Speak pipe

5.5.07

Hamburger Przepisy i Historia

Prawdziwe Hamburgery

W czasie mojego pobytu w USA miałem przyjemność zjejść ponad 100 różnych naprawdę smacznych odmian wołowych hamburgerów.W Mc Donaldzie jadłem tylko jeden raz.Drugi raz jadł tam mój pies myśliwski Lucy,gdzie po długim dniu polowania,zapomniałem jej kupić karmę.Najlepsze hamburgery można spożyć nie w fast foodach tylko w wielu małych restauracjach lub barach amerykańskich.Wiele restauracji specjalizuje się w hamburgerach smakosza,jest to najwyższej jakości mięso podane z wyszukanymi dodatkami.Ich cena zaczyna się od 8 dollarów a kończy na 60 dollarach w przypadku wołowiny japońskiej typu Kobe.

Różnica pomiędzy Polskim a Amerykańskim Hamburgerem

Większośc Polaków źle kojarzy sobie hamburgera,często ich jedyna styczność z nimi była w fast foodach w Polsce lub zagranicą.Fast foody serwują jedne z najgorszych hamburgerów.To co w Polsce uchodzi za hamburger,nie ma nic wspólnego z orginałem.Są to jakieś niedoprawione , niesmaczne mieszanki wołowo,kurczakowe,wieprzowe z dużą domieszką buły ,soi lub innych wypełniaczy brzucha,potem polane jakimś niesmacznym sosem tak że w ogóle nie można wyczuć smaku mięsa.Prawdziwy hamburger to 80% zmielonego chudego mięsa wołowego-udziec lub łopatka ,opiekany 4 minuty z jednej strony i 3 minuty z drugiej strony,podany z chrupiącą bułeczką mieszczącą smaczne dodatki takie jak awokado,cebula,bekon,pomidory,ser i inne.Rzadko okraszamy hamburger ketczupem(ketczup przytłumia smak dobrego mięsa),najczęściej stosowane sosy to sos 1000 wysp i remoulade.

Hamburger po amerykańsku
- 50 dag mielonej wołowiny
- 2 cebule
- sól
- pieprz
- zioła prowansalskie a jeśli nie mamy ich to wystarczy oregano i lub tymianek
- 4 plastry bekonu
- 4 bułki do hamburgerów,najlepsze są duże chrupiące
- 8 cieniutkich plasterków sera ( morski,cheddar lub ementaler)
- 1-2 pomidory
- kilka listków sałaty
- majonez, musztarda i ketchup do smaku
Wymieszaj mięso z jajkiem i jedną posiekaną cebulą, przypraw solą,szczyptą kawy instant, pieprzem i ziołami. Uformuj 4 steki, upiecz je na grillu lub na ruszcie piekarnika (piecz tak długo, jak lubisz: dłużej, jeśli hamburger ma być wypieczony, krócej, jeśli w środku ma pozostać soczysty). Upiecz na grillu także bekon oraz bułki posmarowane masłem i przekrojone na połówki. Drugą cebulę pokrój w krążki.Oprócz świeżej cebuli ,można ją podsmażyć. Na każdej połówce połóż plaster sera i poczekaj, aż się stopi. Między dwie połówki bułki włóż stek, plasterki pomidorów, krążki cebuli, bekon oraz sałatę. Polej ketchupem i musztardą. Chociaż ja preferuje majonez i skropienie mięsa sosem chilli

http://www.hamburger.pl/index.php?inc=tips Porady i przepisy

Mistrzostwa Świata w Spożywaniu Hamburgerów
2005-12-10 Aktualny Mistrz Świata w spożywaniu hot dogów Takeru Kobayashi, był niepokonany na Mistrzostwach Świata w Spożywaniu Hamburgerów w Chattanooga. W obecności ok. 2000 kibiców zwyciężył z wynikiem 67 hamburgerów zjedzonych w 8 min. Pula nagród wynosiła 22500 USD , z czego Kobayashi za zwycięstwo zainkasował 1000 USD. Jak widać jedzenie hamburgerów, może korzystnie odbić się na zasobności portfela.
Historia
XIII w.Jeźdżcy, koczowniczych plemion Tatarów, odkrywają, że mięso wołowe nabiera delikatności po przez umieszczenie go, na czas jazdy na koniu pod siodłem. Następnie siekali je i spożywali na surowo (popularny do dzisiaj tatar), lub piekli na ruszcie nad ogniskiem.
XIV w.Przez kraje bałtyckie, a następnie przez Morze Bałtyckie za sprawą niemieckich marynarzy, potrawa ta dociera do Hamburga. Tam pomysłowi niemieccy kucharze dodają do mięsa pokrojoną cebulę, regionalne przyprawy i smażą je. Tak przygotowana potrawa, pod nazwą " stek hamburski " zdobywa, ogromną popularność.
XIX w.W Anglii, doktor Junior H. Salisburry, lekarz i reformator żywności głosił, iż jedzenie mielonej wołowiny trzy razy dziennie, ma zbawienny wpływ na układ trawienia. Sparzona gorącą wodą, mielona wołowina, nabyła wtedy nazwę - " stek Salisbury". Jednocześnie niemieccy imigranci, przywożą " stek hamburski" do Stanów Zjednoczonych. Potrawa stopniowo trafia menu restauracji amerykańskich. Pierwsze menu, w którym oferowano hamburgera, pochodzi z roku 1834 ( restauracja Delmonico w Nowym Yorku).
1904 r.Na Światowej Wystawie w St. Louis (USA), po raz pierwszy pojawia się hamburger w formie kanapki. Natychmiast podbija amerykańskie serca (żołądki ?).
1920 r.Walt Anderson i Billy Ingram , zakładają w Wichita, pierwszą znaną i działającą do dzisiaj sieć " fast food ", pod nazwą : White Castle.
1924 r.W Pasadenie (Kalifornia), Lionel Sternberger, przyrządza pierwszego cheeseburgera.
1940 r.Bracia Maurice i Richard Mc Donalds, otwierają w San Bernardino (Kalifornia) bar w, którym podają hot-dogi i sok ze świeżych pomarańczy.
1948r. Bracia wdrażają "Speedee Service System"po plsku to oznacza szybki system obsług i jest to podwaliną nowoczesnych fast foodów
1954 r.James W. Mc Lamore i David Edgerton zakładają w Miami, spółkę Burger King.
1955 r.Po otwarciu wspólnie z braćmi Mc Donald 9 restauracji,Ray Kroc wykupuje udziały od braci i rozpoczyna tworzenie imperium fast-food'ów.Ray Kroc otwiera w Des Plaines, pierwszą restaurację Mc Donalds, w której zastosował, znane do dzisiaj metody zarządzania. Utarg z pierwszego dnia wynosił 366.12 $.
1979 r. 8 lutego, Alan Peterson wpisał się do Księgi Guinnesa. Zjadł 209 hamburgerów, potrzebował na to pół godziny.
1981 r.Wielka trójka amerykańskich sieci ' fast food ", tj. Mc Donalds, Burger King i Wendys, osiągnęła 60 % udział w rynku sprzedaży hamburgerów.
1989r W Seymour (WI), usmażono największego na świecie hamburgera. Miał wielkość dwóch garaży samochodowych i podzielono go na 2000 porcji.
1990 r. McDonald otwiera pierwszą restaurację we wschodnich Niemczech. Tego samego roku na Placu Puszkina w Moskwie pojawia się największa restauracja tego typu o powierzchni 27.000 stóp kwadratowych, z miejscem dla 700 osób i 27 kasami! .Pierwszym managerem w Moskwie był Polski imigrant z Milwaukee,Wi.Rosja jest najbardziej dochodowym i dynamicznym rynkiem dla Mc Donalda
1995 r.86 % mieszkańców USA, przyznało, że przynajmniej jeden raz w życiu jadło hamburgera.
1998 r.Departament of Criminal Justice w Teksasie, podał do wiadomości, że z pośród 144 więźniów skazanych na karę śmierci, jako ostatni posiłek 46 więźniów wybrało hamburgery (22 podwójny cheeseburger, 15 cheeseburger, pozostali hamburgery).
Dziś sieć McDonald's to 35.000 restauracji w 119 krajach na całym globie. Hamburgery doczekały się również własnego filmu. W 2004 roku filmowiec Morgan Spurlock przedstawia film "Super Size Me". Dokumentalny film ukazuje skutki jedzenia w fast-food'ach. Morgan Spurlock przez 30 dni żywi się jedynie junk-food'em z sieci McDonald's, czego skutkiem są powazne problemy ze zdrowiem.


ŹRÓDŁA: Hamburger Heaven, Jeffrey Tennyson, Hyperion; 1993.Nation's Restaurant News 1995, 1999 Resturants &Institutionshttp://www.mcdonalds.com/corporate/info/history/history.html

3.5.07

Mexican food recipies and food glossary,Cinco de Mayo holiday

Mexican food a culinary glossary
http://www.cook-mexican.com/
Mexican recipies
Cinco de Mayo Holiday and more recipies
http://www.epicurious.com/cooking/holiday/cinco_de_mayo/index?mbid=RF
http://www.mexconnect.com/mex_/recipes/foodindex.html
http://www.texmextogo.com/Recipes.htm
http://www.cooking-mexican-recipes.com/
http://www.lomexicano.com/
http://allrecipes.com/Recipes/World-Cuisine/Latin-America/Mexico/Main.aspx
http://www.myhomecooking.net/mexican-food-recipes/
http://www.ortega.com/
Awokado
PL zobacz mój stary post
Mexico was “independent” indepedent after 1821 and none of the relevant dates associated with this independence fell in May. So unbeknownst to many tequila addled revelers, they are not drinking to Mexican independence. No, Cinco de Mayo is the celebration of a man, the Mexican Abraham Lincoln, Benny Juarez, and his success in dealing with the 18th century credit card countries.
Post 1821, Mexican government was volatile and fiscally imprudent. They didn’t have the tax collection revenue to support all the spending they were doing, so by 1861 their credit score was crap and they were way late on their payments to France, England and Spain. They wanted to handle it the right way, so they called up those countries and let them know “Hey, we can’t make the payments now, but we will work out a payment plan starting in two years so we can get our house in order. We’re good for it, our new president is Benito Juarez and he is basically the shit.” France, England and Spain sent armed representations to Mexico, and England and Spain walked way appeased after some negotiations.
France however planned to repossess all of Mexico to pay off their debt because that was just how Emperor Napoleon III did things. They came en force and this was back before they were soft. The Mexicans needed to demonstrate to their collection agents that they weren’t gonna go down without a scuffle, and that collecting on their debt was bad business for any credit card country. General Zaragoza, led a collection of Indians and Mexican soldiers to fight back and crush a French force that was 15-25x as large.. It was like the Alamo, but if we won and were also Mexican. It was a rough and tumble few years, but this victory, Benito Juarez and later the support of the United States, brought Mexico into good times.


