Name: Escargots à la Bordelaise (Snails cooked in wine and spices)
Yield: For 4-6 as a starter or hefty apéritif
Cuisine: French
Ingredients: 2 teaspoons dried ground pepper or cayenne; 75 g poitrine fumée (smoked bacon); ½ carrot; 2 tablespoons cognac; About 60-70 ready-to-cook shelled snails (the tins and jars will usually say how many are inside); 1 tablespoon fennel seeds; 2 strips of orange zest; 2 sprigs of thyme; 75 g mild chorizo sausage; 2 tablespoons olive oil; 2 shallots; 2 medium tomatoes, skinned and deseeded; 750 ml full-bodied red wine, such as Côtes du Rhône; 1 onion; Sprig of flat-leaf parsley, to garnish; 2 garlic cloves

Preparation info

For
4-6
as a starter or hefty apéritif

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Nobody Does it Better

By Trish Deseine

Published 2007

About

The original recipe starts with: ‘First, catch the snails. Then starve and purge them for three days.’ If you are in the know, you can buy them alive in certain markets, starved and ready-purged. All you have to do is murder them in boiling vegetable stock then rinse off the foam, and they are ready for the recipe. Simple really.

Happily, mine come in jars from a small producer in Provence - dead, shelled, poached and preserved in a light herb broth. You will easily find them like t