Monday, June 15, 2015

Creepy & Delicious Food Dishes: Escargot



Hello Darlings, 

Recently, I bought some canned escargot, and I know this is an unremarkable purchase for some people. However, I did not buy the escargot for the snails. I bought them for the shells which were included.  I wanted the shells for my large aquarium as the minerals and other properties in the shells are beneficial to the fish and the water in which they live. Plus they look pretty.

So after washing the shells for aquarium use, my dilemma was what to do with the snails.  We are not normally eaters of every creepy crawly that we as kids grew up seeing only after a hard rain (Northern folks with Southern branches). Such fine fare usually got smashed or salted to stop their slow trespasses. 

So here we are now with a container of escargot (very large snails by any other name) and no one in the house wanted them no closer to our digestive system than the label on the container.
At first I considered flushing them but the ten dollar price tag ceased that idea. Then I tried giving them away but no takers. So what to do with a pricey food item no one found appetizing to look at much less eat. 

My only recourse was to cook and eat them. This meant me and not my husband. He started inspecting every ground meat dish I made until he believed that the meat contained nothing exotic.

After viewing and rejecting several recipes online, I finally pulled together the following recipe with ingredients I like to eat and generally keep on hand to make the following breakfast recipe.

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Breakfast Escargot

Ingredients:

4 oz slice mushrooms
1 can Roland Escargots Giant Snails, 7.75 oz
1 large garlic clove, sliced
½ teaspoon dried parsley
½ teaspoon dried thyme
4 tablespoons margarine  
6 breakfast low sodium sausage links
8-10 shakes red wine vinegar
Pepper to taste

Directions:

1.      While cooking sausages in skillet, clean and slice mushrooms and garlic, set aside.
2.      Remove sausages from skillet, set aside
3.      Drain,  rinse, and dry skillet
4.      Spray skillet lightly with cooking spray and heat to medium heat.
5.      Add the mushrooms and cook for 1-2 minutes, stirring constantly.
6.      Remove mushrooms, drain skillet if necessary, set mushrooms aside
7.      Cut snails in half and each sausage into three sections
8.      Melt margarine in same skillet,
9.      Add and sauté snails for 2 minutes.
10.  On a medium high heat return mushrooms and sausage to skillet; add parsley, thyme, garlic, red wine vinegar, and black pepper
11.  Cook for 2 minutes. 

Serve with a mound of soft scrabble eggs, hot buttery grits, and raisin and cinnamon toast.
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There you have it, a delicious and exotic breakfast created with escargot. Although it is not a meal I would serve regularly, I truly enjoyed it and hope you escargot lovers will too.

Chow!

Monday, June 8, 2015

MY DELUXE SEAFOOD SALAD


Hello Darlings,

Whew, there is no denying it. It is hot outside and the last thing any of us want to do is cook a meal over an equally hot stove. So tonight I am sharing my original deluxe seafood salad. Like some of my other recipes this one is filled with fruit and vegetables. It also has a variety of seafood meat.

INGREDIENTS:

1 can of tuna, 5 oz
1 can of whole baby clams, 10 oz
12 oz. of Boudreaux’s Crawfish Tail Meat, unfrozen
1 bag medium frozen shrimp
1/4 tsp. cilantro
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 tsp lemon juice
1/4 tsp dill weeds
1/4 tsp celery seeds
1/4 cup chopped sweet onion
1/4 cup chopped red onion
1 celery stalk, chopped
1 tablespoon sweet pickle relish
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
1/2 teaspoon gumbo file
1/4 cup carrots, slice
1/4 cup medium diced apple
1/2 cup red, green, or yellow bell pepper
1/2 teaspoon Black Pepper
1 tablespoon Sugar
Salt to taste

DIRECTIONS


  1. Pre-chill baby clams, shrimp, tuna and crawfish in refrigerator 2 to 6 hours 
  2. When seafood is chilled remove from containers and drain
  3. If shrimps have tails on remove them
  4. Place seafood in large mixing bowl
  5. Add all the other ingredients until well mixed.
  6. Transfer salad the medium size bowl and cover
  7. Chill. 
  8. When serving add seafood salad to the top of lettuce or fresh spinach

Tonight I am serving the seafood salad with buttered sweet corn, fries and sliced tomatoes. You can also serve it with cucumber slices, baked beans, or as a sandwich spread, chunky dip, or appetizer on crackers. 

Chow!

Crawfish Casserole

Hello Darlings,

I have a of new recipe for you that can be made with Crawfish (Crawdads as we use to call them) or chicken.



Ingredients

10 lb crawfish tail, if desired substitute with chicken
1 can cream of tomato soup
1 12 cups rice, cooked*
2 tsp. cooling oil
2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp. Tabasco sauce
12 cup chopped bell pepper
1 onion, chopped
1- 8oz can tomatoes
12 cup grated Monterey jack cheese
1 cup grated cheddar cheese
Salt and pepper

Directions


  1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees
  2. Mix all ingredients except cheeses and pour into a large greased casserole..
  3. Cover and bake at for 35 minutes
  4. Uncover and sprinkle cheeses over casserole.
  5. Return to oven and bake for 15 minutes more

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When using Minute Rice

Serving Size 1/2 cup Instant dry rice, makes about 1 cup cooked

*1 cup of regular uncooked rice equals 3 c cooked. So cook ½ cup dry rice to make 1½ cup cooked rice.

The above recipe with the exception of the cheese ingredients is right on the Boudreaux’s Crawfish Tail Meat package. However, if this recipe is too tame for you, try this one from Food.com.



AlligatorSausage & Crawfish Casserole

Well now, you know, the next time those critters go prancing across your lawn or patio area, you’re now properly prepare for them. Just don’t tell the Florida Wildlife Department that I suggested it. Heh, heh.

 Chow!