Wow! look at that S car go!

Snails.

its time to embrace your inner Gaul.

I can't imagine the first person to look at a snail crawling around and decided to eat it.

I can only imagine it was some slow french cave man, possibly the European Paleolithic period version of Slow Poke Rodriguez going "Oh look! I'm going to eat that shit!"

I want you to roll that imagine in your mind a bit..

in any case..

snails..

in this case, the north European Helix snail or, Helix Pomatia

Now, Snails are not something you typically find fresh in the states, and there's a whole procedure in feeding the snails prior to ... ahem.. slaughter... that I don't feel I need to get into. Safe to say, many of us have been down the international isle of the grocery store and looked on, in amusement, at the escargot kit. Chuckled and moved on.

I to, was part of that crowd, particularly considering that the kit ran about $15!
But then, my grocery store had a fire sale on them!

$3.99!

I got four of 'em.

Why?

Why not?

I've always been intrigued, and that price was freaking ridiculous! How could I pass it up!?


For this one, I teamed up with the prep cook at the pub for a little Saturday lunch.

Mohawk Jay we call him..

Young master Jason, is a Mohawk sporting, Vespa scooter riding, little punk rock kid. He cut his cooking chops in the navy. There was only one thing that kept him from cooking at Camp David. And that was the tattoo of a bare breasted sailor lady, straddling an anchor on his fore arm. For some reason the navy frowned on such things. especially when you're potentially serving slop to the leader of the free world, and various foreign dignitaries.

Go figure?

But, we got him now, and he shares my passion for the culinary weirdness, Together we are forming the church of Bordain, WWBD?

So I give the Kid one of my escargot kits and he readily jumps to the challenge.


Escargot is pretty simple really..
The root of it is snails, sauteed in butter, garlic, and parsley with a splash of white wine. This is the whole snail method, there's also escargot that is snail pate' that's stuffed back into the shells. We're doing the whole snail method here.

For using the kit, the snails come in the can under the shells. to prepare them, you drain the can, then rinse the snails under cold water to rid it of the brine. meanwhile, you are boiling the shells to clean and sanitize them.

Now the snails.. they should be rinsed and dried and just waiting for fun.

So, in a saute pan, melt a good dollop of unsweetened butter, to that, add a couple of table spoons of minced garlic, some minced parsley, and a splash of white wine.
Next, saute the snails in this mixture till heated through and well coated, remove from heat.

Now, to assemble them for plateing.

Your boiled shells should be out of the water,drained and cooled. To each shell, drizzle your sauce into the shell, then, pack the snail back into the shell. Then, drizzle some more sauce over them. pretty simple huh?

For this exercise, Jay also packed the shell opening with fresh grated Parmesan and set them under the broiler to melt and seal.

For the plate, a scoop of fresh seaweed salad in the center of the plate, then arranged the shells around the mound with a ramekin of spicy cocktail sauce for dipping.

Eating them requires the use of a cocktail fork. after extracting the meat, you then suck the sauce out of the shell.

the flavor and texture is fairly earthy, with a faint mollusk-ie finish.

If you can, Imagine, a shitake mushroom, marinated in oyster brine.. about the only way I can describe it.

End opinion?
Doesn't suck!
would chew again!
pretty huh?

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made of fire and pop rocks

I just gotta say, ewww. Sorry, I don't like much shell food in the first place. You know, crab, shrimp occasionally and lobster (and I really dig lobster) I will eat, but no bi-valves or snails.

