Recipe 9: Smoked Eel and Avocado Salad
Nutritious and nourishing smoked eel salad with avocado. It is important that the exotic fruit is ripe enough, in which case the dish will acquire an oily taste, without heavy and harmful dressings.
Required ingredients
• 1 avocado;
• 2 chicken eggs or 5 quail;
• 0.2 kg of smoked eel;
• green lettuce leaves;
• 1 cucumber;
• 1 tomato;
• vegetable oil, salt.
Cooking
1. Boil eggs, cool, cleanse from the shell. Cut in half, then each half into 4 neat slices, set aside.
2. We tear the lettuce leaves into pieces, fold them into a salad bowl, add the eel sliced into chunks, slices of fresh cucumber and tomato.
3. Remove the bone from the avocado, cut it into small pieces and send it to the salad, add salt and a little vegetable oil, mix everything well for a minute.
4. Put the salad on a flat dish, put slices of boiled egg around.
Recipe 10: Smoked Eel in the Ear
The first dish with smoked eel, according to connoisseurs, overshadows all other recipes. The ear has an incredible aroma, but it prepares very quickly. In this recipe, all vegetables are laid raw, but if desired, you can make the frying of onions with carrots.
Required ingredients
• 0.3 kg of eel;
• 2 potatoes;
• 1 carrot;
• 1 onion;
• greens, salt, bay leaf;
• a handful of millet.
Cooking method
1. We put on the stove a pan with 1.5 liters of water, bring to a boil.
2. Peel vegetables, cut potatoes into strips, shred carrots, dice onions.
3. Salt the water in a saucepan, lay onions with carrots, bring to a boil.
4. Add washed millet.
5. Run potatoes in boiling ear. Bring to a boil again, remove the heat to a minimum, boil for 5 minutes.
6. Eel cut into slices, run into the soup, cook over low heat. We bring to readiness, at the end add bay leaf and greens, if necessary, add more salt.
Smoked Eel - Tips and Tricks
• Smoked eel skin contains the bulk of fat, so it is advisable for people watching their weight to remove it when cooking.
• If there are difficulties with cleaning the fish of mucus or simply do not have time, then you need to fill it with salt and after a while rub it. It is better to do this with gloves. Mucus well lag behind the carcass, it will only rinse with running water.
• Nutrients are found in both sea and river fish. They are rich in small and large carcasses. The taste qualities of adult and young eel are also not very different. Therefore, you should not go to the tricks of the sellers, buy the fish that you liked.
• Salads with smoked eel do not like fatty and mayonnaise sauces, it is better to give preference to lighter dressings. But such dishes like spices, in any quantity, including spicy and Korean dishes.
