Old School Garlic Snails

It's becoming colder lately and even though its warm outside its still chilly inside so I decided to make a rich, satisfying lunch of garlic snails or Escargot as the French call them with fresh herbs picked from the garden and loads of melted butter.

Not all land snails are edible so don't just grab the first thing you see in the garden. Normally snails are removed from their shells, poached in garlic butter or wine and placed back in the shell to serve. They are very high in protein and low in fat, until you add the butter that is! Before eating snails they must go into a bowl of cereals to remove the impurities .

This is the traditional method of eating them in butter but they go great with wine, cream, beer, pinenuts and tomato based sauces to name a few. Always add lots of parsley to counter the strong garlic taste.

Garlic Snails
Serves 2 - 4

4 garlic cloves crushed
200g butter
1 tin snails / escargot
bunch of parsley chopped
squeeze of lemon
crushed black pepper
salt
bread with crusts cut off and cut into fingers

Melt the butter with the garlic and cook for about 5 minutes slowly to cook the garlic.
Add the snails and cook for another 3 -5 minutes to warm through.
Add the herbs, lemon and seasoning.
Serve in a snail dish like in the picture above with the bread on the side.

Picture and recipe by Tamsyn Wells