Matelote of Eel Bourguignonne

By corlear

Anguille (Matelote d') Bourguignonne (P.)
A matelote can be made with any fish having firm flesh, but it is preferable to make it with a mixture of fish rather than with one type. Here is a recipe for eel.

Ingredients

• For garnish:
• eel
• thinly sliced onions
• shallots
• 1 clove garlic
• a few peppercorns
• small bouquet garni
• good red wine
• salt
• 2 oz. fresh butter
• 1/2 tbsp. flour
• a little caramel coloring
• 15 small onions
• butter
• 5 mushrooms
• bread croutons fried in oil
• crawfish cooked in Court Bouillon

Preparation

Step 1

Wash, clean, and skin the eel and cut it into sections about 3 1/2 in. long; put these pieces into a pot on a bed of thinly sliced onions, shallots, and 1 clove garlic, a few peppercorns, and a small bouquet garni. Pour good red wine over the fish, salt lightly, then simmer 20 min.

When the fish is cooked, remove the pieces one at a time to another casserole, then reduce the cooking liquid by 1/3 so that there will not be too much sauce. Bind this sauce by mixing in 2 oz. fresh butter kneaded with ½ tbsp. flour. The sauce should become creamy the first time it is brought to a boil, but since cooked wine produces an unappetizing color, it is necessary to darken the sauce with a little caramel coloring.

Add to the pieces of eel 15 small onions cooked separately and slowly in butter and 5 mushrooms also cooked in butter. Strain the sauce through a fine sieve onto the eel.

Taste the sauce to correct the seasoning and serve the matelote with a garnish around it of bread croutons fried in oil and crawfish cooked in Court Bouillon.