If your idea of Mexican food is a cheese crisp, it's time to change your gringo ways. Mexican food - from Oaxacan mole chicken to red snapper seasoned with cinnamon, cloves, capers and white wine - offers a wide variety of flavors and foods.Here are simple definitions to help navigate ordering from menus and, for the ambitious, cooking their own:

Achiote: Annatto seeds with slightly bitter, earthy flavor that is used for seasoning and coloring.
Adobo: A sauce made with vinegar, chiles and garlic and typically served over chicken or stew.
Bolillo: French-style, crusty bread rolls served with entrees and used for sandwiches.
Borracho: Literally means "drunk" and refers to sauces made with tequila or pulque, a thick beer made from the agave plant.
Cajeta: A confection made by simmering goat's milk and sugar to a thick paste.
Caldo: A broth fortified with poached chicken, a little rice, cilantro, Serrano chile and white onion, all finely chopped.
Carnitas: Pork, usually simmered in enough lard to cover it, often adding garlic and sometimes fruit juices, until tender and crisp, then used as a filling for tacos.
Chipotle peppers in adobo sauce: A spicy condiment of chiles, herbs and vinegar. The sauce is medium hot, with a smoky, slightly sweet flavor. It's good in chili, soups and barbecue sauces.
Chorizo: A spicy Mexican sausage made from coarsely ground fresh pork mixed with garlic, chiles and spices.
Cilantro: The bright green leaves and stems of the coriander plant have a lively, pungent flavor.
Empanada: A pastry turnover filled with meat, fruits or other sweets.
Enfrijolada: A corn tortilla dipped into pureed beans.
Epazote: A pungent herb that adds zest to beans, fish, beef and chicken.
Escabeche: A mixture of vinegar, oil, herbs and seasonings used to preserve or "pickle" foods such as poultry, fish, chiles and other vegetables.
Flan: Custard of dessert made with milk or cream, and eggs.
Masa: This is simply the Spanish word for "dough." It refers to the corn dough used to make tortillas and tamales as well as other traditional Mexican dishes.
Menudo: Soup or stew made with tripe and flavored with chiles. A specialty of northern Mexico, it's considered a cure for hangovers.
Mole: Complex dark sauce with chiles, nuts, spices, fruits, vegetables and seasonings.
Flor de calabaza: Squash blossoms used in everything from soups to sauces.
Nopales: Prickly pear cactus pads eaten as a vegetable.
Pepitas: Pumpkin seeds with a delicate flavor that intensifies when roasted and salted. Often ground and used in sauces.
Piloncillo: This unrefined sugar, called panela or panocha, is hard, dark brown and chemical free. It's sold in cones about 3 inches tall.
Queso fresco: Cheese made from cow and goat milk. It tastes like a mild feta, crumbles easily and is good in salads or with beans.
Tacos al carbon: This specialty of northern Mexico refers to tacos filled with charbroiled meats.
Tamarind: The fruit of a shade tree, these pods contain seeds and a sour-sweet pulp. This fruit is used to flavor drinks such as aguas frescas and meat dishesd meat dishes.

2.5.07

POKRZYWY SĄ SMACZNE

POKRZYWY SĄ SMACZNE
Mało kto wie że z pokrzywy są pyszne i były używane w Europie już w czasach prehistorycznych.Uwaga zbierając pokrzywy miejmy albo rękawiczki lub dwa worki foliowe założone na ręce.Liście i łodygi pokrzyw pokryte są gruczołkami wydzielającymi kwas mrówkowy powodujący podrażnienie skóry i pieczenie. Gotowanie lub suszenie usuwa piekące właściwości. Roślina jest pospolita w całym kraju na przydrożach, przychaciach, rumowiskach i w zaroślach. Tam też występuje pokrzywa żegawka - mniejsza i delikatniejsza - bardziej przydatna do celów spożywczych.Młode liście i pędy od przedwiośnia do maja są bardzo wartościowym pokarmem po ugotowaniu. Później należy używać jedynie najmłodszych liści na wierzchołku pędu, o ile są zielone i świeże. Z liści - po sparzeniu gorącą wodą lub krótkim (3-4 min) obsmażeniu na oleju - przyrządza się zupy, dodaje się do nadzienia, sałatek, jajecznicy, omletów, mielonych mięs, past i nadzienia słonych ciast. Nieźle wychodzi mieszanka BMP (liście brzozy, mniszka, pokrzywy). Można je przyrządzać jak szparagi lub drobno pokrojonymi zastępować zieloną pietruszkę..
Z młodych liści pokrzywy ważono czasem piwo.
Napar stosuje się jako lek moczopędny, przeciwkrwotoczny i poprawiający przemianę materii, a zewnętrznie przeciw łupieżowi i wypadaniu włosów. Sok ze świeżego ziela poleca się przy anemii, do tamowania krwawień i gojenia ran. Na poparzenia pokrzywą działa łagodząco sok z babki.
Pokrzywa może też dostarczyć surowca na sznurki i nici. Z korzeni można uzyskać żółty barwnik do jaj wielkanocnych.

Zupa pokrzywowa ze słoniną
- Salaterka młodych pokrzyw, 1 łyżka oleju, 2 łyżki mąki, 50 g bekonu, 1,5 l wywaru, sól, pieprz, szklanka kwaśnej śmietany, 50 g żółtego sera.
Na oleju podsmażyć drobno pokrojoną słoninę. Gdy zrobi się złocista, posypać ją mąką i ciągle mieszając rumienić Zasmażkę zalać wywarem, dobrze mieszać i gotować. Dodać umyte, drobno posiekane pokrzywy i gotować jeszcze przez 10 min. Do zupy wlać śmietanę, przyprawić i podawać posypaną utartym serem i dodać ugotowane jajka jak do szczawiowej

Zupka z pokrzywą
: • 40 dag młodej posiekanej pokrzywy • 4 łyżki masła, 1 cebula • 1/2 szkl smietany, 3 jajka ugotowane na twardo • natka pietruszki, soł, pieprz WYKONANIE: 1. Pokrzywę podsmażamy na maśle razem z cebulą i zalewamy 1 1/2 l wrzątku z solą, dolewamy śmietanę i dodajemy pokrojone jajka. 2. Na koniec posypujemy natką pietruszki. Podajemy z grzankami .

Jajka w sosie pokrzywowo-serowym
Przygotowanie: 10 minut
Smażenie: ok. 10 minut
• 2 szklanki pokrzywy
• cebula
• 2 łyżki oleju
• serek topiony typu chedar
• 2 szklanki bulionu drobiowego
• 2 łyżki mąki
• 2 łyżki oleju
• łyżeczka curry
1. Pokrzywę płuczemy dokładnie, siekamy, cebule obieramy i kroimy w piórka, szklimy cebulę dwie minutki, na rozgrzanym oleju, dodajemy pokrzywę, trzymamy na palniku 5 minut. W rondelku miksujemy bulion z pokrzywą i serkiem. Przygotowujemy zasmażkę z mąki i oleju (mąkę rumienimy na suchej patelni, rozprowadzamy olejem). Zagęszczamy sos. Doprawiamy curry.
2. Podajemy do ryżu , posypujemy wytopionym boczkiem.


Frittata z pokrzywą
- ok. 4 garści listków pokrzywy
- 3 łyżki masła
- ok. 5 łyżek oliwy
- 4 jajka
-gałka muszkałtowa
- sól i świeżo zmielony czarny pieprz
Sposób przyrządzania:
Wybieramy jedynie młode listki pokrzywy, dokładnie je płuczemy i osuszamy.
Na patelni rozpuszczamy masło - gdy dobrze się rozgrzeje, dodajemy pokrzywę, solimy ją, doprawiamy pieprzem i dusimy przez ok. 5 minut z dodatkiem 6 łyżek wody (wodę wlewamy nie od razu, lecz po upływie mniej więcej dwóch minut, gdy sos puszczony przez listki odparuje).
Gdy woda wyparuje, wlewamy na patelnię oliwę i zaraz potem roztrzepane widelcem jajka z dodatkiem soli i pieprzu. Smażymy z obu stron, z każdej 3 minuty. Gałkę muszkałtową startą dodajemy ją na końcu smażenia przed podaniem na stół

Szpinak z młodej pokrzywy
Składniki:
młoda pokrzywa – 70 dag
mąka – 1-1,5 łyżki
masło – 1-2 łyżki
mleko – 1 szklanka
czosnek – 1 ząbek
gałka muszkałtowa
sól
Młode liście pokrzywy wypłukać, zalać wrzącą lekko posoloną wodą i chwilę gotować. Osączyć, przestudzić następnie zemleć lub pokroić. Czosnek rozetrzeć z solą, dodać do pokrzywy. Przygotować zasmażkę. Masło stopić i wymieszać z mąką, zasmażyć, wlać zimne mleko, wymieszać, zagotować.
Zasmażkę połączyć z pokrzywą, mocno podgrzać.gałkę muszkałtową startą dodajemy ją na końcu smażenia przed podaniem na stół

Wino pokrzywowe
Jest moczopędne, dezynfekuje przewody moczowe, działa przeciwkrwotocznie, przeciwzapalnie, przeciwbiegunkowo i pobudza przemianę materii.
Pić 2-3 razy dziennie po 25 ml
50 g liści pokrzywy
50 g korzenia pokrzywy
1 l wina białego wytrawnego
50 ml spirytusu 96 °
Pokrzywy zalać w naczyniu winem i spirytusem. Po 10 dniach maceracji pod przykryciem przecedzić i rozlać do butelek.

