An all time French classic.

Snails in garlic butter – the all time French classic. You don’t have to pluck these critters from the garden, canned snails can be found in many specialty food stores. There’s also an art to eating escargot, hold the shell with small tongs and use a fork to extract the snail. And there’s no shame in slurping out every drop of the delicious butter sauce.

INGREDIENTS

Garlic butter

• 20 g / 4 tsp shallots

• 10 g / 2 tsp garlic

• 100 g / 3.5 ozs butter (softened by being removed from the fridge some time beforehand)

• 20 g / 4 tsp parsley

• Pinch of salt and pepper

Preparing the snails

• 100 g / 3.5 ozs snails in brine

• 2 sprigs of thyme

• 1 bay leaf

• 1 litre (4 cups) of water

• ½ vegetable stock cube

• 1 box of snail shells (optional)

PROCEDURE

1. Preheat your oven to 220C (428F).

2. To make the garlic butter, blitz the garlic and shallots together in a food processor, then add the parsley and process again until you the mixture is fine.

3. Remove the processed ingredients to a bowl and add the butter a little at a time using a wooden spoon until smooth.

4. Stir in the seasoning and chill to allow the flavors to infuse.

5. Meanwhile, drain the canned snails and rinse.

6. Bring the water, stock cube, thyme and bay leaf together to the boil, then reduce the heat to simmer.

7. Tip in the snails and simmer for 2-3 minutes, then remove and drain. Leave to cool.

8. To assemple the snails, insert a little of the butter compound into each shell, add a snail and gently press down (but not too far as otherwise it many be difficult to extract when ready to eat). Top each snail with a nub of butter to cover the opening of the shell and smooth over with a spoon. 

9. Place the shells in an ovenproof dish on a bed of rock salt and bake for 10 minutes.

10. Remove from the oven and serve piping hot.