Bottarga Crusted Saffron Infused Eel Fish Fillet Rollade Sous Vide with Spanich Chorizo, Basil and Cheese Stuffing, Served with Mashed Purple Yam, Sous Vide Carrot, Beluga Caviar and Balsamic Reduction. The fillet of swamp eel stuffed and rolled then packed with lemon juice, spices & extra virgin olive oil, vaccum packed in ziplock then slowly cooked until tender and succulent in a low temperature beer cooler waterbath (about 40-42°C) for 45 minutes, drained from the bag and rolled in grated bottarga then seared with blow torch until the bottarga crust got toasted and slighly browned in all surfaces and then served with tangy Homemade Balsamic Vinegar Reduction.
Sous-vide is French term for “under vacuum”, a method of cooking food sealed in airtight plastic bags in a water bathor in a temperature-controlled steam environment for longer than normal cooking times for up to 96 hours, in some cases; at an accurately regulated temperature much lower than normally used for cooking, typically around 40°C (104 F) t0 45°C (113 F) for fish, 50°C (131 F) to 60°C (140 F) for meats and higher for vegetables. I’ve been try to Sousvide Venison Steak, Black Angus Striploin Sous Vide and it turn out good, even tought cut of Beef Brisket Sous Vide created a tender and succulent meat. Sous vide method also used to pasteurized egg, beef and other meat to made it save to be eaten raw without cooking it. I pasteurized my beef tenderloin to make Yukhoe (Raw Korean Seasoned Beef Steak Tartare with Asian Pear).
My previously sousvide recipe using my old rice cooker, rice cooker is a very cheap consistance tools to mantain the waterbath temperature, but eversince the lowest temperature waterbath in my rice cooker metal pot is 51°C and it’s too high for sousvide fish fillet, hence i using my beer cooler for this sousvide eel fish fillet recipe. Beside beer cooler, any kind of heat insulating chamber is good to go; thermos, dewar flask or vacuum flask, as long the chamber is big enought to completely submerging the entire fish fillet and also to mantaining the temperature for extended periods of time. Fill up your beer cooler with water just a couple degrees higher than the temperature you’d like to cook your food at (to account for temperature loss when you add cold food to it), seal your food in a plastic ziplock bag, drop it in, and close your beer cooler until your food is cooked. You can simply adjust the temperature to your preference with hot water after the waterbath temperature drop about (1-2)°C after 1 hour soaking your fish fillet, that’s why it’s better you use a good insulating beer cooler. Yup, it is that simple!!!
Swamp eel fish fillet got oily and delicate flavour, similiar to it’s cousin unagi eel with fins which popular in Japanese restaurant, served as Sweet Soy Sauce Broiled Eel (Unagi Kabayaki). Swamp eel fillet texture is more succulent and firm compare to the unagi eel, but i wondering why swamp eel didn’t got much attention in fine dining restaurant menu. So today, i decided to bring the swamp eel to the next level of fine dining lover.
Can you imagine all the ingredients on this plate of beautifull fine dining eel fillet dish cost me about IDR 10.000 (less than 1 USD) for a single portion. Asian swamp eel is cheap and also available through out the year, especially in the rainy season from September to March, the stock of swamp eel reach the highest peak. The live asian swamp eel cost me only about 2 USD/Kg, pretty much a great deal because swamp eel is low in cholesterol and very rich in omega 6 and omega 3 polyunsaturated fatty acid, which are extremely good for the body and hearth. Eversince this is sous vide eel fillet is cooked in low temperature, so i think most of the good fatty acid is retained after cooked.
Here in Indonesia, we used to called swamp eel as belut sawah or rice field eel, mostly prepared deep fried until crispy. The eel usually butterflied, flatened with meat hammer and then marinated with turmeric based seasoning before lighly batterred and deep fried into belut goreng. Other popular preparation of swamp eel is rendang belut, a thick and carmelized curry similiar to Indonesian Rendang Daging that using beef as the main ingredients.
The bottarga crust for this sous vide eel fish fillet using my Homemade Tuna Roe Bottarga di Tonno. I swear to God, a little bit of grated tuna bottarga bring the simple eel fillet rollade to another lever of taste. It’s briny, creamy and got a kicking savoury flavour once it toasted a little bit by blowtorch flames. The texture and the flavour of the bottarga crust on the eel fish fillet is a little bit sandy, similiar with fried and toasted crumbled salted egg yolk on Stir Fried Salted Egg Sauce Crab.