Robakożerca

Robakożerca
GW 2005-05-30 Konrad Godlewski
Dr Łukasz Łuczaj prosi wszystkich, którzy znają ludowe przepisy na dania z bezkręgowców i innych rzadziej jadanych mięs, o kontakt. Więcej informacji na stronie: www.luczaj.comMam zasadę: jak czegoś nie tykają Indianie albo Chińczycy, trzymam się od tego z daleka. Mógłbym pojechać w dowolne miejsce w Europie, nakopać kłączy, nazbierać larw i zrobić sobie obiadRozmowa z doktorem Łukaszem Łuczajem o jadalnych bezkręgowcach
Jak smakują koniki polne?
Jak szprotki. Na surowo są mdłe i lepiej je przyrządzić na ogniu, bo mogą być nosicielami larw tasiemca. Po usmażeniu albo uprażeniu zyskują pikantny posmak, jakby były solone i doprawione olejem. Ludzie pytają: "Czym je przyprawiłeś?". Odpowiadam, że takie już są.
Wszystkie owady są lepsze po ugotowaniu?
Gatunki, które gruntownie zmieniają się po przekształceniu w dorosłą postać, najczęściej są jadalne jako poczwarki albo larwy. Bywają mdłe, lecz są za to lekkostrawne, bo nie zawierają twardych części. To po prostu kupka białka i tłuszczu. Można je smażyć bez oleju niczym skwareczki.
Dorosłe owady mają dużo chityny, której ludzki organizm nie trawi.
Chityna po prostu przelatuje przez nasz układ trawienny, choć niektóre części owadów, jak np. nogi koników polnych, mogą być ostre. Dlatego lepiej je uprażyć, żeby stały się kruche. Są tacy, co uważają, że chityna dobrze wpływa na perystaltykę jelit. Opracowuje się nawet diety chitynowe zawierające skorupiaki i grzyby, bo one także są źródłem chityny.
A dorosłe chrząszcze są jadalne?
Na ogół nie. Niektóre cuchną. Biedronki są gorzkie i trujące. Wyjątkową rewelacją jest za to pływak żółtobrzeżek, chrząszcz wodny, bardzo ceniony na Dalekim Wschodzie. Po usmażeniu albo ugotowaniu smakuje jak kurczak. Wprawdzie trzeba go obrać, odrywając m.in. pokrywy skrzydeł, ale to łatwiejsze niż jedzenie kraba.
Raz jadłem chrabąszcza majowego, bo są teraz rzadkie, zapewne za sprawą pestycydów w rolnictwie. Jadalny jest tylko odwłok. Chrabąszcze były kiedyś jedzone w Karpatach Wschodnich przez wieśniaków wołoskich, a w czasie głodu karmiono się nimi w Irlandii.
Chrząszcze z rodziny Meliaceae, czyli majkowate, zawierają kantarydrynę, która jest trująca. W małych ilościach ma jednak działanie podniecające. Przedstawicielem tej rodziny jest słynna hiszpańska mucha. Niestety, nigdy nie miałem okazji jej skosztować, ale gdyby ktoś z czytelników miał na zbyciu dorosłe osobniki, to chętnie je odkupię. Sprawdzimy z żoną, czy naprawdę działają.
A potem rozwiniecie hodowlę przemysłową.
Trzeba uważać, kantarydryna to trucizna. Markiz de Sade trafił do więzienia, bo dwie prostytutki, które poczęstował hiszpańską muchą, zmarły. Przedawkował.
Co byś powiedział na świerszczyka?
Smakują podobnie do koników polnych, tak jak cały rząd prostoskrzydłych. Można je kupić w sklepach zoologicznych jako karmę dla jaszczurek i hodować w domu. Świerszcze ze sklepu są jednak "kościste", to jest twardsze i ostrzejsze. Może to kwestia tego, że karmią je ziemniakami? Ja tam wolę dzikie i ekologiczne koniki polne.
Do prostoskrzydłych zalicza się także szarańczę. Podobno jest smaczna, niestety, nie miałem okazji spróbować. Jadłem za to turkucia podjadka, fascynujące zwierzę. Uszkodziłem jednego przy przekopywaniu rabaty i uprażyłem na ognisku. Był smaczny, duży i mięsisty.
Jadasz wszystkie owady?
Bardzo smaczne są ważki, ale trudno je złapać, a wiele gatunków jest pod ochroną. Duże okazy mogą też chyba ugryźć, bo mają spore narządy gębowe. Smakują mi również larwy ważek. Łatwo je złapać, kiedy podlegają ostatniej wylince, zamieniając się w dorosłą ważkę, bo przed wylinką wychodzą np. na liść tataraku i zamierają, czekając, aż krew wypełni im skrzydła. Są wtedy bezbronne, najlepiej łapać je w nocy z latarką albo nad ranem, kiedy jest zimno. Smakują jak dobrej jakości chude mięso.
Tradycja jedzenia ważek rozwinęła się na Bali, gdzie łapie się je przy użyciu wprowadzonego w wibracje kija oblepionego czymś lepkim. Podobnie kiedyś łapano w Polsce ptaki - na lep z jemioły.
Czy motyle są równie smaczne jak piękne?
Jada się tylko larwy, rarytasem są gąsienice jedwabnika, które od wieków jada się w Chinach. Niestety, wiele gąsienic motyli i ciem jest trujących, bo często specjalizują się w jedzeniu jednego gatunku rośliny. A ta nierzadko broni się przed konsumpcją, używając toksycznych substancji, na które gąsienice są odporne. My nie.
Co powiesz na inne latające owady?
Dotąd nie udało mi się spróbować gzów, czyli końskich much. Żywiły się nimi eskimoskie dzieci, które wycinały larwy gzów spod skóry zwierząt domowych.
A zwykłe muchy?
Dorosły owad jest ohydny i naszpikowany bakteriami, nie polecam. Co innego larwy, które po usmażeniu są jadane w Chinach, choć jako że żerują na martwym substracie, ich jedzenie uważam za niebezpieczne - łagodną formę rosyjskiej ruletki.
Chińczycy mają ogromne dokonania, jeśli chodzi o eksperymenty z walorami żywieniowymi różnych roślin i zwierząt. Wprawdzie połowa z ich poglądów to zabobon, ale druga połowa może mieć wartość naukową. Teraz, kiedy w Chinach uczą się angielskiego, możemy usłyszeć wiele rewelacji. Ja jestem niecierpliwy i zacząłem się uczyć chińskiego.
W Państwie Środka opracowano m.in. metody hodowli larw much na odchodach ludzkich lub zwierzęcych. Potem wykorzystuje się je do karmienia kurczaków. Osobiście uważam, że oszczędniej byłoby jeść larwy.
Ty pewnie byś się przemógł.
Przejście na owady to byłby ogromny postęp w dziejach gospodarki rolnej, bo z większą wydajnością niż na przykład ssaki zamieniają pokarm roślinny na białko. W ten sposób oddalilibyśmy widmo głodu. Krowa, żeby utrzymać stałą temperaturę ciała, spala 90 proc. energii z pożywienia, które zeżre. Nie wszyscy wprawdzie są do jedzenia owadów przekonani, ale przecież jeszcze kilka lat temu nikt nie słyszał o orientalnych przyprawach czy sushi.
A co poleciłbyś z orientalnych dań?
Moje ulubione bezkręgowce to larwy os, są bardzo delikatne w smaku. Samo ich wykradanie z gniazda sprawia frajdę. Najlepiej podejść je w nocy, a ospałe, dorosłe owady zneutralizować zwykłym spryskiwaczem z wodą. Gniazdo wrzucamy do wora, a potem zamrażamy w lodówce.
Dorosłe osy też są jadalne, japoński cesarz Hirohito jadał je z ryżem. W Japonii można kupić nawet puszkowane osy ugotowane w sosie sojowym i cukrze.
Słyszałem, że w Azji robi się medykamenty z karaczanów. W "Królu szczurów" James Clavell opisuje, jak jeńcy trzymani przez Japończyków wyłapywali karaluchy żerujące w pobliżu latryn, żeby uzupełnić dietę. Zjadłbyś coś takiego?
Karalucha jadłem tylko raz. Karaczany w Polsce niemal wyginęły, ich miejsce zajęły prusaki, które mają w pokrywach skrzydeł substancje szkodliwe. Dowiedziałem się, że można je zneutralizować poprzez moczenie w wodzie z cytryną. Karalucha zaliczyłbym do dań, które jadam raczej z ciekawości czy wygłupu. Słyszałem za to, że we Francji były mielone i stosowane jako przyprawa.
Czytając Twój "Podręcznik robakożercy", byłem zszokowany na wieść o tym, że można jeść wszy.
To już mnie trochę denerwuje, bo to głównie ludzie z niej zapamiętują i ciągle pytają mnie o wszy. Dlaczego?
Może dlatego, że przywykliśmy myśleć, że to one nas "zjadają". A okazuje, że proces można odwrócić.
Wszy są bardzo smaczne, bo karmią się ludzką krwi. Ale nie są wydajnym pokarmem. Sięgali po nie ludzie w sytuacjach ekstremalnych, na przykład syberyjscy zesłańcy w łagrach. Jedna z czytelniczek przysłała mi opowieść o tym, że gotując zupę, zesłańcy strząsali do menażki wszy z ubrania. Podczas gotowania ginęły bakterie, które są przez wszy przenoszone.
Zmieńmy temat. Jadasz również mrówki.
Na mrówki zapraszam za chwilę do mojego lasu. Można je jeść żywe, można usmażyć. Znałem człowieka, który robił sobie z mrówek nalewkę i stosował ją jako lekarstwo. Masowo jedli te owady Indianie amerykańscy m.in. Szoszoni, którzy, rozgrzebując mrowiska, uzupełniali zimą swoją dietę. Indianie robili m.in. puddingi mrówkowe. Nasze zdolności trawienne są olbrzymie.
To kwestia treningu?
Organizm może się do wielu rzeczy przyzwyczaić, niemniej biochemia człowieka jest skomplikowana. W książce "Na początku był głód" prof. Marek Konarzewski pisze o tym, jak wiele czasu potrzeba, żeby nasz organizm przestawił się z jednej diety na drugą. Ktoś, kto nie jadł tłuszczu, zmianę diety przypłaci rozwolnieniem. Moja żona jest wegetarianką od trzech pokoleń i zajada się soczewicą. Ja mam problemy.
Ale robaki Ci służą.
Kiedy mieszkałem w Anglii, kupiłem w Tesco sardynki "prosto z morza". Smażyłem je krótko, bo byłem głodny. Po przełożeniu na talerz okazało się, że coś się w nich rusza - to były nicienie, długie i białe. Pomyślałem, że to dobra okazja, żeby ich spróbować. Wrzuciłem danie z powrotem na patelnię i smażyłem na oleju, aż robaki przestały się ruszać. Ryby jak ryby, ale nicienie były gumiaste niczym ser żółty z przeterminowanej zapiekanki.
Nie brzydziłeś się?
Każda ludzka społeczność dzieli świat na to, co dobre i znane, oraz to, co nieznane, szkodliwe, złe. Gotowość do wprowadzenia tego mechanizmu w życie pojawia się u małych dzieci, które często postanawiają, że nie będą jeść niektórych potraw.
Ryzyko, że jedząc żerujące na padlinie robaki, trafimy na coś szkodliwego, na przykład na bakterie jadu kiełbasianego, jest niewielkie, jak jeden do kilku tysięcy. W świecie masowej produkcji żywności to stanowczo za dużo. W świecie, w którym brakowało żywności, ludzie ryzykowali. W Azji, gdzie ludzie częściej stawali przed widmem głodu niż w Europie, jada się większą część królestwa zwierząt.
Jeśli padlinożercy, to czemu nie pasożyty? Może tasiemce?
