I got some frozen eel that I was planning in grilling, but apparently it is already grilled. It also seems to have a sauce.
Would it be fine if I washed it (so that I can apply my own sauce) and charcoal grill it afterwards?
Update: Charcoal grilled the eel today. It was honestly the best tasting seafood meat I’ve ever tried.
by flatfeed611
3 comments
I wouldn’t wash it and also wouldn’t grill it again!
You can give it a light grill just to heat it through and give it some extra char, but you probably shouldn’t fully grill it through, as most frozen unagi is already fully cooked, so you’ll just end up overcooking it. It’s pretty hard to find japanese eel that isn’t already cooked though, as raw eel is poisonous if not prepared properly, so most manufacturers sell it already fully cooked, not to mention it’ll keep better.
As for the sauce, there’s not much point washing it off as it’s already more or less soaked in, and you’ll just be introducing more water into the eel, which will make it harder to grill up. If you want eel but without the sauce, you can trying searching for something called unagi shirayaki, which is basically grilled and cooked the same way, but without the sauce brushed on.
＞Would it be fine if I washed it (so that I can apply my own sauce) and charcoal grill it afterwards?
In Japan, the ‘secret’ for making frozen/supermarket/cheaper unagi taste good is to essentially do just that.
– Buy separate unagi sauce (or make your own)
– If frozen, make sure unagi is defrosted
– Completely wash off the sauce
– (optionally) Steam it with a bit of sake (10+ minutes)
– Lightly toast it (or in your case grill). Until slightly ‘crispy’ on the surface.
– Re-apply ‘good’ sauce that you purchased/made and re-grill as necessary (be careful of burning)
Reason: Cheaper unagi tends to have a thicker more rubbery skin and is usually slathered in “industrial” sauce made to make it look good in the store and isn’t typically high quality.
Washing the sauce off gets rid of the generic sauce and allows you to re-cook the unagi without the sugars burning. Steaming makes the flesh tender and further grilling/toasting it “finishes” the unagi like a just cooked version.
Sources in case people think this is blasphemy (in Japanese but you should be able to follow along)
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NL3Rrv53Czg
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AQ1oRhUrZo
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0QgQIY9TIM
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_t_NK4M9FHk