Grilled Snails Escargots Grilles Recipes

GRILLED SNAILS / ESCARGOTS GRILLES

Steps:

• 1. Drain the escargots in a colander and rinse well under cold running water. Drain again and blot dry with paper towels. Melt 3 tablespoons of the lard in a medium-size saucepan over medium heat. Add the shallots, garlic, celery, parsley, thyme, curry powder, and salt and pepper and sauté until the vegetables are soft and translucent but not brown, about 3 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and let the mixture cool to room temperature.2. Preheat the grill to high.3. Whisk the remaining lard into the cooled vegetable mixture, then place a portion of the mixture the size of a hazelnut in each escargot shell, using the tip of a butter knife. Insert the escargot in the shell and fill with some of the remaining vegetable mixture, placing each snail as it is filled on a baking sheet or platter (see Note).4. When ready to cook, place a vegetable grate or wire cake rack on top of the grill grate. Arrange the snails, open side up, on the rack and grill until the filling is bubbling and fragrant, 3 to 5 minutes. Use tongs to transfer the snails to plates and serve at once.Makes 2 dozen snails serves 4 as an appetizerNote: The recipe can be prepared to this point up to several hours in advance. Refrigerate, loosely covered with plastic wrap, until ready to grill.

ESCARGOTS WITH PERSILLADE BUTTER

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 475 degrees F. Prepare the Persillade Butter: In the bowl of a food processor, add butter, garlic, shallots, parsley, chives, almond flour, salt, pepper, and cayenne. Blend until bright green and uniformly combined, stopping to scrape the sides of the bowl and push down the parsley as needed. Makes 1 cup.
• To cool the butter: Place Persillade Butter on a square of plastic wrap. Roll into a log about the same diameter as the divots of the escargot dish; then wrap tightly, removing as much air as possible. Place in the refrigerator. (Persillade Butter can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 2 days and in the freezer for up to 1 month.)
• Escargots, part 1: Remove snails from the can and drain; discard the liquid. Escargot can be prepared with or without shells. With shells: Use a small spoon to push a snail into each shell; do not push too deeply, or the snails will be hard to retrieve. Without shells: Place one snail in each divot of an escargot dish.
• Escargots, part 2: Use an offset spatula to pack each snail shell with about 1 tablespoon of the Persillade Butter. Neatly level off the butter at the opening and place in the escargot dish, opening side up. (As the escargots bake, some of the butter will melt out of the shells and into the dish.)Without shells: It's best to use well-chilled Persillade Butter for escargots without shells. Unwrap the log of butter and slice about 1 tablespoon of butter per snail. Cover each snail with a slice of butter. Use a paring knife to trim away the top and bottom of each cherry tomato; then cut in half. Top each snail with a slice of cherry tomato. Place both escargot dishes on a rimmed baking sheet lined with parchment paper (for easy clean-up). Roast in the oven until butter is foaming, 8-10 minutes.
• Remove escargots from oven. Serve hot with escargot forks (optional) and baguette slices.

STALKING THE ELUSIVE GRILLED SNAIL

Steps:

• Barbecue lends itself to obsession. If you're afflicted with an obsessive personality like me and you start to delve into the world of barbecue, you may soon find all your spare time literally going up in smoke. The truth is well known to the legions of barbecue "widows" who have lost their husbands to barbecue contests and smoke fests. This truth became apparent during a 10-day swing through the south of France to study the elusive art of French grilling.Barbara (my wife) and I had been on the road for about a week, and this being Sunday, it was to be our first night "off" (without any special dining plans). Then I made the fatal mistake of calling French culinary authority Patricia Wells, who told me about grilled snails.Grilled snails are the specialty of a restaurant called L'Hostal in the hamlet of Castellnou near Perpignan in southwestern France. The problem was that we were in Arles (the Provençal town immortalized by Van Gogh), some 400 miles away.A call to the restaurant confirmed that yes, they had grilled snails. Yes, I could order them for this evening. No, the restaurant would not be open Monday or Tuesday. Yes, it was too bad we were leaving France on Wednesday. Yes, if we wanted grilled snails, we'd have to eat them that night.I did some quick calculations. If we left our hotel in 10 minutes and drove a hundred miles an hour, we could be in Castellnou by sundown. I turned to Barbara and said, "I've just found a place that serves grilled snails.""Great," she said. "Let's go.""There's only one problem," I said. "The restaurant is near the Spanish border."Luckily, when it comes to barbecue, my wife is nearly as obsessive as I am.True to my calculations, we arrived in Castellnou four hours later, having averaged a hundred miles an hour on the autoroute. The last six miles took us up a steep, winding road to a perfectly restored medieval citadel. We found L'Hostal without much trouble (it being the only restaurant in town). Still vibrating from the drive, we took our seats on a cliffside terrace with a dizzying, dazzling view of the Roussillon Valley.In the summer, L'Hostal does its grilling in a huge outdoor fireplace. In the winter, the operations are moved to the manorial hearth in the low-ceilinged dining room. The favored fuel here is vine trimmings, branches for delicate fare, like snails, vine stalks and roots for large cuts of meat. When we arrived sure enough, and sure enough, four dozen tiny snails were sizzling away on a circular wire grill over blazing vine trimmings.With tolls, gas, and a place to stay for the evening, the trip to Castellnou cost $400. Which makes this one of the most expensive dishes of escargots I've ever eaten. It was worth the drive-and the money-for I've never seen grilled escargot anywhere else.In one sense, neither you nor I will ever be able to reproduce this recipe at home. We probably can't get the tiny, succulent escargots known locally as petits gris ("little grays"). We certainly can't buy them live or feed them on fresh thyme in special cages in our basements. We can't buy snail grills, although a vegetable grate or round cake rack perched on a couple of bricks will work in a pinch.Ultimately, we will never be able to duplicate the texture and flavor of L'Hostal's grilled snails: the former being soft, moist, even a little "drooly" (baveuse in French), the latter being pungent, salty, aromatic, with overtones of thyme and even curry. But I love a challenge. So, although we may not be able to duplicate the dish, I've come up with a recipe for highly delicious grilled snails inspired by L'Hostal's preparation (see the facing page). As for the grill, well, Barbara is still wondering what happened to our cake rack.