By Karen England, the Edgehill Herb Farmer.
Snails! Theyāre whatās for lockdown kitchen dinner!
Not sure my family expected that I would serve them snails though, least of all for this momentous, reunited meal. My people are truly great sports and they savored every bite!
Look what the quarantine made me do! It took a full weekās worth of work to accomplish; gathering 50 snails, purging them for five days on a lettuce only diet, then giving them a two day fast, all the while rinsing often ātil they were ready to prepare for eating. Next they were boiled, de-shelled and cleaned before sautĆ©ing ā¦
It all started with the record breaking April rains that just happened to coincide with the quarantine. After the rains came what I can only describe as a āsnailpocalypseā in my garden. All those snails, Carl Sagan billions of them, reminded me of a very funny story that chef Jacques Pepin tells in his memoir The Apprentice about gathering snails at a resort hotel where he was staying before teaching cooking classes in Northern California and I thought, if Jacques values these slime balls that much to teach people how to make escargot then I should take advantage of the endless supply literally at my kitchen door and learn to make some myself.
Thatās what I did in quarantine. What did you make? Iām guessing sourdough and that you did not make snails for dinner. Iāve got the sneaking suspicion that Iām the only oneā¦
River Cottage A-Z
Garlicky Snails with Breadcrumbs
from start to finish!