O robakach obłych już mówiłem przy sardynkach, ale tasiemców nigdy nie jadłem. O tasiemcach opowiedział mi za to znajomy fizyk dr Andrzej Trębaczowski, zamiłowany wędkarz, który nieźle zna się na bezkręgowcach i mawia, że to, co lubią ryby, ludziom też by smakowało. Według jego relacji nad Zalewem Zemborzyckim grasował wędkarz, który łowił chore płocie z wielkimi, wypełnionymi rzemieńcami (gatunek tasiemca) brzuchami. Po złowieniu rozcinał rybom brzuchy i w wiaderku umieszczał tasiemce, tłumacząc, że to wielki przysmak.
Ryby lubią też dżdżownice.
To pożywienie przyszłości, jest ich dużo, znane są metody hodowli. Ja się jednak do dżdżownic nie przekonałem, chyba z powodu ich kontaktu z ziemią. Japończycy mają taki przesąd, że nie wolno jeść larw chrząszczy, które mają kontakt z glebą, łapią tylko wodne. Wędkarzy ostrzega się, żeby myli po dżdżownicach ręce, bo jest na nich dużo bakterii. Chińczycy, którzy jedzą wszystko, co się da, też nie spożywają dżdżownic masowo. Uważają je za lekarstwo o działaniu wychładzającym organizm. Złapaną dżdżownicę suszy się na słońcu. Wcześniej trzeba opróżnić jej układ pokarmowy, bo inaczej będzie nam w zębach chrzęścił piasek. Dobra metoda to umieszczenie dżdżownicy w wodzie z cytryną. Dżdżownice nie mają jakiegoś wyjątkowego smaku.
Kiedyś amerykańska prasa posądziła sieć McDonald's, że robi hamburgery z dżdżownic.
Gdyby to była prawda, to chętnie bym kupował hamburgery. Sądzę, jednak, że są w nich składniki dużo gorsze dla zdrowia.
Dla zdrowia przykłada się ludziom pijawki. A Ty pewnie byś je zjadł.
Dowiedziałem się, że Chińczycy jedzą pijawki w cukrze, niestety, nie udało mi się na ten temat znaleźć dokładniejszych informacji. Miałem akurat inwazję pijawek w akwarium, więc je powyławiałem i usmażyłem na oliwie. Były smaczne, lepsze od nicieni i dżdżownic. Smakowały jak coś pośredniego między lepszej jakości żółtym serem a parówką. Potem dowiedziałem się, że w naszym zakątku Europy pijawkami zajadali się Cyganie.
A pająki?
Mam książkę pewnego Amerykanina, który podaje przepisy na duże pająki, takie jak ptaszniki. Jestem jednak podejrzliwy wobec pająków. Ludzi cechuje lęk przed nimi. Jada się je tylko w Indochinach. W ogóle mam taką zasadę: jak czegoś nie tykają Indianie albo Chińczycy, trzymam się od tego z daleka. Oni testowali wszystko, w tym bezkręgowce, przez wiele pokoleń.
Próbowałeś też stonóg.
Smakują trochę jak pluskwy i śmierdzą za sprawą substancji chemicznych, które są dla nich - tak przypuszczam - atraktantami seksualnymi lub chemicznym straszakiem. Gdybyśmy je jedli regularnie i codziennie, to te substancje mogłyby się w naszym organizmie osadzać.
Stonogi są pospolite. W Anglii, gdzie klimat jest wilgotniejszy i łagodniejszy, pod każdym kamieniem siedzą ich dziesiątki. Anglicy eksperymentowali więc z nimi w okresach głodu i stąd zdobyłem przepis na sos stonogowy.
Liczne są tam również wije, dwa razy dłuższe niż u nas. Zajadałem się nimi na surowo, gdy pracowałem jako ogrodnik w Norwich. Wij drewniak to jedno z najsmaczniejszych zwierząt.
Stonogi i wije to stawonogi, podobnie jak raki. A te od wieków uchodzą w Polsce za przysmak. Skąd ta wybiórczość?
Raki są duże. Główny problem z wartością odżywczą bezkręgowców to problem skali. Zwierzę dwa razy mniejsze ma osiem razy mniejszą masę. W tropikach bezkręgowce są kilka razy większe niż u nas i kilkadziesiąt razy cięższe. Dlatego są tam częściej spotykanym składnikiem diety.
Gdyby ktoś chciał się u nas wyżywić konikami polnymi łapanymi ręcznie, to musiałby je łapać po 30 godzin dziennie. Chyba że wymyślimy lepsze metody polowania. Indianie Paiute w Ameryce polowali na nie, otaczając kręgiem łąkę, w środku której wykopano dół. Spłoszone koniki wpadały do niego.
Czy praludzie jadali bezkręgowce? Szympansy - nasi najbliżsi ewolucyjnie żyjący krewni - jedzą owady. Wkładają kij w mrowisko, po czym go oblizują.
Jedna z teorii mówi, że ludzie zaczynali niemal jak padlinożercy na sawannie. Na przykład odganiali drapieżniki od ich zdobyczy przy użyciu ognia. Kiedy wymyślili sprytne techniki łowieckie, stopniowo wybijali wszystkie większe gatunki zwierząt. Jednak kiedy głód zaglądał im w oczy, co pewnie często się zdarzało, zwracali się ku drobniejszym organizmom. W neolicie miało miejsce ogromne zagęszczenie ludności na wybrzeżu Atlantyku. Prawdopodobnie dzięki wysypowi omułków, które do dziś są jadane we Francji. Sam kiedyś ruszyłem na plażę w czasie odpływu. W ciągu pół godziny nazbierałem 20 kilogramów! Jedliśmy je potem przez cztery dni. Są niewyobrażalnie smaczne, mógłbym je jeść i jeść. Więc może w ogóle zaczęliśmy od szarańczy, małży i małych rybek?
Spośród bodźców, które działają na nasze zmysły, reakcje związane z jedzeniem są chyba najsilniejsze. Może nas przestraszyć hałas albo intensywne światło, ale jeżeli wyobrazimy sobie, że mamy zjeść coś obrzydliwego, reakcja jest nieporównanie silniejsza.
Nie każdy tak reaguje. To kwestia nawyków żywieniowych. Obrzydzenie żywieniowe ma różne "warstwy". Pierwszą z nich są chyba zakodowane w naszych genach atawizmy, strach przed wężami, pająkami. Zwierzęta te są jadowite, toteż nasi przodkowie, którzy trzymali się od nich z daleka, mieli większe szanse na przeżycie. Te fobie ludzie jednak są w stanie przełamać. W niektórych kulturach węże się jada.
Często jest tak, że dana kultura się specjalizuje, zaczyna polegać na kilku rodzajach pokarmu, który jest najłatwiej dostępny. W naszej szerokości geograficznej postawiliśmy na blisko 40 gatunków warzyw i zbóż, chociaż jedna trzecia gatunków rosnących w Polsce jest jadalna. W królestwie zwierząt wybraliśmy kilka gatunków. Spojrzenie na zwierzęta spoza tej puli jako na źródło pokarmu jest dla nas czymś szokującym. Dobrym przykładem jest pies, który na Dalekim Wschodzie uchodzi za przysmak.
Z kolei Chińczycy nas i Japończyków uważają za "barbarzyńców", bo jemy ryby i warzywa na surowo. Od kiedy zacząłeś eksperymentować na samym sobie?
Jako chłopiec myślałem, że zostanę naukowcem. Na studiach zainspirowały mnie zajęcia w ogrodzie botanicznym prowadzone przez dr Hannę Werblan-Jakubiec i dr. Krzysztofa Spalika, gdzie mówiono u używkach, roślinach magicznych itd. To otworzyło mi oczy, ujrzałem wielki świat kontaktów człowieka z roślinami i kultury, która rodzi się z tego spotkania. Eksperymenty zacząłem od roślin, wydałem książkę o dzikich roślinach jadalnych.
Potem postanowiłem żyć jak człowiek pierwotny. Pochodzę z Krosna, nigdy nie lubiłem Warszawy. Kupiłem kawał ziemi na Podkarpaciu i tu zamieszkałem. Zbudowałem ziemiankę, w której postanowiłem zamieszkać z żoną i dopiero co narodzonym dzieckiem. Niestety, przegrałem, nie wytrzymałem w niej dłużej niż kilka dni. Nie poddaję się jednak. Uodporniłem się na takie marzenia, ale dzięki temu znam swoje granice. Jestem rozdarty między życiem koczownika i człowieka osiadłego. Mógłbym pojechać w dowolne miejsce w Europie, nakopać kłączy, nazbierać larw i zrobić sobie obiad.
Jako dziecko chciałem zostać Indianinem. Z jabłek wyjadałem wszystkie gąsieniczki. Owadów nigdy się nie bałem, uwielbiałem je. Hodowałem pijawki, zakładałem mrowiska. Moja przyjaźń ze zwierzętami trwa od lat.
Większość ludzi kupuje mięso w sklepie. Ty często sam mordujesz organizmy, które zjadasz.
Staram się to traktować poważnie. Kiedy muszę obciąć głowę żabie, to prawie płaczę.
Czy zdarzyła Ci się sytuacja, kiedy nie byłeś w stanie czegoś zjeść?
Chciałem spróbować jeża, ale nie mam sumienia zabić go i złapać. Kiedy jadę samochodem i znajduję potrącone jeże, koty czy bażanty, sprawdzam, czy są ciepłe. Na ogół są już zimne, ale raz trafiłem na świeżo zabitego. Miał wywalony język, wyglądał strasznie, nie byłem w stanie go zabrać. Dopiero ostatnio zjadłem jeża, bo następnym razem wywalony język innego rozjechanego jeża już nie zrobił na mnie wrażenia. Niebo w gębie, usmażyłem i zjadłem łącznie z językiem.
A człowieka byś zjadł?
W sytuacjach ekstremalnych ludzie bywają kanibalami. W katastrofie samolotu w Andach grupa piłkarzy żywiła się ciałami zmarłych. Nie mieli ognia. Przeżyli wiele tygodni, jedząc zamarznięte zwłoki.
Kanibalizm uważa się za zachowanie, które odróżnia nas od zwierząt.
Znajomi antropolodzy tłumaczyli mi, że ludzie nie jedzą łożyska, bo to właśnie zachowanie kanibalistyczne, zwierzęce. Ssaki zjadają łożysko, bo odżywia ono matkę po porodzie. To, że my się od tego powstrzymujemy, rzekomo czyni z nas ludzi.
Tymczasem w Anglii modne jest teraz - głównie w kręgach hipisowskich - jedzenie łożyska po narodzinach dziecka. Moja żona, Sarah, oglądała, jak je smażono w angielskiej telewizji. Kiedy urodziła się moja córka, w szpitalu zapytano mnie: "Zapakować czy wyrzucić?".
Było tego 80 deko. Zrobiłem z niego kilka potraw, którymi żywiłem się przez trzy dni po porodzie córki. Smakuje jak najlepszej jakości polędwica wołowa. Pierwszego dnia zjadłem je na surowo, drugiego zrobiłem tatara i zaniosłem żonie do szpitala, ale nie dała się przekonać. Trzeciego dnia zrobiłem curry. Pępowinę zakopaliśmy pod drzewem w lesie. To stary zwyczaj, który występuje w wielu kulturach.
Moim znajomym antropologom oczywiście nie uwierzyłem. Byłem przekonany, że jedzenie łożyska to jak najbardziej naturalne zachowanie. Zacząłem szukać informacji na ten temat.
To prawda, że łożysko na ogół wyrzucano lub zakopywano, ale to marnotrawstwo, bo to tak, jakby wyrzucić dobre mięso. Przypadkiem wpadła mi w rękę książka o obyczajach ludowych w Polsce, w której wyczytałem, że łożysko zjadano w Galicji! Prawdopodobnie jeszcze w XIX wieku matka po urodzeniu dziecka dawała łożysko starszemu rodzeństwu, co miało sprawić, że nie będą zazdrosne o noworodka.
Tak oto wróciłem do korzeni.

