Stegt Aal med Stuvede Kartofler og Citron

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Large heavy frying pan, cast iron if possible
• •Heavy-bottomed saucepan for the stuvning
• •Large pot for the potatoes
• •Wooden spoon
• •Kitchen paper

Instructions

1. 1

   Boil the potatoes

   Put the new potatoes into a large pot of well-salted cold water and bring to a gentle boil. Cook until they are tender all the way through, fifteen to twenty minutes depending on size. A knife should meet no resistance at all. Drain them, return them to the warm pot with the lid on, and let them steam dry for a few minutes. This matters: wet potatoes dilute the cream sauce. Cut any larger halves into thick coins so they'll absorb the sauce evenly. Set aside while you make the stuvning.

2. 2

   Make the stuvede kartofler

   Melt the 40g of butter in a heavy saucepan over a gentle heat. Sprinkle in the plain wheat flour and stir constantly with a wooden spoon for two full minutes. You're cooking out the raw taste of the flour without letting it color. The roux should stay pale and smell faintly of biscuits. Start adding the warm milk in a thin stream, stirring the whole time. If you add it all at once you'll get lumps, and no amount of whisking will save you. Once all the milk is in and the sauce is smooth, let it simmer gently for eight to ten minutes until it coats the back of a spoon. Season with salt, white pepper, and a few gratings of nutmeg. Fold the warm potatoes gently into the sauce. You want them coated, not swimming. Stir in most of the chives, keeping a pinch for the top. Cover the pot and keep warm on the lowest heat while you cook the eel.

   White pepper, not black. Black pepper leaves dark specks in a white sauce that look like mistakes. White pepper gives the same warmth invisibly, and that's the Danish way with stuvning.
3. 3

   Dry and season the eel

   Pat the eel pieces completely dry with kitchen paper, pressing firmly. Eel carries a lot of moisture and a layer of natural fat under the skin, and if it goes into the pan wet, it spits and steams instead of crisping. Season each piece generously with fine sea salt and white pepper on all sides. Let them sit for five minutes. The salt draws out a last sheen of surface moisture. Pat them dry one more time.

4. 4

   Dredge in rugmel

   Spread the rugmel on a plate and dredge each piece of eel just before it goes into the pan. Turn them to coat all sides, then shake off the excess. Rugmel, dark rye flour, gives a crust that wheat flour cannot: it goes deeply golden and nutty, with a coarser texture that holds up against the richness of the eel. Wheat flour would be too fine, too pale, too quiet for this fish. Dredge at the last moment. Rye flour absorbs moisture fast, and if it sits too long the coating goes soggy before it ever meets the heat.

   Use the coarsest, darkest rugmel you can find, stone-ground if possible. The flavor is earthier and the crust comes out with more character. Fine rye flour works but you'll lose some of that signature rasp.
5. 5

   Render the eel, first stage

   Place the dredged eel pieces in a large heavy pan, ideally cast iron, over a medium heat. No butter yet. Let the eel cook in its own fat for the first four to five minutes, turning once. Eel is one of the fattiest fish in the sea, and that fat needs to render out in two stages or the finished dish tastes heavy and greasy instead of rich and crisp. The first stage draws the fat from under the flesh and into the pan. You'll see it pool around the pieces, clear and golden. When the surfaces have gone from pale to lightly golden, pour off the rendered fat. Don't discard it completely: a tablespoon saved in a jar is extraordinary for frying potatoes another day.

   If you skip this first render, the eel fries in its own grease and the rugmel crust turns soft. Two stages is the old method, and the old method is right.
6. 6

   Crisp in butter, second stage

   With the pan drained, return it to a medium-high heat and add the 60g of butter and the tablespoon of oil. When the butter foams and the foam begins to subside, when you smell hazelnuts and see the butter going from gold to amber, return the eel pieces to the pan. Now they crisp properly. The butter gives flavor. The oil keeps the butter from burning. Fry for three to four minutes on each side, adjusting the heat to keep a steady sizzle without smoking. The crust should be deep golden brown and audibly crisp when you press it gently with a spatula. The flesh inside will have turned from translucent to opaque white. You'll know when it's right.

   Don't crowd the pan. Cook in two batches if needed. Crowded eel steams instead of frying, and the rugmel crust never gets the crackle it deserves.
7. 7

   Rest and serve

   Lift the eel pieces onto a warm plate lined with kitchen paper and let them rest for two minutes. The paper draws off the last trace of surface fat, and the brief rest lets the crust set so it doesn't soften the moment it meets the sauce. Spoon the stuvede kartofler generously onto warmed plates or a broad serving dish. Arrange the eel pieces on top, slightly overlapping. Scatter the remaining chives and the picked dill fronds over everything. Lay the lemon wedges alongside. The lemon is not optional. Its acid cuts through the richness of the eel and the cream, and without it the dish is half itself. Squeeze it over the fish at the table. Tak for mad.

Chef Tips

• •Ask your fishmonger to clean and skin the eel for you. Eel is notoriously difficult to skin at home, and there's no shame in letting the professional handle it. What matters is that the fish is fresh: the flesh should be firm, the smell clean and faintly briny, never sharp.
• •Use sparkling water or beer to loosen the stuvede kartofler if they thicken too much while waiting. A splash stirred through brings the sauce back to the right consistency without thinning the flavor. This is a trick from the Jutland kitchens where I first learned to make stuvning.
• •Rendered eel fat is liquid gold. Save it in a small jar in the fridge. It keeps for weeks and makes the best fried potatoes you'll ever eat. The Danes who grew up with aalegilde know this; now you do too.
• •Serve this with cold pilsner and a glass of akvavit. The bitterness of the beer and the caraway of the akvavit were designed for this richness. No wine. This is a Danish table, and the drinks belong to the tradition as much as the food does.

Advance Preparation

• •The stuvede kartofler can be made up to two hours ahead and kept covered on the lowest heat, stirred occasionally. Add a splash of milk if the sauce tightens.
• •The eel must be fried just before serving. This is not a dish that holds. The rugmel crust softens within minutes of leaving the pan, and the whole point is that crackle against the creamy potatoes.
• •Have your fishmonger prepare the eel the same day you cook it. Fresh eel does not improve with waiting.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 560g)