Fresh Eel Tempura
This past summer we spent a lot of time catching eel off the local docks, and what a boon it was! There’s so many delicious ways to use eel, including smoked and grilled Japanese style (Kabayaki) for sushi. It is probably my absolute favorite fish that I have caught so far, given the plethora of things that can be done with it. In the height of summer, after the sun goes down, I set some lines with chicken or beef and up they come! They are fighters, and snapped one of my rods (and more than one line) this year.
If you attempt to grab them roughly or tightly, they slip right out from your hands and you won’t be able to hold them, but if you are gentle and don’t grasp roughly, then handling them becomes quite easy.
I had made a lot of kabayaki in my time so I decided to try something new—eel tempura! Butterflied with the bones removed, cut into two inch pieces, lightly battered and fried and served with either a salt and pepper mix or tentsuyu (tempura dipping sauce) and it is absolutely divine!
Fresh eel is chewy and bouncy, in comparison to kabayaki which is fall apart and fatty (since it will have been steamed and then broiled), but delicious all the same.
Ingredients
- Filleted fresh eel pieces
- 1 cup water
- 2 ice cubes
- 1 egg
- 1/2 cup all purpose flour
- Corn or sweet potato starch for dredging
- Tempura soy sauce/tensuyu for serving
- Vegetable oil, for frying
- Pat eel filet dry.
- Heat vegetable oil until it sizzles when you drop bits of flour in.
- Combine the flour, water, egg, and ice cubes.
- Dredge the eel pieces in flour and then dip in tempura batter and fry until outside is golden and crispy.
- Serve hot with salt and pepper or tentsuyu sauce!