Korean Salt-Grilled Eel
Quick answer
- Total time
- 27 min
- Level
- Medium
- Servings
- 2 servings
- Ingredients
- 3
About this dish
With no glaze, only salt, this eel is all about the crisp skin and the rich fat.
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Over charcoal, dripping fat makes the flames jump, so one side of the grill is kept cooler to move the eel onto. Any sweet sauce stays in its own dish, and the salt-grilled eel gets tasted first.
Ingredients
Instructions
- 1
Remove 500 g of professionally cleaned freshwater eel fillets from the package and pat the skin and flesh thoroughly dry.
Score only the skin at 1.5 cm intervals, keeping the cuts shallow so the fillets curl less during grilling.
- 2
Divide 1 teaspoon coarse salt evenly over both sides of the eel and leave it for 10 minutes.
Blot away the moisture that appears on the surface so steam does not soften the skin.
- 3
Preheat a grill or heavy pan over medium-high heat and coat it thinly with 1 teaspoon neutral oil.
Place the eel skin-side down and cook without pressing for 4 to 5 minutes.
- 4
Support the eel with a wide spatula, turn it carefully to the flesh side, and grill for 3 to 4 minutes.
If dripping fat causes flames over charcoal, move the eel to a cooler zone instead of spraying water and scattering ash onto the food.
- 5
Turn the eel every 1 to 2 minutes until the skin is brown and crisp and the flesh is opaque.
Check with a food thermometer that the thickest part has reached 63°C.
- 6
Take the eel off the heat, rest it for 2 minutes, and cut it into serving pieces.
To preserve the clean surface that distinguishes salt grilling from glazed eel, serve any dipping sauce separately and taste the eel plain first.
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