Down at the bottom of the garden...
Blog Entry: Friday 29 May 2009
“Don’t flinch,” says Alex Renton, “the common garden snail, helix aspersa, is the one known as petit gris in France, smaller and far more prized for cooking than the official edible snail.”
He tells us: “The Romans, it is said, introduced the brown snail to Britain, for their own pleasure…and until quite recently snails were rural pub fare from Somerset to Sunderland, but now people are strangely squeamish about them. Snails fresh and at their best are succulent, mysterious and intriguingly green-tasting — very rewarding for the cook who likes a reaction from his subjects. Try not telling them until after the meal!”
“Collecting snails is easy,” he assures, “especially if you have small children to hand. When you’ve got a dozen or so per dinner guest you need to put them under a bucket or box with air holes in it, somewhere damp and shady, and let the snails detox for a week. Feed them lettuce or bran. When you’re ready, boil them for a minute to kill them. Then they should come out quite easily from their shells, with a pin if necessary. You must soak them in very salty water for half an hour, rinse them and then repeat the process. After that the slime should now be gone. If not, do it again.”
Sharing the recipe his mother has been using since the 1970s, Renton advises to stew the snails gently with an onion and herbs for 90 mintues, drain and place in small earthenware dishes with garlic and parsley butter, and grill until the butter bubbles.
Renton also educates us into “Escoffier’s” which are “snails as a greedy man likes them”, where the cooked snails are stuffed back into their shells in a “meat jelly”, topped with butter with pepper, parsley and garlic, then baked for 10 minutes and served with a cap of bread crumbs fried in butter.
If you’re feeling adventurous, visit the Times Online to read the full article Edible common snails.
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