Eel isn't perhaps the most common ingredient to work with in the home kitchen, but as with all fish and seafood freshness is key. To ensure ultimate freshness, it always helps if you can buy the fish whole and fillet it at home yourself. Eel is a key component of many Japanese dishes (in particular freshwater eel known as unagi), so if you're planning to grill eel at home being able to fillet it is key.
Endo Kazutoshi is one of the finest Japanese chefs in the UK, and he of course fillets all the eels he works with himself. The steps and instructions below show you how he does it. Having an incredibly sharp knife is vital to clean, neat filleting.
After you've successfully filleted your eel, take a look at Endo's grilled unagi recipe below, or any of our other eel recipes.