1.5.07

Roman cooking for upper classes in Britain

Not many people know that fine food came to France via Italy.The foundation of modern day French cooking was laid in the 1500s when the benchmark "haute cuisine" was introduced into the French courts by the Italian Catherine de Medici. Of course it has been perfected by chefs through the ages, however it was during this period that Italian influences changed the culinary course of France not only in cooking methods but also in the ingredients used and the way food was served.The Florentine chefs who came over with Catherine were more skilled than the French and introduced the use of ingredients such as butter, truffles and artichokes as well as techniques and chic dishes such as aspics. They also introduced the contrast between savory and sweet.
Apicius is the title of a collection of Roman cookery recipes, usually thought to have been compiled in the late 4th or early 5th century AD and written in a language that is in many ways closer to Vulgar than to Classical Latin.Apicius is a text to be used in the kitchen. In the earliest printed editions it was given the overall title De re coquinaria ("On the Subject of Cooking"), and was attributed to an otherwise unknown "Caelius Apicius", an invention based on the fact that one of the two manuscripts is headed with the words "API CAE". The name Apicius had long been associated with excessive love of food, apparently from the habits of an early bearer of the name. The most famous individual given this name because of his reputation as a gourmet was Marcus Gavius Apicius, the most gluttonous gorger of all spendthrifts, established the view that the flamingo's tongue has a specially fine flavor."
Pliny, Natural History (X.133)
The oldest collection of recipes to survive from antiquity, De Re Coquinaria ("The Art of Cooking") is attributed to Marcus Gavius Apicius, the famed epicure who flourished during the reign of Tiberius early in the first century AD. (Renaissance humanists mistakenly ascribed the book to a "Apicius Caelius" from an attempt to reconstruct the letters API and CAE that appear on the damaged title page of one of two ninth-century manuscripts that preserve the document.) The recipes themselves were not compiled until late in the fourth or early in the fifth century and derive from a variety of sources, although about three-fifths are Apicius' own, some of which are quite elaborate. Apicius was said to have discovered how to treat the liver of sows, just as those of geese, stuffing them with dried figs and, then just before the animal was killed, giving it honeyed wine (mulsum) (Pliny, VIII.209, cf. recipe 259).The ten books are arranged, much like a modern cookbook, by the ingredient to be prepared and include recipes for meats, vegetables, legumes, fowl, meat, seafood, and fish. Almost five hundred are given, presumably to be used by an experienced cook, as there is little indication of the quantity of ingredients, their proportions, or how they should be used. Over four hundred of these recipes include a sauce, invariably made with fermented fish sauce (garum). The preparation of most sauces began with pulverized spices and herbs, usually pepper, which often was combined with cumin, although it sometimes is difficult to determine whether spices or herbs were to be fresh or dried, leaf or seed. After being ground in a mortar, fruits (plums, dates, raisins) and nuts (almonds, pine nuts, walnuts) were added (and often pounded as well) and then liquids, including garum, water, stock, milk, honey, oil, vinegar, and wine, both plain and reduced to increase its sweetness. Thickening usually was by wheat starch but also included the yolks and whites of eggs, pounded dates, and steeped rice or the water in which it had been boiled. Fish sauces tended to be particularly elaborate; boiled morena eel, for example, called for pepper, lovage, dill, celery seed, coriander, dried mint, and rue, as well as pine nuts, honey, vinegar, wine, and oil (451).
Athenaeus (Deipnosophists, I.7) relates that Apicius, "an exceedingly rich voluptuary," once sailed all the way to Libya in search of particularly large prawns. Not finding any to his satisfaction among those that were brought out to his ship, he then returned to Campania without even going ashore. Seneca, too, mentions Apicius, who competed for a huge mullet put up for sale by Tiberius that sold for five thousand sesterces (Moral Epistles, XCV.42). Digesting "the blessings of land and sea, and reviewing the creations of every nation" (On the Happy Life, XI.4), Apicius was the very embodiment of effete prodigality, his cooking school "defiled the age with his teaching." Having squandered a hundred million sesterces and overwhelmed with debt, Apicius was said to have calculated that he had only ten million sesterces left, not nearly enough to satisfy his cravings, and so killed himself in despair (To Helvia on Consolation, X.8-9; also Dio, LVII.19.5, who says he was familiar with Sejanus, whose wife Apicata may have been the daughter of Apicius, Tacitus, Annals, IV.3).
Ultimately, though, it was the gluttony of Apicius that killed his body and soul (Isidore of Seville, Origines, XX.1), an end that would have been applauded by the notorious Elagabalus, who declared that, among commoners, his model to be Apicius and, among emperors, the profligate Otho and the glutton Vitellius (Historia Augusta, XVIII.4). It is Elagabalus who "in imitation of Apicius" ate camel heels, cocks-combs, the tongues of peacocks and nightingales, the brains of flamingos and thrushes, partridge eggs, the heads of parrots and pheasants, and the beards of mullets (XX.5-7)
The oldest cookbook very well may be by Apicius, but that is not to say that he was the first epicure. That was Archestratus, a Sicilian Greek whose fourth-century BC poem on gastronomy survives only in the sixty or so fragments preserved in the Deipnosophists of Athenaeus. In reading them, one is struck by his emphasis on simplicity and insistence that a delicate fish be sprinkled only with a little salt and basted with olive oil, "for it contains the height of pleasure within itself" (Athenaeus, 321d).
Roman cooking for upper classes in Britain
Highly flavoured sauces often containing as many as a dozen ingredients were extensively used to mask the natural flavours of Roman food. The most commonly used seasoning was liquamen, the nearest equivalent today being a very strong fish stock, with anchovies as its main ingredient. This was so popular that it was factory-produced in many towns in the Roman empire.Silphium, a herb much prized by Roman cooks, came mainly from the former Greek colony of Cyrenaica. To man an ounce of silphium last longer, the Apician cookery book recommends keeping it in a jar of pine-kernels, which would absorb the flavour, much as a vanilla pod is used today in a jar of sugar. However, it seems to have become unobtainable after the first century A.D. and substitute herbs would have been used.Other herbs often mentioned in Roman recipes include thyme, bay leaf, basil, fennel, hyssop, rue, savoury mint, parsley, pennyroyal and dill, while spices such as ginger, cumin, cardamon, cinnamon and saffron flavoured their many sauces.Spices were used in large quantities, either to disguise the taste of food which had become rancid through overstoring, or to ensure that the guests were made fully aware of the expense the host had incurred in providing their meal.One theory about Roman society and its preference for highly flavoured foods is that lead poisoning was prevalent among the aristocracy, due mainly to the use of lead lined pots used for boiling a preservative syrup required by wine merchants. As the symptoms of this complaint include a metallic taste in the mouth and loss of appetite, it would follow that a chronic sufferer would seek to kill this unpleasant taste and stimulate his jaded appetite.The final collapse of a great empire had a strange connection with one of the most highly prized spices of the time. The barbarians who gathered at the gates of Rome in the fifth century A.D. demanded, amongst other tributes of land, subsidies and military titles, no less than three thousand pounds of pepper.In The Careful Housekeeper Apicius tells his readers 'How To Make Stale Meat Sweet' by cooking it first in milk, then in water. 'How To Make Bad Honey Good' by mixing one part bad honey with two parts good honey. Many other tips were given for preserving and keeping food fresh which must have been a major problem in the days before refrigerators; perishable food such as fish had to be transported many miles at a time when the horse was fastest method of communication.Food and cooking are timeless and universal. The Babylonians used the same basic equipment to be found in their modern equivalents today. Colanders and saucepans, strainers and skillets were used in Pompeii and pastry cutters were part of cooking equipment in Gaul in 200 A.D. From excavations in Britain we can deduce that the daily business of preparing and serving food has always been one of the main social activities of mankind. Although the twentieth century housewife would not have found the Roman kitchen 'labour-saving', (but with that we must remember that neither has she the substitute number of slaves), she would nevertheless be able to use many Roman ingredients and utensils with little noticeable difference.A typical kitchen in Roman Britain in about 200 A.D. would have looked very similar to that shown below. The most recognizable feature is the raised hearth, a masonry construction of table height, on which was placed the charcoal, and over this most of the cooking was done, in vessels supported by iron tripods or grid irons. A fine example of a grid iron from Silchester has been copied in this reconstruction. Wood was also used, as some recipes refers to certain dishes being smoked. Arrangements for providing water for cooking and washing up are sometimes found, and stone or wooden tables for food preparation.For baking and roasting an oven was used, shaped like a low beehive, and constructed of rubble and tiles. A flue to provide a draught would be made accessible at the front, very similar to the bread ovens which persisted for many centuries after. Charcoal or wood was burnt inside until sufficient heat had been generated;; the ashes were then raked out and bread, meats or pastries put in, the aperture of the oven being covered to retain the heat during cooking.Portable ovens made of earthenware, iron, bronze or occasionally of more precious metals have been found. These presumably for cooking smaller items, such as leeks rolled in cabbage leaves, or pastry dishes. Ornamental water heaters for keeping dishes warm, or cooking by the 'double saucepan' method have also been found.Cauldron chains such as the example displayed in the Corinium Museum were used for suspending large cooking pots over a wood fire. Large animals such as boar or venison were roasted on spits.A variety of kitchen equipment was available to the serious cook. The frying pan or fretale, made of bronze, round or oval in shape, with a lip for pouring, is well known, as are rectangular iron trays with handles for roasting or frying. 'Oven to table ware' in the form of shallow pans and earthenware dishes was common. These are referred to as patellae and patinae.The difficulty in cleaning these utensils is understandable. Metal ware could be cleaned with sand, but earthenware dishes and pots would soon become unfit for use and would need constant replacement which could account for the considerable quantity of broken items revealed by excavations. Fortunately local potteries would have been able to turn out cheap dishes for ordinary use.Knives of all sizes were used, made of iron, with bone, wood or bronze handles. Spoons of bronze, silver and bone have also been discovered. Ladles, dippers, strainers and choppers all found a place in the Roman kitchen. Mortaria were stout pottery bowls used for grinding and pounding, made with a sprinkling of grit baked into the clay to form a rough surface. Stone or wooden pestles were used with them.When the food was ready it was served on a discus, a large circular plate. Groups of large platters of silver, bronze and pewter have been excavated, the most notable in Roman Britain being the silver collection from Mildenhall in Suffolk.The daily diet varied considerably between rich and poor. The latter would have had little variation in their daily food beyond course bread and bean or pea broth, with the occasional meat addition.Life in a villa in Roman Britain would have been secure and pleasant for the wealthy owner and his family. Home ground flour and freshly make bread, home grown vegetables, a well stocked orchard of apples, pear, cherry and plum trees; specially reared pigs, sheep and oxen, together with an abundance of wild fish and game, would have assured the inhabitants a variety of good food.Honey was the main source of sweetening, a preservative for meat and fruit and a common ingredient in many dishes and sauces. Beekeeping was, therefore, an important industry, most farms employing one man known as the apiarus to look after the hives.Cheeses were many and varied and much enjoyed. Smoked cheese was a particular favourite, many foreign varieties being imported by the Romans. It was eaten freshly made or preserved, and formed an important ingredient of bread and fancy cakes.The day would begin with a light breakfast of bread and fruit. Lunch or prandium consisted of a cold meal of eggs, fish and vegetables. Wine and water mixed was drunk with meals, the native beer being considered a barbarian's drink by the sophisticated Roman.The main meal at the end of the day was regarded as an important occasion. The family gathered together, often with friends, after a visit to the public baths or their own private bath suite and sat or reclined in the triclinium, a pleasantly decorated room usually with a fine mosaic floor. This was the room where the Roman host would entertain his guests and seek to display his wealth and status.Dinner usually consisted of three courses, accompanied by wine imported from Italy, France or Spain, viticulture being unknown in Britain until the second half of Roman occupation.Dining was an important social occasion. The Romans enjoyed eating and talking in the formal atmosphere of the triclimium. After, perhaps a pleasant stroll around the garden the guests would assemble ready to to enter the dining room (right foot first over the threshold to avert ill luck)A Roman dinner party ideally comprised nine guests, in honuour of the nine muses, goddesses of the arts and sciences. Arranged around three sides of a square, the fourth side being left open for serving, the guests would recline on large couches, each accommodating three people. Propping themselves on their left forearms, they would use their right hands for stretching for food and drink. Garlands of rose petals were worn on their heads to ward off the effects of too much wine. Sometimes the guests would pluck rose petals from their garlands and drop them into their wine goblets. With forks being unknown and knives and spoons only occasionally used, most people ate with their fingers - a messy arrangement when sticky sauces were part of the meal. Napkins were provided to protect the couches. Guests would also bring their own napkins, and according to contemporary satirists, sometimes stole their neighbours' napkins.After a suitable offering by the host to the household gods (Lares), the meal would commence.Food would be served on bronze, pewter or the popular decorated red Samian ware dishes and wine would be drunk from small cups of glass, samian ware or pewter. The meal began with gustatio or hors d'oevre, often an egg dish, vegetables raw and cooked, including asparagus, peas, beans, carrots, lettuce, endive, radishes, and cucumber. Salt fish, oysters, mussels or the specially fattened dormice cooked in a variety of ways. During the meal mulsum - a mixture of chilled white wine and honey - or course wine mixed with water would be drunk, the more expensive wines, such as Bordeaux, being reserved for serious drinking after the meal. Entertainment such as music on the lyre or cithera, or perhaps poetry reading would be provided during and after the meal.The main course, or primae mensai varied both in the number and elaboration of dishes. Roast and boiled meat, poultry, game or other meat delicacies would be served. No dish was complete without its highly flavoured and seasoned sauce. Contrary to present day preference, the main object seemed to be to disguise the natural taste of food - possibly to conceal doubtful freshness, possibly to demonstrate the variety of costly spices available to the host. Sometimes so many ingredients were used in a sauce it was impossible to single out any one flavour. One Roman cook bitterly complained that some of his fellow cooks 'When they season their dinners they don't use condiments for seasoning, but screech owls, which eat out the intestines of the guests alive'. Apicius wrote at the end of one of his recipes for a particularly flavoursome