Smoked eel and brioche in beurre blanc
Last week we’ve had the most wonderful smoked eel dish at Vis Atelier in Laren. This brilliant concept combines a high end fish boutique with a wine bar and a fish restaurant in the picturesque area of The Netherlands ‘t Gooi. With the most welcoming and attentive service, great wines and well executed classics on the menu, I would highly recommend a visit!
For this recipe I’ve mainly guessed how they’ve prepared it, but I’ve also asked some information about it, so it’s an educated guess. For example they told me that they buy their smoked eel at Eveleens and ask for the bones (and I think also the skin) to use for their home made fish stock, which they use to make the beurre blanc.
Equipment
- cast iron grill pan
- hand blender
Ingredients
Eel brioche
- 4 smoked eel filets
- brioche
Sweet & sour granny Smith
- 1 granny smith apple
- 100 ml white wine vinegar
- ½ tbsp sugar
Beurre blanc
- 1 shallot
- 80 gr butter
- 125 ml white wine
- 125 ml fish stock (preferably made from the eel bones)
- ½ tbsp cream
Finishing touches
- 8 sprigs sea fennel (Crithmum maritimum)
- dill
- olive oil
Instructions
Prep
- Cut 140 gr of butter in cubes and put them in the freezer.
- Cut the eel and brioches in even pieces.
- Rinse the sea fennel, blanch it for 10 seconds and then cool it with some ice water.
- blend some fresh dill through some high quality olive oil.
Sweet & sour granny Smith
- Cut the granny Smith apple in very small cubes.
- Bring the white wine vinegar to a boil with the sugar to dissolve the sugar in the vinegar. Take the vinegar off the heat as soon as it starts to boil and let it cool off a bit before putting the apple in the vinegar to let it pickle for at least half an hour.
Beurre blanc
- Then peel and chop a shallot and fry it in the remaining 20 grams of butter in a saucepan. When the shallots are translucent, add the white wine and cook until almost completely reduced.
- Then add the stock and reduce it by half. Then pour the sauce through a sieve to remove the shallots and return the liquid to the pan.
- Finish the sauce by adding the pieces of cold butter (from the freezer) to the hot sauce and mixing it into the sauce with a hand blender. Whip the cream and mix it into the sauce. Season the sauce with salt and pepper if desired.
Eel brioche
- Grill the slices of brioche and then place the eel and brioche slices alternately in a rectangle.
Serving
- Place the eel and brioche rectangles on 4 plates, spoon some sweet & sour apple as well as some sea fennel on them.
- Foam the saus with a hand mixer and then add some to the place (next to the eel and brioche, not over it).
- Finish with some drops of dill oil.