This dish is popular in many parts of Spain. The particular version given here is recommended by Don Francisco Bauza, of the Restaurante Gina in Palma. It may be compared with Ce’e alla Salvia.

Take individual earthenware dishes such as are used for frying in Mallorca. Put olive oil in each, enough to cover a helping of the tiny eels. Add hot red pepper, chopped but not too finely, and a whole clove of garlic to each, then heat them up until the oil is at boiling point. Toss in the tiny eels, which will be cooked in a moment. Serve them in the dishes in which they have been cooked, with the oil still bubbling.

Tradition insists that while the eels are being cooked they should be stirred with a wooden utensil, and they are eaten with little wooden forks.