Three Eel Dishes うなぎの蒲焼料理3種類

Fresh water eel or “unagi 鰻” is a popular fish item in Japan and many restaurants specialize in eel dishes. At these specialized restaurants, eels are brought in live and prepared on site. “Kaba-yaki 蒲焼“ (eel grilled with sauce) is the most common dish with two variations of preparation and cooking* i.e., Kansai, Eastern Japan 関西 and Tokyo 東京 styles.  (Even in Japan, however, other types of restaurants may use previously prepared and frozen eel the majority of which comes from China (99 percent) and the rest from Taiwan.) Once eel kaba-yaki is prepared, two main ways of eating it is “Una-ju 鰻重” and “Una-don 鰻丼”. Both are eel kaba-yaki on rice but the former is served in a Ju-bako 重箱  (a square lacquered box) and the latter in a don-buri 丼bowl. Consequently, Una-ju is the more expensive and formal way of serving eel on rice. Una-don is the more informal way of serving eel.

In the U.S., although some eel is aqua-cultured in Maine and some restaurants may bring it in live and prepared it on site,  most of the eel is pre-packaged and frozen. The majority of this frozen eel comes from China, and Vietnam.

*For Tokyo style the filet of the eel comes from the eel’s back. It is then steamed, and grilled. For Kansai style the filet comes from the eel belly. It is then grilled without steaming. Please see here in more details.

We had a package of frozen eel kaba-yaki (11oz) in our freezer which came from Weee some time ago. We decided it was time to eat it. Since we are not big eaters and eel is quite rich, we ended up making three dishes over 3 days to finish the entire package. (Of course, we had some other small dishes along with the eel so we didn’t just eat eel for 3 days.)

The first dish I made (picture #1), is called “Wu-zaku 鰻ざく”. I posted a version of this some time ago. It is a combination of cold cucumber with julienned ginger and vinegar dressing and warmed slices of kaba-yaki eel. The cold cucumber slices counteract the rich flavor of the eel.

The next day, I made another standard or popular fail-proof eel dish called “wu-maki 鰻巻き” (picture #2). Again, I made and posted a version of this some years ago. I served this with sliced cucumber and grated daikon with soy sauce.

Finally, I made a mini una-ju ミニ鰻重 as a shime or ending dish the next evening (picture #3). I used a small square box which was a part of a larger ju-bako we used for Hanami. The traditional way of serving this is with white rice, some “unagi” sauce and the filet of kaba-yaki eel placed on top. My wife requested “sushi rice” so I used frozen rice we made some time ago when we cooked rice. After thawing and warming up the rice in a lidded silicon container in the microwave, I added some sushi vinegar (from the bottle). I mixed the vinegar into the rice and let it sit for a few minutes. Meanwhile I heated up the eel kabayaki in the toaster oven (on toast mode) until warm with the sauce bubbling. I added “sansho 山椒” Japanese  pepper powder on the top.

For us, this was the perfect ending to the meal. We spread the enjoyment of this eel over several days because too much eel is too much of a good thing. We were quite pleased with the  quality of this frozen eel kaba-yaki from China which we got from Weee.

"Wu-zaku" eel and cucumber 鰻ざく

Because of Covid-19, and the uncertainty of some food supplies particularly due to the closure of multiple meat processing plants, we were gradually increasing our frozen cache of meat and fish as well as stews and curries made using the stockpiled proteins. One day, I noticed a strange smell when I opened the refrigerator or freezer.  I asked our resident "sniffer" who has an uncanny sense of smell and also happens to be my wife to sniff out what was going bad. She said the smell is not coming from food but was an electric-related smell. Not good news! Red alert; the refrigerator/freezer could well be on its way out. We immediately went on line to order a back up small stand alone freezer to save all the food we had just stock-piled. Apparently, with everyone else stocking up on food in case of a shortage small stand alone freezers were in high demand and absolutely none were to be had.  Some sites specified how to order; pick out the model you want, pay for it in full and your name would be then be put on a waiting list. No expected delivery time indicated. We finally ended up placing an order for a small stand up freezer which would not arrive for at least 6 weeks.  (We always seem to be on the trailing edge of these things). (And wouldn't you know that if the fridge is going to fail it would be at a time like this-- just after you have fully stocked it.)

The refrigerator limped along for a day or two with the smell seeming to disappear only to return. One morning, I came into the kitchen and there was a puddle of water on the floor coming from the freezer side of the fridge.  I realized it had happened; the fridge was kaput.  I checked the frozen food. Many of the meats and fish luckily, were still frozen. Since the back-up freezer had not yet arrived, I quickly recommissioned a small stand-up freezer in which my wife keeps speciality flours for baking, from a baking freezer to a meat freezer. I removed all the flour and replaced it with the meat and fish. It all fit.

Unfortunately many of the Japanese items were on the top shelf of the freezer and had already almost completely thawed by the time I got to them. Among the Japanese fish packages was "eel" kabayaki うなぎの蒲焼. So, that evening we had unexpected "Eel" feast. I started with "Wu-zaku" 鰻ざく. This is warm grilled eel with eel sauce topped with cool slices of cucumber in vinegary dressing. I suppose the contrast of warm, oily, soft, sweet and salty eel with cold crunchy cucumber with vinegar dressing is the main attraction of this dish.

I first made cucumber topping.

Ingredients (2 small servings)
One American mini-cucumber, sliced, salted, left for a short while then squeezed to remove the excess moisture
1/2 inch ginger root, skin removed and finely julienned

For dressing
2 tbs Japanese dashi broth
1tbs rice vinegar
1 tsp mirin
1 tsp light colored soy sauce

Chill the cucumber topping in the fridge until just before serving.

Frozen package of eel kabayaki, thawed (whether accidentally like this time or intentionally). I used half for this dish, cut into pieces shown below).

