Epicure
Gastropod gastronomy
By Raymond Zhou (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-11-27 10:24
The recipes for cooking snails can be simple or fancy.
This is the most traditional: Cleanse them by spraying the water with either chili powder or cooking oil. Wait a day or two and change the water frequently.
Fry some minced pepper, ginger and garlic. Add the snails and stir-fry for two minutes. Add three spoonfuls of soy sauce, white sugar, herbs, spices and cooking wine. Stew for 6-9 minutes.
Food stand snails taste better because they marinade for a long time while waiting for customers.
Another way is to fry the snails that have been removed from the shell and marinate them, adding herbs and bamboo shoots. Boil for 20-30 minutes. Then add mint and herbs. The snails have a hot and sour flavor.
A third recipe is to mince the edible part of the snails with meat, marinate, and return to the shell with various kinds of seasoning. Steam for 10-15 minutes.
This compares with the most basic of escargots preparation. Cook and drain two dozen snails. Combine all ingredients, including garlic, parsley, celery, onion, carrot, peppercorns and the snails, in a saucepan. Bring to the boil and simmer for 10 minutes.
Another recipe involves a lot of butter, which is cooked over low heat. The cooking time is five minutes when the snails are put in.
