Recipe Eel in Green Herb Sauce

Waterzooi is a classic stew of Flanders. Its name is Dutch, ‘zooien’ meaning ‘to boil’. It is sometimes called Gentse Waterzooi (in Dutch) which refers to the city of Ghent. The original recipe is made of fish, either freshwater or sea, though today chicken waterzooi is more common. The most accepted theory is that rivers of Ghent became too polluted and the fish disappeared. The stew is made of the fish or chicken, vegetables including carrots, leeks and potatoes, herbs, eggs, cream and butter and usually serbed as a soup with a baquette to sop up the liquid.

There is practically no more delicious proof of how firmly the Austrian cuisine is rooted in the heart of Europe than one of the most typical of Viennese dishes: boiled veal, or Tafelspitz. Good-quality beef, a few vegetables, aromatic spices and plenty of water to cook in – these are the vital ingredients. The same ingredients, though, also come together when the French are creating their “pot-au-feu”, or the Italians their “bollito misto”. In the case of the latter, veal and chicken meat or tongue might be added, but then some small differences should remain despite us all being good Europeans together.

Paling in’t groen or eel in green sauce is a traditional Flemish dish of international renown.The dish developed as many fisherman caught eels in the Scheldt River, with folklore stating that the dish should be prepared with whatever fresh herbs were found on the riverside e.g. parsley, mint, spinach, sorrel and watercress.To many connoisseurs, the sauce is what makes this dish unique. Consisting mainly of the popular leafy green herb chervil as well as sorrel, it is important that these ingredients are added at the last moment of cooking so that sauce retains a bright green color and the flavor is strong and fresh. The fish itself is white and meaty, with a pronounced flavor.

Innovation on Brabant Stew recipe from the European Young Chef Award 2018 was created by Tim Bressers, representing North Brabant – European Region of Gastronomy 2018