Eel Tourte à la Saint-Martin

Ingredients

• lining paste (pâte à foncer)
• puff-paste trimmings (as an alternative for the lid)
• pike forcemeat with fines herbes
• eel
• 100 grammes onions
• 50 grammes shallots
• butter
• raw mushrooms
• melted butter

Instructions

1. Roll out a round of lining paste 16 to 18 centimetres in diameter and a good half-centimetre thick.
2. Stew 100 grammes of chopped onions and 50 grammes of chopped shallots in butter beforehand.
3. Season escalopes of eel and stiffen them in butter with the stewed onions and shallots.
4. Spread a layer of pike forcemeat with fines herbes over the paste, leaving a small space at the edges.
5. Garnish with the eel escalopes and with raw mushrooms cut in escalopes.
6. Cover with forcemeat.
7. Moisten the edges lightly and lay over a second round of the same paste, or of puff-paste trimmings, a little thicker than the first.
8. Seal the edges and fold them into a rim; gild; score; and make an opening in the centre for the steam to escape.
9. Bake in a moderate oven for 35 minutes.
10. On taking the tourte from the oven, introduce a few spoonfuls of melted butter inside.