Eel au Vert

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Protective gloves for handling nettles
• •12-inch (30 cm) wide nonreactive sauté pan
• •Slotted spoon and flexible whisk
• •Instant-read thermometer
• •Shallow 2-quart heatproof serving bowl and a larger bowl for an ice bath

Instructions

1. 1

   Prepare the eel

   Have the fishmonger skin, gut, and remove the heads from the eel. At home, cut it crosswise into 2-inch pieces if this hasn't already been done, then pat every piece dry. Leave the central bone in place; the eel holds together better around it, and diners simply lift the flesh away with a small fork. Keep the pieces cold while you prepare the herbs.

2. 2

   Cisel the herbs

   Wearing gloves for the nettles, wash and dry all the herbs thoroughly. Cisel them, cutting crosswise into fine, short shreds like chaff, rather than pounding them into paste. Keep every herb together in one bowl. The mass may look excessive, but green is the whole idea, not a garnish added at the end.

   Handle raw nettles with gloves until they are cooked. Gentle cooking collapses the stinging hairs completely.
3. 3

   Soften the green mass

   Melt the butter in a wide, nonreactive pan over low heat. Add all the ciseled herbs and turn them through the butter for 4 to 5 minutes, until collapsed, glossy, and thoroughly softened without browning. Sorrel naturally shifts from bright green toward olive as it cooks. That is proper cooking, not failure; the dish earns its name from the abundance and flavor of herbs, not from artificial color.

4. 4

   Raidir the eel

   Add the eel pieces to the herbs and turn them carefully for 2 to 3 minutes. This is raidir, gently firming the surface in butter before the liquid enters. The outside should turn opaque and feel slightly resilient, but it must not brown. Work with a broad spoon so the pieces remain intact.

5. 5

   Simmer in wine

   Pour in the white wine and add the salt and pepper. Bring the liquid only to a bare simmer, then cook uncovered for 10 minutes, turning the eel once with care. The thickest piece should be opaque beside the bone and reach at least 145°F (63°C). If it has not, give it another 2 minutes; a hard boil will break the pieces before it cooks them any better.

6. 6

   Make the liaison

   Lift the eel into a wide heatproof serving bowl with a slotted spoon. Whisk the pasteurized yolks with the lemon juice, then whisk in about ½ cup of the hot herb liquor a little at a time. Return this mixture to the pan and stir constantly over the lowest heat until the liaison becomes nappé, thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, at about 154 to 158°F (68 to 70°C). Never let it boil. If the first grainy flecks appear, pull the pan off the heat, add the optional cold water, and whisk vigorously in a cool bowl until smooth again. Ça se rattrape, provided you catch it before the yolks set into firm curds. Pour the finished sauce over the eel.

7. 7

   Chill it quickly

   Set the serving bowl inside a larger bowl of ice water and gently move the sauce around the eel until it is no longer warm, about 15 minutes. Do not leave the yolk-bound sauce cooling slowly in a deep bowl. Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, or overnight, until the eel and sauce are very cold and the sauce clings softly to each piece.

8. 8

   Serve very cold

   Fold the sauce gently once before serving and taste it cold, when salt is quietest. If it has set too firmly, loosen it with a few drops of cold water, never enough to wash out the herbs. Bring the eel to the table in its chilled bowl with small forks for lifting the flesh from the bone. À table!

Chef Tips

• •Fresh pimpernel in the source means salad burnet, Sanguisorba minor. Do not confuse it with scarlet pimpernel, Anagallis arvensis, which is a different and unsafe plant. Buy identified salad burnet from a grower or herb nursery rather than gathering it by guesswork.
• •Buy eel only from a licensed fishmonger who can confirm its source, and ask for it cleaned and skinned. Raw eel blood is unsafe, while thorough cooking neutralizes the danger; this is work best handed to the person who handles eel every week.
• •This dish needs the green season. Dried chervil, dried nettle, and bottled tarragon do not make an honest substitute because the fresh herb mass is the sauce itself. If the basket cannot supply sorrel and tender nettles, wait for the dish rather than cooking a shadow of it.
• •Expect a deep natural olive green, not a brilliant purée. Blending would erase the ciseled texture the entry asks for, and artificial brightness misses the point entirely.
• •Choose a dry, high-acid white wine without heavy oak and pour the same bottle at the table. The wine is most of the cooking liquid, so sweetness or aggressive wood has nowhere to hide.

Advance Preparation

• •Arrange for the eel to be cleaned and skinned by the fishmonger before cooking day. It may be cut into pieces several hours ahead, covered, and kept thoroughly cold.
• •The herbs can be washed and dried up to 4 hours ahead. Wrap them loosely in a clean damp towel, chill them, and cisel only shortly before cooking so their fragrance remains full.
• •Anguilles au vert is meant to be made ahead. Prepare it the day before the dinner, chill it promptly, and serve it directly from the cold. Keep leftovers covered and refrigerated, and eat them within 2 days; the yolk-bound sauce does not freeze well.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 190g)