As the song says: Oh, morena, oh!

The moray belongs to the group of anguiloforms (also the conger eel and the eel) which belongs to the family of the Muraenidae. It is an elongated fish, which resembles a snake, its shape gives it the ability to occupy caves among the marine rocks where it lives. It measures between 40 centimeters and 1 meter in length, although most specimens do not exceed 60 cm. Its skin is viscous and slippery, very dark in color, almost black, and has no scales. What it does have are characteristic white spots, like a polka dot dress. Its teeth are very sharp and are framed in a rather large mouth. The moray is only found in the Macaronesian islands (Azores, Madeira, Wild Islands, Cape Verde and the Canary Islands). There are different kinds of moray eels, some of them are the picopato moray, the green moray, the painted moray… The most common ones are the brown-haired moray and the black moray.

The moray eel feeds on small fish, octopus and crustaceans and has nocturnal hunting habits, during the day it is usually quiet in its cave. As a curious fact, we will comment that in the Canary Islands there are different techniques of moray fishing, one is a trap called “moray drum”, another technique is to use an octopus as bait to the rhythm of a song that is sung by the fisherman. The Tenerife musical group Los Sabandeños has paid tribute to this fishing technique by giving it lyrics in their song “El pescador de morenas” (The moray eel fisherman). Part of the lyrics go like this: “I was singing, I saw you moray eel for a moment I fixed my eyes on you, but your body sank into the sand drew an “S” and I thought you were saying yes. I was going quietly along the sidewalk, I was carrying a hook and I began to whistle, but my voices and my calls failed to make you leave. Then I thought your body was curled up in a coral, calling you I discovered that only the echo of my voice I felt Oh, brunette, oh, I kept calling Oh, brunette, oh….”

The meat of the moray eel is very tasty and although it can be prepared in various ways, in the Canary Islands it is usually cooked fried. For this recipe we will only need a good oil and flour for breading and, if desired, garlic, salt and parsley. It is necessary to cut it into pieces, which will be cleaned and dried before adding it to the frying pan once it is salted and soaked in flour. It should be fried in very hot oil. And enjoy!