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!
Hello Darlings,
