Eel dishes — 9 delicious homemade recipes

The common eel lives in the Baltic basin.

To cook eel dishes , this fish must be processed carefully. Eel recipes advise washing the fish and wiping it dry first to remove the slime. Then an incision is made around the eel's head and the skin is peeled off.
Since the eel is very slippery, you can rub a pinch of salt between your fingers first. After that, you can cut the eel lengthwise and gut it. If you cook at home, the process of preparing the eel will look exactly like this.

If you decide to marinate an eel, it is better not to remove the skin in this case. The tastiest fat on this fish is usually found right under the skin. Recipes recommend cooking eel in red wine, serving it with a sweet-and-sour sauce, frying, baking and stuffing it.

For example, small pieces of eel should be placed in a saucepan along with chopped onions, wine and broth, covered with a lid and cooked until tender. Then transfer the eel to a platter and pour the sauce over the fish.

It doesn't matter much which eel you find in the store — sea or river. Still, keep in mind that there are significant differences in their chemical composition. For example, sea eel has more protein and fewer fats and calories. River eel has less protein but far more fat, and its calorie content is three times higher. Sea eel also has a high iodine content. Both kinds of fish contain almost equal amounts of useful minerals such as iron, phosphorus and potassium. As for vitamins, eel contains vitamins A, D and E, as well as some B vitamins.