Tasmanian smoked eel croquettes with lemon mayonnaise

by Jamison Godfrey •

I can remember years ago as a young teenager bait fishing at night on the St Patricks River with my school mates getting excited as the bells rang on the end of your fishing rod, then winding it in to find an eel attached, squirming its way up the line making a heap of mess, not to mention the disappointment.

Unfortunately I didn’t really know how to prepare them all those years ago, and if I knew how good they taste I would never have returned them to the water.

For this recipe I got my hands on some hot smoked eel which is prepared locally, they are quite oily which I think makes them so tasty and a lot less likely to become dry during the cooking process.

Ingredients

Croquettes
500g peeled cooked mashed kenebec potato
500g bone skin free chopped smoked eel meat
2 tablespoons smoked paprika
Zest and juice of 1 lemon
1 free range egg
½ cup chopped flat leaf parsley
½ cup breadcrumbs
Salt and pepper to taste
Milk and eggs for egg wash
Plain flour for crumbing
Mixed plain and panko breadcrumbs for crumbing
Vegetable oil for frying

Lemon Mayonnaise
1 egg yolk
Zest and juice of 1 lemon
100mls sweet chilli sauce
Salt and pepper to taste
Vegetable oil to thicken

Method
To make the croquettes, add all the ingredients together in a large mixing bowl and combine together well. With your hands shape even amounts into small log shapes and repeat the process until all the mixture is gone.

Set up the crumbing in three bowls placing the croquettes into the flour first, then the egg wash and finally the mixed bread crumbs.

For the lemon mayonnaise place the egg yolk, juice and zest of the lemon into a bowl and blitz with a Bamix until frothy, and then add the vegetable oil slowly until it thickens. Add the sweet chilli sauce and then add the seasoning.

Heat some vegetable in a wok on the stove to 180°C, place four croquettes in at a time and cook until golden, drain on paper towel, repeat the process until all cooked.

To serve place some mayonnaise on the base of the plate and sit the croquettes on top, serve immediately.

Make the croquettes and drop them into hot oil, four at a time.

Mix it all up with the rest of the ingredients.

Strip the flesh away from the skin and bones.

Tasmanian smoked eel – absolutely delicious.

This recipe is from award winning chef Jamison Godfrey of the Drunken Admiral restaurant in Hobart, Tasmania. If you’re ever in Hobart we highly recommend visiting the Drunken Admiral and sampling their delicious menu of seasonal, local produce for yourself.
More info: www.drunkenadmiral.com.au