Assembly:
I heated up the eel pieces in a toaster oven (I used toasting function at the highest).

Put the eel pieces on a small plate.

Top it with the cucumber.

Of course, cold sake was called for. Although we still like "Mu" which has been our house sake for a long time, we switched to "Tengumai" as seen below. This daiginjou has a bit more complexity than "Mu" and, at Tippsy sake, Tengumai is less expensive than "Mu".

This was followed by a few more items and we had eel donburi or "unadon" うな丼 as a "shime" ending dish with golden thread eggs 金糸卵. My wife is often leary of the multiple small bones in eel. From experience she found that big pieces of eel such as the kind used in donburi often have numerous hidden small bones but usually the pieces used in sushi do not. She even went so far as to call eel donburi "toothbrush buri". And after several bad experiences in Japan actually stopped ordering eel dunburi.  This time she was quite happy to discover that although the piece was quite large, it was sushi quality and didn't have any small bones. It was one of the best eel dunburies ever.

Eel rice 櫃まぶし

This is the second eel dish I made from the packet of eel I had in the freezer. It was also our ending "shime" dish for the evening. We started the meal with pork  belly "Kakuni" 角煮 and "U-maki" 鰻巻き. I could have made the usual Unadon うな丼 or Unaju うな重 (eel over rice in a bowl or rectangular lacquered box) but I decided to make "Hitsu-mabushi" 櫃まぶし which is a local dish in Nagoya 名古屋. It is an essentially more approachable (read "cheaper") version of unaju; small chopped up pieces of eel kabayaki mixed with rice seasoned with eel sauce. This dish may have started as a way to use the small end pieces of eel which may not have been suited for una-ju or una-don. It is traditionally served in a shared "Hitsu" 櫃 or a box with lid like I did here and my wife and I shared it. Using small pieces of eel mixed into the rice makes sharing more reasonable since it is more difficult for one person to just snarf up the whole eel piece and "run".

Usually, it is served with some condiments such as julienne of perilla leaves, scallion and nori seaweed.  Supposedly, you first enjoy the dish as is and then add the condiments. Finally wasabi and broth are added and it is eaten as "Ochazuke" お茶漬け. Although I prepared the broth for this, we ended up not having the Ochazuke.

The sauce was the same as I made for "U-maki" 鰻巻き.

I prepared the frozen and packaged eel kabayaki as I described in the "U-maki" post. I first removed the sauce the eel was packaged in by gently washing the fillet in hot water. I then cooked it in the toaster oven with my homemade sauce. I mixed some sauce and thin strips of eel kabayaki into the rice and mixed.

Sometimes small bones bother my wife when eating eel. (On one occasion I had to remove said bones from my wife's throat using a pair of plyers; that was a memorable meal not to be repeated). So I have to be very careful to remove as many bones as possible. I found some small bones were particularly dense under the fins and cut them off which helped a lot. We really enjoyed this dish. It is easier to eat since the eel was cut into small pieces and the rice was well seasoned with the eel sauce. I hope we will have something left next time for ochazuke.

Eel omelet 鰻巻き

My wife reminded me that although I have mentioned it several times in the blog I have not actually made "U-maki" 鰻巻き. It is pronounced as "Wu-maki" not "You-maki".  It is a type of Japanese omelet made with a piece of eel "Kabayaki" うなぎの蒲焼 wrapped in Japanese "dashimaki" だし巻き omelet. Since I had a frozen eel "Kabayaki" package in the freezer, I made two dishes from it. U-maki was the first one. Although the eel came already sauced in the package, I decided to make my own sauce to go over it. I thought my home made sauce would be fresher than the one the eel was packed in.

This is before I added my Kabayaki sauce.

The picture below is an 11oz eel kabayaki thawed overnight in the refridgerator.

Ingredients I used to make my own sauce:

Soy sauce 300ml

Mirin 300ml

Sake 100ml

Sugar 250-300 grams

Directions:

I added the mirin and sake to a saucepan and gently boiled it for a few minutes to let the alcohol evaporate. I then added the sugar and soy sauce. After the sugar melted completely, I gently simmered the sauce and reduced it by half. The sauce attained a thick viscous consistency. If I had some eel (or anago which sea eel) bones available, I would have grilled them and added them to the sauce while simmering to increase the flavor. Then I would have strained the sauce to remove the bones. 

I used 1/4 of the package of eel. Since I was planning to use my own sauce, I removed the sauce already on the eel by soaking the fillet in hot water from the InstaHot and gently rubbing the surface to remove the original sauce (This is based on my assumption that my home-made sauce would be better or at least fresher, than the one on the eel).  I blotted both sides with paper towels. I wrapped the eel pieces in aluminum foil with the skin side down (I thinly coated the foil with oil to prevent the skin from sticking) and placed the packet in the toaster oven (on toast mode) for 3 minutes. I then opened the top of the packet to expose the meat side of the eel and put it back in the toaster oven. I brushed on the sauce I made several times and cooked the eel for another 3 minutes.  I scored the surface with a chef's knife and cut into two pieces (below).

Dashi maki:

Ingredients:

3 eggs

3 tbs Dashi broth (I used #1 dashi 一番出し I made few days ago with kelp and bonito flakes).

1 tbs sugar

1/4 tsp salt

Directions:

I coated a rectangular Japanese omelet pan with oil and placed it on a medium low flame. When the pan was hot, I poured in 1/4 of the egg mixture and spread it. When the bottom was set, I placed the two pieces of eel on top of the eggs one inch from the top of the pan to span the width of the pan and started rolling. I repeated the process by adding the egg mixture and rolling (below). 

This is a classic combination. We really liked this. I thought my home made sauce worked out pretty well.  this dish is perfect as a drinking snack for sake but even red wine will work with this.