Eel in red wine – Anguille au vin rouge – recipe
Eel in red wine, in French Anguille au vin rouge is a classic recipe obtained in France in regions where eel is native.
I first saw this eel recipe in a documentary about France, where 3 French people rented a fisherman’s hut and started catching eels all day. In the evening she prepares this wonderful dish. The best thing about it: it requires few ingredients, in my opinion you should have most of the herbs in the garden anyway. And the best part: it’s quick! Even my girlfriend, who doesn’t like “eel with bones” was thrilled, so I want to share this recipe with you.
I’ve personally found my favorite recipe for caught and frozen eel, so I want to share it with you here.
A little tip:
If you don’t feel like driving to the tackle shop all the time to get worms for eel fishing, you can also find them cheap on Amazon and the worms come home fresh:
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Eel in red wine – recipe – the ingredients:
The following ingredients are required. I grow the herbs myself in the garden because most of them are winter-proof. I catch the eel myself in early summer. Thunderstorm nights are ideal here, vacuum sealed and frozen the eel lasts a good 9 months. However, you should not freeze the eel for too long. Important: Eel contains a lot of fat, which runs the risk of becoming rancid even when frozen. The best tip here: vacuum the eel, the less oxygen it can get, the longer it will last.
- 1 kg of fresh eel
- 2 onions
- 1 carrot
- 3 sticks of celery
- 3-4 cloves of garlic
- 4 tbsp olive oil
- 1/2 l red wine
- 2-3 sprigs of thyme
- Bay leaves
- 3 tbsp Tomato paste
- 1 knob of butter
- parsley
- 1 sprig of rosemary
Anguille au vine rouge – the preparation
The first thing to do is skin the eel. You take a gutted eel if the head is still attached, that’s an advantage. For eel filleting: to do this, cut across the skin just behind the head, then cut through the skin on the right and left up to behind the pectoral fins. Then it is best to use a pair of pliers. You pull off the eel skin like a stocking. You can then cut off the fin hem with scissors. the filleted eel is ready.
Now cut the eel into 4-5 cm pieces.
In a large pot you now heat the olive oil, dice the vegetables and fry them vigorously in the olive oil. Now add the chopped garlic. You can also add the chopped herbs. Stir in the tomato paste and deglaze with all of the red wine. Boil briefly and set on low heat. Now add the eel to the simmering broth. Season with salt and pepper and simmer for a total of 20 minutes. Stir in a good piece of butter just before the end, this increases the sourness of the sauce. Surprisingly, the sauce is hardly runny at the end.
You can also cook a good portion of tagliatelle or baguette or both.
Don’t forget to add a delicious red wine to round it all off.