sauce, 'No one at table will know what he is eating'. These sauces were usually thickened with wheat flour or crumbled pastry. Honey was often incorporated into a 'sweet-sour' dish or sauce.Favourite foods of the Roman gourmet included snails fattened on milk until they could no longer retreat into their shells; dormice fattened on nuts in special earthenware jars - "battery dormice"; pigeons immobilized by having their wings clipped or legs broken, then fattened; oysters in plenty and other shellfish; ham and suckling pig; peacocks, pheasant and goose; and chicken cooked in a variety of ways, one of which required the bird to be drowned in red wine. Several dishes would be placed on the table for each person to help himself. Servants kept the guests supplied with small hot rolls - a useful means of cleaning the plate of a tasty sauce still practiced by the French today - and their glasses replenished with wine.Desserts or mensae secundae, though not considered an important course, would consist of sweetmeats, pastries, dried or fresh fruit and nuts.After the remains of the meal had been cleared away, the guests continued to recline and toast each other with wine, the entertainment continuing in as elaborate a form as the host could afford. Important banquets would often end with clowns or jugglers performing or even gladiator fights.Such a meal would entail a great deal of preparation and we can imagine the scene of frenzied activity in the kitchen beforehand, as cooks and slaves busied themselves under the supervision of the lady of the house. Pots and pans simmered and bubbled over burning charcoal on the stove, ingredients for sauces were pounded and mixed in mortaria, while the cooks made good use of the wine and oil stored in their amphorae, together with herbs and costly spices; all to ensure that the guests would be suitably impressed with their meal.If bread was baked at home, the flour was first ground by hand on a rotary quernstone. Pies and pastries would be put in the oven after the main bread baking was over. Several kinds of flour were used, the fine white variety being considered the best, while dark bread was given to the unimportant visitor.Not everyone cooked at home. Town dwellers would have handy access to the local bakers, pastry cooks and cooked meat shops, as the stone reliefs and excavations of Pompeii illustrate.Oysters, cockles and mussels would be brought from the coast in barrels of brine to be sold inland. Salt was an important commodity, obtained from the many salt pans round the shores of Britain.The native Briton would have seen little change in his diet after the Roman occupation. Most people would have had to exist on meagre and monotonous meals, with flat bread mad from course grain flour, bean pottage or porridge, cooked on an open hearth fire, in cramped conditions, as the normal daily food. Excavations in Cirencester or skeletons from the Roman period have revealed evidence of dental damage beginning early in life and largely the result of a course and insufficient diet.Formal banquets would be given to celebrate special occasions in all parts of the Roman Empire. Distinguished and wealthy hosts would go to enormous lengths to surprise and delight their guests. In his golden palace the Emperor Nero possessed a spectacular dining room in which was a revolving ceiling which turned day and night, in time with the sky. Other dining rooms had ceilings of fretted ivory, the panels of which could slide back and let hundreds of flowers or perfume from hidden sprinklers, shower upon the guests.Often grains of gold, pearls, and amber and other precious jewels would be hidden among various dishes and their contents. No doubt some pockets would have been bulging by the end of the meal!At these elaborate feasts it was customary to have a particularly important delicacy, such as a sturgeon, borne into the room accompanied by a procession of slaves playing flutes, while others danced in time to the music.A vivid description of a Roman banquet at its most luxuriant is given by the contemporary writer Petronius. This was the famous Trimalchio's feast, where guests were offered 'A hare tricked out with wings to look like a Pegasus, a wild sow with its belly full of live thrushes, quinces stuck with thorns to look like sea urchins, and roast pork carved into models of fish, song birds and a goose'. The Emperor Vitellius dedicated to the goddess Minerva a mixture of pike liver, pheasants' brains, peacocks' brains, flamingo tongues and lamprey roe, after rejecting the flesh of several rare and expensive delicacies 'collected in every corner of the Empire from the Parthian frontier to the Straits of Gibraltar'.A typical kitchen in Roman Britain in about 200 A.D. would have the most recognizable feature as a raised hearth, a masonry construction of table height, on which was placed the charcoal, and over this most of the cooking was done, in vessels supported by iron tripods or grid irons. A fine example of a grid iron from Silchester has been copied in this reconstruction. Wood was also used, as some recipes refers to certain dishes being smoked. Arrangements for providing water for cooking and washing up are sometimes found, and stone or wooden tables for food preparation.
For baking and roasting an oven was used, shaped like a low beehive, and constructed of rubble and tiles. A flue to provide a draught would be made accessible at the front, very similar to the bread ovens which persisted for many centuries after. Charcoal or wood was burnt inside until sufficient heat had been generated;; the ashes were then raked out and bread, meats or pastries put in, the aperture of the oven being covered to retain the heat during cooking.
Portable ovens made of earthenware, iron, bronze or occasionally of more precious metals have been found. These presumably for cooking smaller items, such as leeks rolled in cabbage leaves, or pastry dishes. Ornamental water heaters for keeping dishes warm, or cooking by the 'double saucepan' method have also been found.
Cauldron chains such as the example displayed in the Corinium Museum were used for suspending large cooking pots over a wood fire. Large animals such as boar or venison were roasted on spits.
A variety of kitchen equipment was available to the serious cook. The frying pan or fretale, made of bronze, round or oval in shape, with a lip for pouring, is well known, as are rectangular iron trays with handles for roasting or frying. 'Oven to table ware' in the form of shallow pans and earthenware dishes was common. These are referred to as patellae and patinae.
The difficulty in cleaning these utensils is understandable. Metal ware could be cleaned with sand, but earthenware dishes and pots would soon become unfit for use and would need constant replacement which could account for the considerable quantity of broken items revealed by excavations. Fortunately local potteries would have been able to turn out cheap dishes for ordinary use.
Knives of all sizes were used, made of iron, with bone, wood or bronze handles. Spoons of bronze, silver and bone have also been discovered. Ladles, dippers, strainers and choppers all found a place in the Roman kitchen. Mortaria were stout pottery bowls used for grinding and pounding, made with a sprinkling of grit baked into the clay to form a rough surface. Stone or wooden pestles were used with them.
When the food was ready it was served on a discus, a large circular plate. Groups of large platters of silver, bronze and pewter have been excavated, the most notable in Roman Britain being the silver collection from Mildenhall in Suffolk.
The daily diet varied considerably between rich and poor. The latter would have had little variation in their daily food beyond course bread and bean or pea broth, with the occasional meat addition.
Life in a villa in Roman Britain would have been secure and pleasant for the wealthy owner and his family. Home ground flour and freshly make bread, home grown vegetables, a well stocked orchard of apples, pear, cherry and plum trees; specially reared pigs, sheep and oxen, together with an abundance of wild fish and game, would have assured the inhabitants a variety of good food.
Honey was the main source of sweetening, a preservative for meat and fruit and a common ingredient in many dishes and sauces. Beekeeping was, therefore, an important industry, most farms employing one man known as the apiarus to look after the hives.
Cheeses were many and varied and much enjoyed. Smoked cheese was a particular favourite, many foreign varieties being imported by the Romans. It was eaten freshly made or preserved, and formed an important ingredient of bread and fancy cakes.
The day would begin with a light breakfast of bread and fruit. Lunch or prandium consisted of a cold meal of eggs, fish and vegetables. Wine and water mixed was drunk with meals, the native beer being considered a barbarian's drink by the sophisticated Roman.
The main meal at the end of the day was regarded as an important occasion. The family gathered together, often with friends, after a visit to the public baths or their own private bath suite and sat or reclined in the triclinium, a pleasantly decorated room usually with a fine mosaic floor. This was the room where the Roman host would entertain his guests and seek to display his wealth and status.
Dinner usually consisted of three courses, accompanied by wine imported from Italy, France or Spain, viticulture being unknown in Britain until the second half of Roman occupation.
Dining was an important social occasion. The Romans enjoyed eating and talking in the formal atmosphere of the triclimium. After, perhaps a pleasant stroll around the garden the guests would assemble ready to to enter the dining room (right foot first over the threshold to avert ill luck)A Roman dinner party ideally comprised nine guests, in honuour of the nine muses, goddesses of the arts and sciences. Arranged around three sides of a square, the fourth side being left open for serving, the guests would recline on large couches, each accommodating three people. Propping themselves on their left forearms, they would use their right hands for stretching for food and drink. Garlands of rose petals were worn on their heads to ward off the effects of too much wine. Sometimes the guests would pluck rose petals from their garlands and drop them into their wine goblets. With forks being unknown and knives and spoons only occasionally used, most people ate with their fingers - a messy arrangement when sticky sauces were part of the meal. Napkins were provided to protect the couches. Guests would also bring their own napkins, and according to contemporary satirists, sometimes stole their neighbours' napkins.
Seating arrangement for a dinner party
After a suitable offering by the host to the household gods (Lares), the meal would commence.
Food would be served on bronze, pewter or the popular decorated red Samian ware dishes and wine would be drunk from small cups of glass, samian ware or pewter. The meal began with gustatio or hors d'oevre, often an egg dish, vegetables raw and cooked, including asparagus, peas, beans, carrots, lettuce, endive, radishes, and cucumber. Salt fish, oysters, mussels or the specially fattened dormice cooked in a variety of ways. During the meal mulsum - a mixture of chilled white wine and honey - or course wine mixed with water would be drunk, the more expensive wines, such as Bordeaux, being reserved for serious drinking after the meal. Entertainment such as music on the lyre or cithera, or perhaps poetry reading would be provided during and after the meal.
The main course, or primae mensai varied both in the number and elaboration of dishes. Roast and boiled meat, poultry, game or other meat delicacies would be served. No dish was complete without its highly flavoured and seasoned sauce. Contrary to present day preference, the main object seemed to be to disguise the natural taste of food - possibly to conceal doubtful freshness, possibly to demonstrate the variety of costly spices available to the host. Sometimes so many ingredients were used in a sauce it was impossible to single out any one flavour. One Roman cook bitterly complained that some of his fellow cooks 'When they season their dinners they don't use condiments for seasoning, but screech owls, which eat out the intestines of the guests alive'. Apicius wrote at the end of one of his recipes for a particularly flavoursome sauce, 'No one at table will know what he is eating'. These sauces were usually thickened with wheat flour or crumbled pastry. Honey was often incorporated into a 'sweet-sour' dish or sauce.
Favourite foods of the Roman gourmet included snails fattened on milk until they could no longer retreat into their shells; dormice fattened on nuts in special earthenware jars - "battery dormice"; pigeons immobilized by having their wings clipped or legs broken, then fattened; oysters in plenty and other shellfish; ham and suckling pig; peacocks, pheasant and goose; and chicken cooked in a variety of ways, one of which required the bird to be drowned in red wine. Several dishes would be placed on the table for each person to help himself. Servants kept the guests supplied with small hot rolls - a useful means of cleaning the plate of a tasty sauce still practiced by the French today - and their glasses replenished with wine.
Desserts or mensae secundae, though not considered an important course, would consist of sweetmeats, pastries, dried or fresh fruit and nuts.
After the remains of the meal had been cleared away, the guests continued to recline and toast each other with wine, the entertainment continuing in as elaborate a form as the host could afford. Important banquets would often end with clowns or jugglers performing or even gladiator fights.
Such a meal would entail a great deal of preparation and we can imagine the scene of frenzied activity in the kitchen beforehand, as cooks and slaves busied themselves under the supervision of the lady of the house. Pots and pans simmered and bubbled over burning charcoal on the stove, ingredients for sauces were pounded and mixed in mortaria, while the cooks made good use of the wine and oil stored in their amphorae, together with herbs and costly spices; all to ensure that the guests would be suitably impressed with their meal.
If bread was baked at home, the flour was first ground by hand on a rotary quernstone. Pies and pastries would be put in the oven after the main bread baking was over. Several kinds of flour were used, the fine white variety being considered the best, while dark bread was given to the unimportant visitor.
Not everyone cooked at home. Town dwellers would have handy access to the local bakers, pastry cooks and cooked meat shops, as the stone reliefs and excavations of Pompeii illustrate.
Oysters, cockles and mussels would be brought from the coast in barrels of brine to be sold inland. Salt was an important commodity, obtained from the many salt pans round the shores of Britain.
The native Briton would have seen little change in his diet after the Roman occupation. Most people would have had to exist on meagre and monotonous meals, with flat bread mad from course grain flour, bean pottage or porridge, cooked on an open hearth fire, in cramped conditions, as the normal daily food. Excavations in Cirencester or skeletons from the Roman period have revealed evidence of dental damage beginning early in life and largely the result of a course and insufficient diet.
Formal banquets would be given to celebrate special occasions in all parts of the Roman Empire. Distinguished and wealthy hosts would go to enormous lengths to surprise and delight their guests. In his golden palace the Emperor Nero possessed a spectacular dining room in which was a revolving ceiling which turned day and night, in time with the sky. Other dining rooms had ceilings of fretted ivory, the panels of which could slide back and let hundreds of flowers or perfume from hidden sprinklers, shower upon the guests.
Often grains of gold, pearls, and amber and other precious jewels would be hidden among various dishes and their contents. No doubt some pockets would have been bulging by the end of the meal!
At these elaborate feasts it was customary to have a particularly important delicacy, such as a sturgeon, borne into the room accompanied by a procession of slaves playing flutes, while others danced in time to the music.
A vivid description of a Roman banquet at its most luxuriant is given by the contemporary writer Petronius. This was the famous Trimalchio's feast, where guests were offered 'A hare tricked out with wings to look like a Pegasus, a wild sow with its belly full of live thrushes, quinces stuck with thorns to look like sea urchins, and roast pork carved into models of fish, song birds and a goose'. The Emperor Vitellius dedicated to the goddess Minerva a mixture of pike liver, pheasants' brains, peacocks' brains, flamingo tongues and lamprey roe, after rejecting the flesh of several rare and expensive delicacies 'collected in every corner of the Empire from the Parthian frontier to the Straits of Gibraltar'.

