Yambol Snail Gratin Recipe

I love cooking and snails and would rather have them on my plate than in my garden. For your information, most if not all snails are edible, they can be made into an excellent meal and of course all for free if you find your own. The meat is nutritious, virtually fat free and depending on where you pick your snails, chemical-free.

The recipe given here is my own and specifically for the European Garden Snail (Cornu aspersa) and has been made from ingredients that were available to me living in Bulgaria.

Yambol Snail Gratin

Serves 2

Ingredients:

• 30-40 live snails
• 3-4 green garlic thinly sliced
• 200 grams butter or margarine
• 50 grams sunflower oil
• A large dash of Rakia (homemade if possible)
• Vegetable stock cube
• Salt
• Water (enough to cover the snails)
• Breadcrumbs

Note:

Ingredients not available in your country can be substituted
Rakia for brandy or dry white wine
Sirene for goat cheese or other white cheese
Green Garlic for Dried garlic


Preparation of the Snails:

The snails need to fast for at least two days before being cooked. It is best to use a plastic bowl and some chicken wire over the top. They need to be stored in a cool and well-ventilated place. Rinsing them out with plenty of running water every 12 hours is recommended.



Method
Prepare a pan of boiling water add the stock and salt and carefully add the live snails. Bring back to the boil and simmer for 12-15 minutes. Using a colander drain the water off. When cool enough to handle, use a pin or sharp skewer and extract the snail meat form the shells. Try to get the whole snail meat not just the first section you will be surprised how much snails there is in there. Once all extracted rinse and put to one side.

In a frying pan add the butter, garlic and bring to an agitated sizzle, then add the rakia and the snail meat immediately after. Continue frying on a high heat whilst stirring all the time for 2-3 minutes add a pinch of salt and stir then take away from the heat.

Place the snail mixture equally in ovenproof bowls and cover with breadcrumbs and sprinkle a little crumbled sirene over the top of this. Place under a grill until you see the breadcrumbs turn golden brown.

Serve hot with cold lager type beer.

This snail dish can be served the next day as a cold snack.

Tip:

The snails can be refrigerated for one or two days or frozen up to three months once boiled and picked out of their shells. Make sure they are defrosted thoroughly before frying if frozen and keep in air-tight containers.

Bulgarian Sunday Lunch In The Slow Lane

Snails are free food, but the appeal certainly isn't a favourite with most people and that’s not just vegetarians either. The thought of the slow, slimy, slippery creatures as a meal just puts many if not most people off. Snails are land lubbers where whelks are seafaring with a more popular following as a snack, but essentially they are the same in both physical looks, texture although having a more distinctive taste. So why the big ‘Yuk!’ to garden snails on the dinner plate?

It was snails on the menu this weekend for Galia and I as we stopped just outside Yambol after a night of rain together snails that large and abundant. Free food, but not restricted to Bulgaria, in the UK garden snails are edible albeit more polluted. We knew the snails we were picking up were healthy and succulent on the fresh green spring growth that had dinner written all over it for these lucky snails and the snails in turn had dinner written all over them for us. Oh the food chain is wonderful thing isn't it?

We must have picked about 30 to 40 snails and took them the farmhouse where we put them in a bucket with an iron grill off the barbecue system and weighted it down with a Skalitsa healing stone we had picked up last year whilst being healed, so any ill snails would be cured, but they couldn't escape. They could poke their heads though the grate but their shell houses couldn't be dragged through with them. To eat snails you need their digestive system to be clear and that means starving them for two days. It was Friday so they would be ready to cook on Sunday; this was our plan for Sunday lunch.

Each morning and evening I washed them out with water and put them back in the bucket. Sunday morning after their last wash they were put into some boiling water then winkled out with a skewer. Then the snail meat was fried in butter and home grown green garlic with a little rakia and turned out in a couple of ramekin bowls. Each bowl of snails was covered with breadcrumbs and grilled until brown.

Outside, Galia had set the table outside in the sunshine that had come out after the rain we had had for two days. This had some cold Sofia beer called ‘Ariana,’ waiting on the table to greet us along with the snail dishes that were ready to serve. We spend the next 20 minutes enjoying out free feed in beautiful surroundings being washed down with cold beer. Yambol snails and Sofia beer - A great combination!

I recommend snails for Sunday lunch to anyone, it is a superb no cost chemical-free food with little if no fat and no animal rights campaigners in sight! Notice I haven't mentioned the French - Oops I just did!

My own step-by-step snail recipe is being prepared in next post.