Cook UK

 

Custom Search
   

SOUPS

BEEF PORK LAMB POULTRY FISH EGGS PIES & CAKES VEGETARIAN ETHNIC   SUBMIT YOUR RECIPE HERE

KIDS

SLOW COOKER JAMS BARBECUE     GAZPACHO PAELLA TAPAS   VIDEO RECIPES LATEST MEMBER RECIPES  
 
 Eels en Matelote

Mrs Beeton Recipes Index Page

Estimated Preparation Time: 15 minutes

Estimated Cooking Time: 30 minutes

Servings: 4

Non-standard Cooking Utensils: Pan large enough for the fish


Ingredients:

750g (1˝lbs) eels

2 onions

2 large mushrooms

280ml (˝ pint) medium stock

280ml (˝ pint) port

30g (1oz) butter

30g (1oz) flour

1 bay leaf

Salt, pepper and nutmeg to taste

Cooking Method

1. Melt the butter in a pan on a medium heat, stir in the flour and mix.

2. Finely chop the onions, add to the pan and cook until lightly browned (about 5 minutes) stirring occasionally.

3. Wash then cut the eels into pieces 8cm (3in) long and add to the pan with all the remaining ingredients.

4. Simmer on a low heat for half an hour.

5. Create a border of croutons or toasted bread around a plate. Arrange the eels in the middle and pour over the sauce. Eat while still hot.

THE COMMON EEL
This fish is known frequently to quit its native element, and to set off on a wandering expedition in the night, or just about the close of clay, over the meadows, in search of snails and other prey. It also, sometimes, betakes itself to isolated ponds, apparently for no other pleasure than that which may be supposed to be found in a change of habitation. This, of course, accounts for eels being found in waters which were never suspected to contain them. This rambling disposition in the eel has been long known to naturalists, and, from the following lines, it seems to have been known to the ancients:—

“Thus the mail’d tortoise, and the wand’ring; eel,
Oft to the neighbouring beach will silent steal.”

THE PRODUCTIVENESS OF THE EEL
"Having occasion,” says Dr. Anderson, in the Bee, “to be once on a visit to a friend’s house on Dee-side, in Aberdeenshire, I frequently delighted to walk by the banks of the river. I, one day, observed something like a black string moving along the edge of the water where it was quite shallow. Upon closer inspection, I discovered that this was a shoal of young eels, so closely joined together as to appear, on a superficial view, on continued body, moving briskly up against the stream. To avoid the retardment they experienced from the force of the current, they kept close along the water’s edge the whole of the way, following all the bendings and sinuosities of the river. Where they were embayed, and in still water, the shoal dilated in breadth, so as to be sometimes nearly a foot broad; but when they turned a cape, where the current was strong, they were forced to occupy less space and press close to the shore, struggling very hard till they passed it. This shoal continued to move on, night and day without interruption for several weeks. Their progress might be at the rate of about a mile an hour. It was easy to catch the animals, though they were very active and nimble. They were eels perfectly well formed in every respect, but not exceeding two inches in length. I conceive that the shoal did not contain, on an average, less than from twelve to twenty in breadth; so that the number that passed, on the whole, must have been very great. Whence they came or whither they went, I know not; but the place where I saw this, was six miles from the sea.”

VORACITY OF THE EEL
We find in a note upon Isaac Walton, by Sir John Hawkins, that he knew of eels, when kept in ponds, frequently destroying ducks. From a canal near his house at Twickenham he himself missed many young ducks; and on draining, in order to clean it, great numbers of large eels were caught in the mud. When some of these were opened, there were found in their stomachs the undigested heads of the quacking tribe which had become their victims.

Privacy Policy

Cookie Policy

Contact US

Copyright 2006 - 23 David Marks. All rights reserved.