Smoked eel Roulade recipe
Wild caught home smoked eel roulade rolled in ash, dill, and chives.
People often ask me when I began foraging and when I search back through my life, I can't remember a time when I wasn't a forager. Growing up in the north island of New Zealand, I remember running through the rain and into my neighbours yards, under the translucent guise of the sprinkling rain and taking fruits from their trees, gathered in my basket, I rushed home to play ‘chef’ under my house where an old oven had been disregarded. I made fruit salad and fantasied about having my own cooking show when I grew up. Not much has changed to this day. My favorite time to go for a little cheeky forage is still in the rain, it feels like my own time as others hide inside, not wanting to get wet, I flitter about collecting wild garlic shoots, flowers, and bush lemons.
As a child with my mother, I would get up at the dawn and follow her into misty green paddocks where she showed me how to collect and later cook with wild foraged fungi these ‘field mushrooms’ or Agaricus species were often as large as my head and grew in fairy rings. I later came to call these horse mushrooms, their texture and flavour were dark and earthy, they were meaty mushrooms. These memories hold a magical place in my memory. Hazed with the glow of the morning rays through the mist. But it wasn’t just my mother who influenced the beginnings of my wild food life. My father was a fair fisherman, and like most beach dwelling north island kiwis, a lot of our life revolved around the tides and the seas surrounding the peninsula where I grew up called “bay of the whales” or Whangaparoa offered us many a hearty bounty from her bosom. We dug for pippis at low tide, later fried into the most delicious but often sandy pippi fritters, what an amazing free feed. We collected mussels and scallops, and dad often caught a fish to bring home, and boy, did mum know how to cook it up! I come from good cooking stock, foodies, our lives revolved around collecting the freshest food we could and cooking and eating together.
Agaricus Species commonly known as the ‘field mushroom’ I foraged this mushroom on Bundjalung country 2021. please note some yellow staining Agaricus can be poisonous. Always confirm ID before consuming.
My grandmother Grace was of particular notice when it came to her cooking, she was a wiz in the kitchen, and even the way she whipped cream was something special. She had a delicate touch. The kind that knew instinctively how to deal with dough, pastry, fluffy egg whites etc. I grew by her side in the kitchen and her strawberry patch and roses. My mother says I got my hand at cooking from Nanna Grace. And when I'm in my flow, I can certainly feel that inspiration as a tender, gentle loving care that people seem to taste in my food. Nanna and I had a love of flowers, and she grew the most amazing garden. We would wander in her garden on a Sunday afternoon feeding each other gooseberries unwrapped from their papery skin, collecting fresh peas for shelling to go with the roast that night, and cut Sweet pea flowers for the table. She never did things by halves, and when we gathered for a family roast each weekend, it would be a three-course meal with all the trimmings. I feel like some of my taste in glass, and plateware was highly influenced by her, and my sense of hospitality, although this is backed up by a good dose of Greek genes from the other side of the family too. One kiwi delicacy that we enjoyed was smoked eel from our local creeks and waterways, and I think Nanna would have been really proud of my recent adventure hunting for Eels in my local Cobaki creek with my good friends Eel Neil and Pickle Tom. I reinvented the wheel when I came up with my light and moussey smoked eel roulade. Just the right mix of creamy, tangy, smokey salty goodness, all rolled up into the most delicious eel ‘pate’ if you will it was amazing every time I've made it, served with toasted sourdough or even my dock, bunya, and pine pollen crackers. Each time I've made this dish, the finishing touch really adds a bit of pizzazz and style. The first two times I created the dish, I rolled one roulade in ash and charcoal from my own fire. The results were stunning. The second time in finely chopped herbs like chives, dill, and parsley. I made the final log of smokey fishy goodness for a mushroom cultivation workshop afternoon tea and rolled it this time in a colorful red and yellow coating using the Fermentery dried sauerkraut powder and my wild harvested pine pollen powder.
Home smoked Eel gratefully caught in our local creek on Bundjalung country
The recipe is as follows;
SMOKED EEL ROULADE
Makes two roulades.
Serves 14.
Preparation time: 3 hrs 20 mins
Ingredients
100-200g smoked eel, deboned and pulled apart.
500g cream cheese
1 bunch fresh dill
1 bunch of fresh chives
½ tsp Dojin mustard
2 lemons zested and juiced
Pinch tsp sea salt
½ tsp fresh ground black pepper
1 tbsp good quality capers
Coating options, finely chopped herbs, charcoal and ash, pollen, dried sauerkraut, or kimchi powders (available at the Fermentery) dried herbs or edible flower petals e.g. cornflower.
Fashion a sausage shape roll from your mixture, and chill to firm. Lay out cling film with the desired coating. Pictured are the red sauerkraut powder and wild harvested pine pollen I used. But herbs, edible flowers, and ash are a great alternative, let your imagination run wild.
Method
Take cream cheese out of the refrigerator and let come to room temp.
Flake and carefully debone the smoked eel into a bowl
Get the food processor ready, add cream cheese, eel, roughly chopped herbs, capers, Dijon mustard, lemon juice, and zest.
Blend until really well combined. Taste for seasoning and adjust accordingly.
Take the mixture out and fashion it into sausage shapes inside some cling wrap or baking paper and put into the freezer for 20-25 mins to firm up.
Remove from the freezer and unwrap. Have prepared coating ready and laid out evenly on a piece of cling film or baking parchment. Place the roll in centre and roll to coat completely.
Rewrap, fashioning a roll of sausage shape with your hand on the outside of the cling film.
Refrigerate for at least 2-3 hours. Better overnight. serve with crusty sourdough, or my pine pollen dock and bunya crackers.
Enjoy xx