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30.4.07

Escargot hej ho,hej ho ,there we go

Escargot
My first introduction to escargot was by my younger brother Roman and Bonnie Hodge, his wife and business partner. In the seventies, they employed Jim Hayter, a reserve U.S. Air Force colonel and pilot as sales manager for their commercial design and furniture business in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Jim had flown many exercises in France, and would bring back loads of fresh snails, French bread, and wine. His wife Ruth was French and knew how to prepare escargot. We’d meet at Jim’s lakefront home in Sanford, a few miles from Fayetteville, and gorged ourselves on escargot, baked with butter and garlic. All the sauce would be soaked up with French baguettes, and it was awesome. I have eaten escargot throughout the U.S., but it is not the same when snails come from a can, which is how they’re usually prepared. When I moved to Poznań, Poland I lived near a large park that was formerly a military citadel. When walking my dog in May, after it rained, I noticed these beloved snails. I and my dog eagerly waited for the time of year we could harvest a catch. After a while my SharPei dog, Fatima, would point with her right paw at any snail I missed. People who saw me looking for these snails would always ask, if I was harvesting mushrooms? No, I would say, we are picking up the food of French kings. At that time the Polish economy was not doing so well, and I told people that good free food was crawling right under their feet. Later on I found that escargot, lobster ,shrimp and mussels, frog legs this was a food for the poor people that could not afford to eat meat or fish.in the 19 th century apprentices would write in contract with their masters ,that oysters would not be served no more then 2 days per week. In New England,lobsters were so plentifull that thousands of the would be washed ashore after storm,and the they would be used as animal feed.Funny how this so called trash food turned in to luxury food ,talk about marketing finesse.Thank God, most Polish people do not appreciate snails.It takes a lot of time make them ready for the table . First starve them for seven to ten days, to purge them of impurities, then after a long process of soaking and cleaning them, they are cooked a short time to remove shells, stomach and liver, then they are cooked with wine, herbs, and mushrooms for about two hours. Finally, after all this, they are ready to bake. So now I understand why they are so expensive in a restaurant.
Tip: If you don't have access to snails ,or you cannot stomach it , you can substitute them with 20% chicken livers and 80 % of beef tenderloin,which approximates taste of snails,it takes 18 snails to make a pound. One pound of snails serves 1 or 2 people.No, they don't taste like chicken, but they do have a sweet, earthy taste that can be appreciated by many different palates.
Snails are reputed to be one of the earliest animals eaten by man, as many anthropological dig sites turn up fossilized piles of snail shells in the habitat areas. This is probably because of their lack of speed upon being pursued.
There are three main types of snails: the helix, or Burgundy snail, which is found in the vineyards of north-central France and Eastern Europe ; the petit-gris, or garden snail, which is about half the size of the helix and is found in Provence and the adjacent areas; and lastly the achatina, a very large snail that is found in Asia and Africa. For texture and flavor, the two very best are the helix and petit-gris. I had the pleasure of visiting a snail farm two years ago in Provence. The majority of petit-gris snails are farmed and are of high quality. I purchased some live snails that I made into a Grande Aioli, a mixture of poached and steamed provincial vegetables with snails and a dipping sauce of aioli (garlic mayonnaise).
The helix snails are more often wild and have a flavor that reflects the foliage that they eat. This can be controlled by purging the snails on a diet of lettuces or herbs before using them. Since wild snails absorb the odors and taste of foods on which they feed, it is best to catch them after a rainfall,put them in a covered container, and feed them for several days on wheat, flour, and perhaps some thyme or oregano. Then starve them for 5-7 days. They are killed by immersion in boiling water where they stay 3 minutes after water is boiling again. . I put them in a box of white wood (wood without tannic acid) with a bottom grating and raised 15 cm (5 in) above the ground so they can never touch the ground (to prevent them from eating the dirt or anything else) : After the escargot have passed a fasting period for 5 or 6 days in wooden boxes (never in plastic unless they have a bottom well ventilated or in the ventilated clay pots the objectives of which is to make them dry) they should be washed in running water or with a garden spout. Next they are put in a big container a layer of escargot with a hand full of rock salt. Follow this with another layer of escargot and another hand full of rock salt, etc. The escargot will issue a lot of foam in what is called disgorging themselves. The first evening I wash them thoroughly with a garden spout. That activates them so they empty their intestines. The same step I do on the second and sometimes third evenings.(Note : you can give them dill (anethum) these first two or three days to give them a good flavour). If they are very dirty, it may be necessary to wash them one by one. During next three days, I leave them to dry.After these three days or the salt treatment above, the escargots are put into boiling water where they are left for 15 minutes after water is boiling again. Then they are removed from their shells.
The majority of petit-gris and helix snails are found canned in the United States. In the canning process, the snails are purged and cooked in a flavorful broth and can be used with a minimum of preparation. Farmed snails have never eaten bitter or poisonous plants. They only have to be cleaned and starved for 4 days, in order to purge their system. The hepatho-pancreas ("tortillon" in french) can be cut off or not depending on preference. Lovers of the Petit Gris prefer the entire escargot whereas it is preferable to remove the hepatho-pancreas of the Gros Gris or other big species. The raw flesh is then put into cold water saturated with salt for one-quarter hour. They are rinsed thoroughly with fresh water after which they are ready for cooking or freezing. They are ready to be cooked or frozen. For using them, shells have to be cleaned with soda, well rinsed several times and sterilised in boiling water. Remove from shell. The tortillon (hepatopancreas) can be cut off or left (gourmets consider this as the tastier part of the snail but only for Petit-Gris). Transfer the snails to cold and very salted water during 15 minutes, or knead them with salt, and rinse abundantly in fresh water.
COOKING METHODThe escargot flesh is cooked in Court Bouillon. You put it in fresh Court-Bouillon and heat progressively up to simmer for about 60 to 90 minutes depending on the size of the individual escargot. Then escargot flesh is ready to be used in the recipes below or frozen.Court- Bouillon : 1/2 liter of white wine for 1 liter of water in which we add parsley, thyme, laurel, onion, shallot, garlic, salt, carrot ,parsley root,wild dried mushrooms and pepper and nutmeg,Quantities of each ingredient have to be tested , it's the personal touch ! (1 liter = 1/4 us gal ).
Interesting Recipies
http://www.hertzmann.com/articles/2004/snails/
http://www.cooks.com/rec/search/0,1-0,escargot,FF.html recipies
SNAIL PASTA
SNAILS OR SHRIMP WITH ROASTED OLIVES
25 dgk calamata olives, drained
prepared snails about I cup
6 red chillies
2 bulbs garlic separated into cloves
50 g fresh rosemary
olive oil for sprinkling
1 little sugar for sprinkling, if necessary
Method:
Place olives in a deep baking dish and add chillies, garlic and rosemary. Sprinkle with oil, cover and roast at 180 ºC for about 40 minutes, giving the olives a good stir every 10 minutes or so. Towards last 15 minutes add snails and smother them wih olive oil Add extra oil if olives get too dry, and sprinkle with a little sugar if olives develop a slightly bitter taste from roasting.Serve over fine noodles
SNAIL FETTUCINE
24 fresh snails
4-6 large garlic cloves
1/2 C chicken stock
dry fettucine, al dente
2 tsp chopped chives
3 tbs butter
1/2 tsp crumbled dry thyme
5-6 oz cream of mushroom soup
2 tsp minced fresh parsley
Cut snails in half. Melt butter in sautee pan & add snails, garlic & thyme. Cook & stir over med. high heat. Add stock, bring to a gentle boil, lower heat & simmer for 8 minutes. Stir in soup, blending well. Reheat pasta & drain. Toss with snail mixture & top with grated parmesan & herbs.
SNAILS A LA PENNE
48 fresh snails
1 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp oregano
10 1/2 oz frozen peas
2/3 C grated parmesan
1/4 lb penne pasta, al dente
2 tbs olive oil
2 tbs butter
1 C half & half
1/2 C minced water chestnuts
salt & pepper to taste
minced fresh basil or parsley
In a heavy skillet, heat oil & butter. Add snails, garlic & oregano and sautee for 3 minutes. Stir in cream & simmer until mixture thickens. Add peas, chestnuts, half the cheese, salt & pepper. Reheat but do NOT overcook. Drain penne & toss with snail sauce. Sprinkle with basil or parsley and cheese.
SNAILS IN JUMBO PASTA
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 C white wine
12 fresh snails
1 pinch ground cinnamon
1 tb. fresh grated romano
cherry tomatoes, halved
1 green onion, minced
2 tbs virgin olive oil
1 C ricotta cheese
2 tsp fresh minced parsley
16 jumbo shells, al dente
parsley or watercress sprigs
In a covered skillet, cook garlic & onion in wine & oil until tender. Add snails & cook over low heat 10 minutes, stirring often. Remove from heat. Combine cheeses & rest of ingredients. Carefully stuff shells & push 1 snail into each shell. Pour sauce over, quickly reheat. Garnish with tomatoes & parsley.
SNAILS LIGURIAN STYLE
5 salted anchovies
1 bottle dry white wine
1 sprig rosemary
2 cloves garlic, fully minced
2 oz. olive oil
1 1/2 oz. basil, finely minced
48 snails
4 large croutons
salt
pepper
Fillet and finely mince the anchovies. Sauté them with rosemary and garlic in olive oil until the anchovies disintegrate. Add the snails. Stir and moisten with white wine, 1 cup at a time. When the wine evaporates, add salt and pepper and continue to cook for half an hour over low heat, moistening with more wine when necessary.
Before serving, add the basil and serve snails on croutons topped with their own sauce.
Note:
Finely sliced mushrooms may be added after moistening with wine.

ESCARGOTS A LA ITALIANA
24 fresh snails (in natura)
1 or 2 cloves garlic
1 bay leaf
tomato extract
2 tomatoes
1 medium-sized onion
1 tbs. olive oil
1 tbs. flour or cornstarch
salt to taste
Cook [boil] snails for about 40 minutes. In a large pan heat olive oil, add crushed garlic and onion, stir and add snails. Simmer for about 15 minutes, add remaining herbs,
and the finely sliced tomatoes. Cover, lower the heat, and simmer for 15 to 30 minutes.
Dissolve cornstarch in a little cold water and stir to thicken sauce.
Serve immediately, spooning out directly from pan over al dente spaghetti
ESCARGOTS WITH GRATINEED NOODLES
1 pound cooked snails
400 g vermicelli noodles [taglierini]
50 g ham
75 g butter
50 g de grated cheese
50 g flour
1/2 liter milk
Cook the noodles in boiling water with a little oil and salt for 15 minutes. Drain. Prepare the sauce by browning a little flour in butter, add milk, sliced ham, and half of the grated cheese. Season with salt and pepper to taste, add snails and noodles, place in baking dish, sprinkle the remaining cheese and cover with little pieces of butter.
Bake until the surface gets brown [gratineed].
ESCARGOTS A LA BORD DE ME
12 cooked snails
1 finely chopped or sliced onion
5 cloves of garlic (crushed or finely sliced)
5 assorted wild or domestic mushrooms, cleaned & cut in smaller pieces
2 tsp. chopped rosemary leaves
dash of marjoram
2 tbs. olive oil
4 tsp. tomato extract
1 glass of dry white wine
salt and pepper to taste
Brown all herbs over medium-high heat, add tomato extract, wine, snails, salt and pepper, simmer for 15 minutes. Serve hot with pommes sautés or a al dente noodles and a good red wine.
SNAILS OVER ANGEL HAIR PASTA
12 fresh snails
3 tbs butter
1 clove garlic, minced
cooked angel hair pasta, al dente
1 tb fresh parsley
1/2 tb lemon juice
1 small clove shallot, minced
splash of white wine
Sautee garlic & shallot in 2 tbs butter for 2 minutes over medium-high heat. Add snails & cook for 2 more minutes. Add lemon juice, wine, & parsley and reduce. Whisk in 1 tb butter and serve over hot pasta.
CASSEROLE
SNAILS IN CASSEROLE CARACOLES EN CASUEROLE
1/4 cup olive oil
1 large onion, chopped coarsely
115 gr. chorizo sausage, sliced thinly
115 gr. ham, diced
2 dried red chili peppers, seeded and quartered (if you like your food truly hot, leave the seeds in)
4 - 6 cloves garlic, chopped finely
l Tbsp. sweet paprika
2 tsp. flour
1/2 cup tomato sauce (ideally home-made)
2 cups dry white wine
24 - 30 snails, with shells removed, well rinsed
1/4 cup parsley, chopped
salt to taste
In an earthenware casserole heat the oil and in this saute the onion until translucent. Add the sausage, ham, chili peppers and garlic and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Sprinkle over with the paprika and flour paprika and stir. Add the tomato sauce, wine, snails, 2 Tbsp. of the parsley and salt to taste. Bring to a boil, lower the flame and simmer 30 minutes longer, uncovered, stirring occasionally. Remove from the flame and let cool. Refrigerate overnight. Prior to serving reheat, sprinkle over with the remaining parsley and serve piping hot. (Serves 4 - 6)
SNAIL & MUSHROOM CASSEROLE
Cassolette d’Escargots aux Champignons
12 oz oyster mushrooms*
10 oz chanterelles mushrooms
*Other wild mushrooms may be substituted. Or use dried chanterelles, cèpes,shitake, or mixed forest mushrooms soaked ,drained and then sautéed, or use fresh sautéed champignions
7 Tbsp unsalted butter
1 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley
3/4 cup ground blanched almonds
6 garlic cloves
1/2 cup water
6 dozen canned Burgundy snails
Salt and pepper
Trim and wash the mushrooms. Cut into large cubes and place into heavy-bottomed saucepan. Add half the butter, the parsley, ground almonds, half the garlic, and water. Place over low heat and simmer for 15 minutes. In a skillet, melt the remaining butter, add the remaining garlic and cook over low heat for 1 or 2 minutes. Add the snails, season with salt and pepper, and sauté over medium heat until the snails are lightly browned. Divide the mushroom mixture evenly among six warmed plates. Arrange the snails on top and serve immediately. Serves 6
ESCARGOTS EN CASSEROLE
Serves 6
36 snails, removed from their shells, rinsed and drained
1-1/8 cups garlic butter (Right)
12 oz. fresh or good-quality frozen puff pastry
1 egg, beaten
Garlic Butter
3 sticks plus 4 tbsp butter, softened
1 cup chopped fresh parsley
1/4 cup Herbsaint
1/8 cup chopped garlic
salt and freshly ground black pepper
In a small bowl, mix all ingredients at low speed for 5 minutes.
Preheat oven to 420°. Place each snail in a small pot or ovenproof dish with a 2-inch diamter. Cover each snail with garlic butter.
Roll the puff pastry to 1/8-inch thickness. Using a 2-inch diameter pastry cutter, cut out 36 circles. Cover each snail pot with puff pastry, pressing the edges lightly to seal. Brush the pastry with beaten egg.
Bake for 8 minutes or until the pastry turns golden brown. Serve immediately.

