Name: Potato baked in hay with smoked-eel butter
Prep time: 50 min
Cook time: 90 min
Total time: 140 min
Yield: 4
Ingredients: 150 gm hay, moistened with water (see note); 4 Dutch cream potatoes (200gm each), scrubbed; 200 gm rock salt; Smoked-eel butter; 350 gm smoked eel (about ½ eel); 70 gm butter, coarsely chopped; ½ garlic clove, crushed; 3 thyme sprigs; 1 fresh bay leaf; 125 gm cultured butter, softened (see note); Juice and zested rind of 1 lemon; 1 tbsp each chives and French tarragon, finely chopped; 1½ tbsp finely chopped chervil; ¾ cup sorrel leaves, finely chopped, plus extra to serve

Potato baked in hay with smoked-eel butter

Australian Gourmet Traveller recipe for potato baked in hay with smoked-eel butter from Sydney restaurant Vincent.

Pork neck cooked in whey “reinvigorated” — Potato baked in hay with smoked-eel butter

Serves 4

Prep

50M

Cook

1H 30M

Total

2H 20M

Ingredients

150 gm hay, moistened with water (see note)

4 Dutch cream potatoes (200gm each), scrubbed

200 gm rock salt

Smoked-eel butter

350 gm smoked eel (about ½ eel)

70 gm butter, coarsely chopped

½ garlic clove, crushed

3 thyme sprigs

1 fresh bay leaf

125 gm cultured butter, softened (see note)

Juice and zested rind of 1 lemon

1 tbsp each chives and French tarragon, finely chopped

1½ tbsp finely chopped chervil

¾ cup sorrel leaves, finely chopped, plus extra to serve

Method

Main

1.For smoked-eel butter, fillet eel, reserving trimmings, and dice into pea-sized pieces. Coarsely chop trimmings (head, fins and any stray meat). Heat 50gm butter in a saucepan over low-medium heat and gently cook trimmings with garlic, thyme and bay leaf until butter is fragrant (10-12 minutes). Strain into a jug through a fine sieve and reserve warm butter for brushing potatoes just before serving. Heat remaining butter in a non-stick frying pan over medium-high heat, add diced eel and cook until crisp (8-10 minutes; as the eel fries it will release more of its own fat), drain in a sieve (discard oil), then tip out onto absorbent paper to soak up any extra oil. Place cultured butter in a bowl, add juice and rind, herbs, fried eel and season with sea salt flakes to taste. Combine well with a wooden spoon and set aside.

2.Preheat oven to 200C. Spread half the hay in a deep roasting dish, scatter half the rock salt over, top with potatoes, then remaining salt and layer the remaining hay on top. Cover with baking paper, then cover and seal tray with foil, and bake until potatoes can be easily pierced with a skewer (1¼-1½ hours).

3.Clean hay from hot potatoes and brush all over with reserved warm butter. Cut deeply into potatoes in a cross pattern and open slightly, then dollop on smoked-eel butter. Season to taste and serve piping hot on a bed of hay with whole sorrel leaves, salt and white pepper to the side.