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Matelote of Eels
2-POUND EEL, OR EELS 6 SMALL ONIONS, HALVED I TABLESPOON FLOUR 2 TABLESPOONS BUTTER 6 STONED PRUNES, HALVED I PINT RED WINE SALT PEPPER Blanch eels, skin, and cut in 1-inch pieces.
Fry onions in butter until golden; add flour.
In a saucepan mix wine with 1 quart water. Bring to boiling point and pour over onions; add prunes, salt, and pepper, and simmer 11/2 hours.
Then drop eel pieces in this liquid and cook 20 minutes. Serve with croûtons, popcorn or popped rice and recite, if you like, "Eels eats alligators, alligators eats raw peryou like, "Eels eats alligators, alligators eats raw pertaters, etc." to work up an appetite. 3 POUNDS EELS SALT I CUP VINEGAR I CUP WATER
A classic French freshwater fish stew in outdoor-cooking dress: the broth is built and reduced first, and the eel goes in only at the end. Nothing here needs updating so much as clarifying.
- Buy the eel dressedAsk the fishmonger to kill, skin and gut it, and to cut it into 1-inch rounds. "Blanch, skin, and cut" assumes a live eel and a cook used to handling one; a 30-second dip in boiling water loosens the skin, which is then pulled off with a cloth for grip.
- Eel bloodRaw eel serum contains a protein toxin that is irritating to the eyes and to cuts, and is destroyed by heat. Rinse the board and your hands, keep it away from your face, and cook the fish through — the 20-minute simmer here does that comfortably.
- The liquid is meant to reduceThe liquid is a great deal for six onions -- a pint of wine plus a quart of water. The recipe does not say to cover the pan or to reduce, but an hour and a half at a simmer will concentrate it considerably; left uncovered, expect to lose a fair part of the volume.
- Flour on the onionsAdding the tablespoon of flour to the buttered onions and letting it cook a minute before the liquid goes in gives a light thickening. Pour the hot wine and water in gradually and stir, or the flour will set in lumps.
- WineAny dry red will do; the traditional choice is whatever the region drank. Avoid anything oaky or sweet, since the prunes already supply sweetness.
- Twenty minutes is rightEel is firm and fatty and does not fall apart like cod, so it tolerates a real simmer. Do not put it in earlier — it will shed fat into the broth and the flesh will go woolly.
- YieldTwo pounds of eel, before skinning and boning, feeds three or four as a main course with bread. The croûtons matter more than the recipe suggests: they carry the sauce.
A matelote is a sailor's or boatman's stew -- from the French matelot -- made from freshwater fish and finished with red wine, onions and butter. Eel is its classic subject, being fatty enough to survive long cooking in wine. The prunes are unusual in a matelote and their origin here is unclear; the popcorn or popped rice and the chanted rhyme belong to this book's jokey outdoor framing.