Fried Eel
Description
Another popular seafood dish in Albania is eel. Even now as I type this, my mind is drifting off in my memory to a restaurant in the Rozafa Castle in Shkoder where I ate the best eel in Albania.
Ingredients
- 2-5 pounds cleaned and cut eel
- coarse salt
- black pepper
- 1-2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2-3 cups sunflower, corn, or canola oil
- several bay leaves (optional)
- lemon wedges (optional)
Instructions
- 1 The eels need to be cleaned well before cooking, and this entails removing the eel skins. I still don’t know how to do this myself, even though as a child I helped my mom strip the skins off of fresh eels. The butcher at your seafood shop can do this for you, and they can even cut the eels into 3–5-inch pieces, too. I recommend asking your butcher to help you so that you don’t even have to look at the snake-like shapes of whole eels!
- 2
Season the pieces of eel with salt and pepper, dredge them in the flour, and fry them in hot oil. Only fry a few pieces at a time so that you don’t overcrowd the pan. You’ll know they’re done when they turn golden brown on the outside.- 3
Drain the cooked eel on paper towels to absorb any grease. Place bay leaves in-between the cooked pieces (you’ll need to remove the bay leaves before serving).- 4
Squeeze a lemon over the top of the fried eel, if desired, and serve your finished fried eel while it’s still piping hot. - 2
