Eel à la Beaucaire

Ingredients

• 1 whole eel
• 195 grams mushrooms, finely chopped
• whiting forcemeat (farce de merlan)
• butter as needed butter
• 1 tablespoon shallots, finely chopped
• 200 ml Pouilly wine
• 1 small glass cognac
• 150 grams small mushrooms, raw
• 20 pieces small onions, glazed in butter

Instructions

1. Bone the eel completely. Prepare a whiting forcemeat (farce de merlan) and fold into it the mushrooms (finely chopped, pressed, briefly sautéed in butter and cooled), using 195 grams of mushrooms per pound of fish.
2. Stuff the eel with this mixture and sew it closed. Shape it into an oval ring. Firm it briefly in butter.
3. Braise the eel in a terrine with the chopped shallots, Pouilly wine, cognac, additional butter, raw small mushrooms, and the pre-glazed small onions.
4. Serve the eel in the same terrine in which it was braised.