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By Root 983 0

for the ferry boat across the Styx, one of the people I hope to encounter in Hades is Nereus of Chios, a Greek chef who worked in Sybaris. He was famous for his preparation of conger eel, and I should like to know how he did it. I suspect he followed the cookery tradition of classical times and drowned the fish in seasonings and strong sauces. Now conger eel, being firm and insistent in flavour, might survive this treatment well – better, at any rate, than delicate fish like sole or turbot. The sauce for roast conger eel given some two thousand years ago by Apicius (who got his recipes mainly from Greek cooks working in Italy) included pepper, lovage, grilled cumin, oregano, dried onion, yolks of hard-boiled eggs, wine, honeyed wine, vinegar and garum – which was a fermented fish sauce (see p. 48) with a good deal more kick than anchovy essence.

I do not suggest that you follow Apicius to the letter, but remember that a little conger eel goes a long way and can stand up to a collection of other flavours. For this reason it is an excellent fish for soup, as you will see if you try the Breton recipe, below, or the Matelote Normande on p. 499. The conger makes a good basis of fish flavour.

Do not be fooled by writers who instruct you to cook conger eel like the silver eel from the Sargasso sea, Anguilla anguilla, one of the finest fish you can eat. General shape apart, they have nothing in common and your expectations will be disappointed. I suspect that this instruction is merely handed down from cookery book to cookery book, without anyone trying it out. I have, several times, and it was a disastrous waste. The only possible eel recipe would be the red wine and prunes matelote (p. 134) where, Apicius-style, the almost unpleasant flavour of conger in the piece is well subdued by stronger presences.

As a subsistence fish, it has its own little history. In Cornwall, until the end of the last century, ‘conger-doust’ was exported in quantity to Catholic countries, largely, I gather, for soup-making on fast days. This was conger, split, and dried without salting; a kind of stockfish. In Normandy, fishermen do the same thing, but season the boned conger with salt and pepper before drying it in the sun. It is eaten for breakfast with bread and butter, and milky coffee, just as the Scots used to eat wind-dried whiting and haddock (p. 495). Conger eel is also cooked, with onions and herbs, in vinegar, and stored as a preserve, like soused herring (p. 201). Pieces are removed from time to time and served at the beginning of a meal with oil and herbs, and bread and butter.

Always buy a thick piece of conger eel from the head end. The bones seem to multiply alarmingly towards the tail.

BRETON CONGER EEL SOUP

This is a good homely soup, to which extra vegetables can be added to taste; for instance, soaked haricot beans, a small amount of turnip, or onion.

Serves 6

750 g (1½ lb) conger eel

2 large leeks

oil

400 g (14 oz) can tomatoes

750 g (1½ lb) potatoes, peeled

bouquet garni

salt, pepper

Cut the conger eel into thick slices; then cook gently with the leeks in a large saucepan, with just enough oil to cover the base of the pan in a thin layer. Don’t let them brown, but turn them about for 5 minutes. Add 1¾ litres (3 pt) of water. When it boils, add the tomatoes, the potatoes cut into dice, and the bouquet garni. Simmer for 45 minutes, skimming off the murky looking foam which rises. Remove the conger eel, discard the skin and bones and return the pieces to the soup. Discard, too, the bouquet. Correct the seasoning and serve.

CROAKERS & DRUMS Sciaenidae spp.

There are many kinds of croakers and drums spread all over the world. Like the gurnard, they owe their names to the pronounced noises they make by vibrating a muscle attached to the air-bladder, which then acts as a resonator (see p. 468). The drums include the corvina of Peru, the fish traditionally used to make Ceviche (p. 348); the weakfish and kingfish of North America; the kabeljou of South Africa; and the mulloway of Australia.