I tried snail in elementary school. One of the kid's, in a class I was in, parents ate this and they brought in some for everyone to try one day. The taste wasn't too bad, though a little earthy, like you say, but the texture was like rubber. YUCK. Maybe is was over cooked, or prepared wrong, I don't know, but since then I have had no real inclination to eat garlicy rubber. No matter how much i like garlic. And I do like garlic. A lot.
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"The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science." - Albert Einstein

Uptown_Toodeloo wrote:

I just gotta say, ewww. Sorry, I don't like much shell food in the first place. You know, crab, shrimp occasionally and lobster (and I really dig lobster) I will eat, but no bi-valves or snails. I tried snail in elementary school. One of the kid's, in a class I was in, parents ate this and they brought in some for everyone to try one day. The taste wasn't too bad, though a little earthy, like you say, but the texture was like rubber. YUCK. Maybe is was over cooked, or prepared wrong, I don't know, but since then I have had no real inclination to eat garlicy rubber. No matter how much i like garlic. And I do like garlic. A lot.

actually you hit it right on the head with the texture. which I firmly blame on the fact that they were pre cooked canned snails.
if they were fresh? were looking at a new definition.

and don't lump crustations in with shell fish, they don't have shells, they have exoskeletons, a lobster or crab is more spider than clam. but, I get what yer saying.

if any thing in my little cooking posts, I like to live vicariously through the stuff that some folks may have an interest in trying to eat or taste, but are too objected to, or squeamish to try them self

verily.. its an enactment of your your Einstein quote
please enjoy looking at what strange new thing I'm cooking and trying out, and feel free to comment, good, bad or indifferent, but know, it's not going to suck, it might take you out of your comfort zone, but it wont suck
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made of fire and pop rocks

Well, I'll say yum. Many years ago, my sister got me seriously inebriated. [That's just the way she was.] Anyway, we were at a restaurant, and she decided to order escargot. I said sure, why not? I'm not saying I had to be drunk to try it, but it certainly didn't hurt. I was pleasantly surprised that I liked it as much as I did.

I'm much more adventurous now, food-wise, than I was then. Not sure I'll ever fix them at home, but will definitely order them when the opportunity arises.

Joni
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-- joni

When I was younger I could remember anything, whether it had happened or not; but my faculties are decaying, now, and soon I shall be so I cannot remember any but the latter.

--Mark Twain, Autobiography

I make it a practice not to eat anything I've found crawling on the sidewalk-
especially if it leaves a slime trail...

But then again, I have to convert any meat recipe to fake meat & garlic & cheese are always tasty...

Those snails are kinda making me hungry.

A restaurant down the road from me used to make these flatbread 'pizzas' covered with escargot and goat cheese. They were pretty awesome.

zendao42 wrote:

I make it a practice not to eat anything I've found crawling on the sidewalk- :

Well, with the tough economic times... challenge - can you think of things you might want to eat that would be found on (or near) a sidewalk? Eg. Dandelion greens, pidgeons, ...
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full of sound and fury, signifying nothing

y'know dandilion greens are nice, and now, that it's spring time.. I'm getting the urge to make some dandilion wine.

and really, in these tough economic times.. I would've gotten the escargot kit if it wasn't 75% off the original price.
but then, being in the booze biz, and just gotten a raise and bonus while my department undergoes a million dollar expansion...

well, look for a "how to do a pig roast in the next couple of months

hmm..escargot and goat cheese pizza,,,,
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made of fire and pop rocks

Seriously, we used to have wild garlic growing in the yard but now all that's left is green onions...

Well, come to think of it, we also have a fair amount of clover at the moment-
got any recipes for that?

scratte wrote:

zendao42 wrote: I make it a practice not to eat anything I've found crawling on the sidewalk Well, with the tough economic times... challenge - can you think of things you might want to eat that would be found on (or near) a sidewalk? Eg. Dandelion greens, pidgeons, ...

Nope, don't eat flying rats either...

its been a few ears since I last ate a snail, but its tasty stuff but I never eat the big ones. I always eat the little guys. always.
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current pics: drawings and some photos. http://www.dizzyhellfire.deviantart.com

RedOrcaMoon wrote:

its been a few ears since I last ate a snail, [...]

Corn, or pig ears?
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"If you allow yourself to be offended, then you're a bit of [a] nitwit."
(Christopher Moore)