Eel shlemiel

I hesitated about posting this at all, as it contravenes the first rule of my blog, which is that anything I post should taste good enough that I might want to cook it again. However, I've decided to take a more relaxed approach to the blog this year, so there will be more discursive kitchen projects, more food-(un)related ramblings, and even the occasional kitchen disaster.



The eel shenanigans started when we were still in Italy. Apparently roast eel is a traditional Christmas dish there, and it somehow got incorporated into our Christmas food planning. Back in Edinburgh, my mum picked up an "eel" from the local fishmonger, and we found a spot for it sometime between Christmas and New Year. I first got a bit suspicious when I started skinning it, and the skin didn't neatly peel off. (The fact that it was grey rather than brown should also have been a giveaway, but there you go.) Me and Sammy bravely soldiered on, peeling our eel, chopping it, and following a recipe I'd found for roast eel. The result was not quite inedible, but definitely not to be repeated, and the reason was simple: we had been cooking the wrong eel, not a freshwater eel, but a conger eel.



There's nothing wrong with conger itself - I've cooked it quite successfully in a stew with potatoes and leeks - but it definitely didn't respond to being roasted, and turned out to be very bony. It also left me feeling rather stupid.