The entire components of the entire dish is quite a preparation; the sous vide saffron infused eel fish fillet rollade with Spanish chorizo, basil and cheese stuffing is served with mashed purple yam, sous vide baby carrot, Russian beluga caviar, micro greens herbs, edible black mustard flower, pine nuts, shaved Parmiggiano-Reggiano cheese, sliced grapes and balsamic reduction sauce
The Asian marbled swamp eel, Monopterus albus, also known as belut sawah or rice field eel . The eel resemble a long scale-less snake with a very tiny blind eyes. Asian swamp eels are often found in the mud underneath a dried-up pond or rice field. For this recipe i’m using swamp eel weighted 300 grams, about 14 inches long and got a beutifull marble pattern on the skin. The eel butterflied from the back and the entire back bone, head and the end tail removed using a very sharp knives to make a nice incision. I’m using this pricey bad ass Japanese knives, i gotta listen and lern from my old man who said “man should purchased they pricey toys before getting hitched, sice it’s obviously getting even harder right after”, so as a obedient son, i purchased my mre than 100 USD worth chef knives right now, lol.
The swamp eel fillet is cut into about 6 inches long (15 cm), dizzled with a little bit of kaffir lime juice, salt and pepper and then let it marinated for about 10 minutes in the refrigerator. The marinated swamp eel fish fillet then drained and patted dry then laid on a cutting board. Chopped basil, chopped Homemade Spanish Chorizo and Parmagianno Geggiano laid over it. The fish fillet then rolled over to cover the stuffing. The rolled and stuffed eel fillet then rolled on a genuine Spanish saffron to cover the skin side generously
The Homemade Spanish Chorizo stuffed eel fish fillet then rolled and thighten with cling wrap plastic to make a nice cilllindrical form. I let the rolled eel fish fillet sit in the refrigerator for about 2 hours until it set and the saffron flavour infused into the fish fillet before it’s sous vide in beer cooler for about 1 hour. I put the eel fillet on a ziplock and add some generous glug of extra virgin olive oil, vaccum packed it with air replacing method by submerging the ziplock bag in the water and secure the silicone sealed after the air is completely pushed away. The ziplock packed eel fish fillet then submerged in preheated 42°C waterbath in a beer cooler (i assume the temperature will be drop to 40°C after the cold eel fish fillet ziplock bag added). I let the fish fillet sous vide for about 1 hour.
After the chorizo basil and cheese stuffed eel fish fillet rollade sous vide completely dome, i take it out from the ziplock bag and drained it a little bit. The eel fish then rolled in a grated Homemade Bottarga and then i seared and toasted the bottarga crust with my brand new blow torch flames, you can use stove with skillet too if you didn’t got the blowtorch. Now your fine dining bottarga crusted rolled eel fish with chorizo, basil and cheese stuffing is officially done and ready to served.
Sous Vide Bottarga Crusted Saffron Infused Eel Fish Fillet with Spanish Chorizo, Basil and Cheese Stuffing Recipe :
- 1 Pound (500 gr) live swamp eel, butterflied and filleted, cut into 15 cm long fillet
- 50 grams Homemade Spanish Chorizo
- 30 grams freshly grated Homemade Tuna Roe Bottarga di Tonno
- 10 grams fresh basil leaves, patted dry, roughly chopped
- 1 tbsp kaffir lime juice
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 30 ml extra virgin olive oil
- Ziplock plastic bag
Garnish : Black Mustard Blossoms, Micro Green Herbs and Micro Red Amaranth
How to Make Sous Vide Beef Brisket Steak Using Rice Cooker:
- Season the eel fillet generously with kaffir lime juice, salt, and pepper,let it sit marinated in the fridge for at least 10 minutes.
- Patted dry the eel fish fillet then add spanich chorizo, basil leaves and cheese over it and then rolled the fillet
- Rolled the eel fish fillet on a genuine Spanish saffron unil it covering the eel skin generously
- Lay the eel fish fillet in a cling wrap plastic then rolled it over, thighen the end to make a nice cillindrical shape
- Let the is in the fridge for another 2 hours until set, cut the end then put it in a ziplock bag and then pour the olive oil
- Submerged the ziplock bag in the water partially to pushed the air out ouf it.
- Secure the ziplock seal once the air removed from the bag
- Place ziplock packed seasoned eel fillet in the preheated beer cooler waterbath in 42°C (i assume the temperature will drop to 40C after a coule minutes the eel fish added)
- Let it sit in the waterbath for 1 hours, put some weight to let the bag completely submerged.
- Take away the sous vide eel fish fillet bag from the beer cooler waterbath, set aside until it reach room temperature
- Pop out the sous vide eel fish fillet from the ziplock bag, patted dry a little bit
- Rolled the eel in a grated homemade tuna bottarga then seared the bottarga crusted until slighly browned and toasted with blowtorch flames.
- Served the bottarga crusted eel fillet with chorizo, basil and cheese stuffing with mashed purple yam, sous vide baby carrot, beluga caviar, micro herbs, shaved Parmiggiano-Reggiano cheese, grapes and balsamic reduction sauce