SOUPS
CREME OF STILTON & ONION SOUP
4 tbs butter
1 lb thinly sliced onion
3/4 lb thick-skinned potatoes, peeled & cubed
salt to taste
whipped cream
36 fresh snails
2 large cloves garlic
1 qt lowfat milk
4 oz Stilton cheese, crumbled
white pepper to taste
minced fresh parsley
In a large heavy skillet melt butter, when hot add snails; cook and stir 5 minutes. Remove snails, add onions & garlic. Cover & cook over medium low heat for 15 minuts or until onions are soft. Add potatoes, coat with butter & add milk. Cover tilted, simmer for 30 minutes or until potatoes are very soft.
Mince snails & set aside. Puree soup & return to sauce pan & add snails & cheese. Stir over low heat until cheese is melted. Salt & pepper to taste. Serve in bowls, garnish with whipped cream & sprinkle with parsley.

BISQUE OF SNAIL & ARTICHOKE
48 fresh snails
1 C white wine
4 large artichoke hearts, cooked & chopped
1/4 tsp oregano
2 tbs fresh lemon juice
1 1/2 C milk
2 oz dry sherry
minced fresh chives
2 tbs minced shallots
4 tbs unsalted butter
2 1/2 C sliced red onion
1 tsp minced garlic
dash cayenne pepper
3 C fish or shrimp stock or 1 cup nam pla Thai fish sauce
1/2 C heavy cream
salt, white pepper to taste
paprika
In a saucepan, simmer snails & shallots in 3/4 C wine 10 minutes. Remove from heat.
In a large saucepan, melt butter & sautee artichokes, onions & garlic until onions are clear. Add oregano & cayenne pepper while cooking. Add lemon juice & cook 2 minutes, stirring. Add fish stock, milk, & 1/4 C wine. Simmer 2 minutes. Stir in cream, bring to just boiling. Remove from heat; add snails & wine mixture.
Puree mixture & return to saucepan, reheat -- do not boil. Add sherry, salt & pepper. Serve in bowls, garnished with chives & paprika.

BABALUCCI
75 snails (in shell)
Marinara sauce:
2cans of 28oz cans crushed tomatoes
2 tbs. dried minced onion
6 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 C chopped fresh parsley
1/2 C carrot juice or 1/2 C grated carrot
1 1/2 tsp dried basil
2 tsp oregano
2 tsp sugar
2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 C red wine
3 tbs olive oil
Combine all the ingredients and add snails, simmer for 1 1/2 hours to thicken sauce and flavor snails.

CASSOLETTES D'ESCARGOT
1/4 C butter
2 shallots, chopped
1 lb small button mushrooms
1 C Reisling wine
1 tb flour
fresh ground nutmeg
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 tbs chopped fresh parsley
36 fresh snails
1 C heavy cream
salt & pepper
12 slices French baguette, toasted
Heat butter in large saucepan. Sautee garlic, shallots, parsley & mushrooms for 5 minutes. Stir in snails & wine; cover & simmer for 10 minutes. Stir in cream & flour until smooth; simmer until thickened. Season to taste with salt, pepper & nutmeg. Spoon over individual baguettes.
BAKED SNAILS
12 fresh snails
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 tbs lemon juice
2/3 C dry fine bread crumbs, tossed w/ garlic salt, paprika & white pepper
1/2 C chopped onion
2 whole allspice berries, crushed
1 tsp fresh grated lemon peel
romaine lettuce leaves
lemon wedges
mint sprigs
Put snails in a saucepan with onion, garlic, allspice, lemon juice & peel. Add water to cover & bring to a boil. Lower heat & simmer 10 minutes. Drain snails, reserving liquid.
Oil shallow baking pan, preheat over to 450. Coat snails with oil-butter mixture & roll in bread crumb mixture. Bake for 10 minutes or until brown. Arrange on leaves, garnish with lemon wedged & mint sprigs. Serve with a yogurt/mint dipping sauce.
SNAILS ALMONDINE OVER SPINACH
4 C fresh spinach, stems removed, julienne cut
1/8 tsp salt
12 fresh snails
1/2 tsp Dijon mustard
4 tsp balsamic vinegar
1/4 C sour cream
2 tbs corn oil margarine
1/4 tsp fresh pepper
1/2 tsp extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 C water
Arrange 1 C of spinach on a plate in a nest. Heat margarine, salt & pepper in a pan, sautee snails & almonds until lightly browned. Drain & put 1 tsp of almonds in each nest.
Combine mustard, oil & vinegar in a pan & reduce by half over med. heat. Add sour cream & water and blend. Spoon 2 tbs over each nest.
BREADED SNAILS SAUTEED
Fresh snails
Minced garlic
Italian bread crumbs
Butter
Melt butter in sautee pan & brown garlic. Remove garlic from butter. Dredge snails in bread crumbs, sautee until slightly golden. Serve with hot salsa or warm scampi sauce.

SNAIL CORN FRITTERS
8 3/4 oz whole kernel corn
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 tsp baking powder
24 fresh snails
milk as needed
1 1/2 C sifted flour
oil for deep frying
sour cream
Drain liquid from can into measuring cup & add milk to measure 1 cup. Combine drained corn with egg, stir in flour & baking powder until moistened adding additional flour if needed to make stiff batter.
Preheat oil to 375. Press mixture around dry snails & drop into hot oil. Do not overcrowd! Fry to golden brown, drain, & serve with sour cream.
SNAILS IN LETTUCE LEAVES
36 fresh snails
4 tbs minced shallots
2/3 C mashed cooked carrots
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground mace
6 large Boston lettuce leaves, lightly blanched
1/2 C olive oil
1 C chopped fresh mint
1/3 C cooked rice creole
1/4 tsp white pepper
2 tbs butter, room temperature
1 C chicken stock
Sauce:
1 1/2 tsp butter
1/2 C heavy cream
1 1/2 tsp flour
juice of 1/2 lemon
Marinate snails for 24 hours in 2 tbs shallots, 1/2 C mint & 1/2 C olive oil, covered, toss occasionally.
Remove snails & strain marinade into a saucepan, heat. Add snails & cook for 3 minutes; remove to bowl with carrots, rice, 2 tbs shallots & 1/4 C mint. Add salt, pepper & mace; blend in butter. Place lettuce leaves on flat surface & put snail mixture on each leaf. Roll each leaf, folding in sides. Place in skillet, seam-side down, fitting snugly. Heat stock & pour over rolls, bring to a boil, lower heat & simmer for 8 minutes, basting often.
Melt butter & blend in flour, cook for 3 minutes stirring constantly. Mix stock & cream and gradually add to thicken. Bring just to a boil, adjust seasonings & add lemon juice and mint.
SNAIL APPETIZERS
Batter:
1 egg
1 C water
1 1/4 C all-purpose flour
Beat egg & water well; add flour & beat until smooth. Cover & set aside for at least 1 hour.
1 tb olive oil
1 1/2 C marinara sauce
24 fresh snails
oil for deep frying
Heat saute pan & add olive oil, marinara sauce & snails. Simmer over low heat for 10 minutes or until mix thickens remove from heat.
Heat oil to 375. Divide batter in half. Take 1 snail at a time from sauce, allowing some sauce to cling. Place in batter & deep fry until golden brown. Remove & pat dry and dip into other bowl of batter; repeat frying. Drain and serve.
BUTTER OF ESCARGOT "A LA BURGUNDY"
1 kilogram of butter (about 2 lbs)
25 grams of salt
5 grams of black pepper
150 grams of garlic
35 grams of shallot or scallions
90 grams of parsley
Garlic, shallot and parsley are chopped very fine. The whole is well mixed.
(Personal proportions can be modified. For example some people prefer have more shallots)
In each empty shell, place a little of this butter. Then push a cooked escargot into the shell. Fill the remaining space in the shell completely and smoothly with butter. Usually 5 grams are used for a shell (a tea spoon). Put in the oven (200 °C or 390 °F) just enough time needed to melt the butter. Serve immediately in special plates with holes. (Snails are picked with a special little fork).
Variations : In the traditional Butter of Escargot "a la Bourguignonne" add 0.1 liter of the aperitif Anise or some grains of Anise.Enjoy yourself : You can also add 100 grams to 150 grams of mustard that will give a delicate aroma. Try the escargot with mustard with grains.
These two tricks, aside from the aroma that they bring that will also facilitate the digestion of escargot for those who have a delicate liver."

ESCARGOT A LA BOURGUIGNONNE 1
Escargot a la Bourguig nonne, which is served in the shell in France, can be made at home using snail dishes or mushroom caps.
The most famous snail dish in France is Escargot a la Bourguignonne, in which the snails are baked in their shells with a parsley-garlic butter. These are easy to prepare at home, and I think you'll find that your guests slug it out for the last one.
12 snails, canned
2 tablespoons olive oil (plus additional 1/4 cup if using mushrooms)
Salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon Pernod (divided)
12 snail dishes or 12 medium mushroom caps (about 2 inches wide)
4 cloves garlic, sliced and rinsed under warm water
1 medium shallot, sliced and rinsed under warm water
1 anchovy filet
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 large bunch parsley, woody stems removed, washed and dried
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, room temperature
Juice of one-fourth lemon
2 drops hot pepper sauce such as Tabasco
Drain snails, coat with 2 tablespoons olive oil and salt and pepper to taste and saute in an extremely hot saute pan over high heat for 10 seconds. Remove snails. Deglaze pan with 1 tablespoon Pernod.
If using mushroom caps: Toss with 1/4 cup olive oil, season lightly with salt and pepper and broil about 2 to 3 minutes per side. Refrigerate.
Place garlic, shallot, anchovy, salt and pepper in a food processor and process until fine. Add parsley and process until fine. Add butter, remaining 1 teaspoon Pernod, lemon juice and hot pepper sauce and pulse until mixed. Remove from processor and chill.
Preheat oven to 500 degrees.
To finish: Place 1/2 tablespoon of the butter mixture in bottom of each snail dish (or mushroom). Add snails and top with more butter mixture. (Remaining butter mixture can be frozen and used over fish or meat).
Bake in preheated oven until hot and bubbly, about 4 to 5 minutes (be careful - if snails get too hot, they can pop out of the dish because of the water content). Serve with plenty of crusty bread for dipping. Makes 2 appetizer servings.
ESCARGOTS A LA BOURGUIGNONNE 2
48 big cooked snails
450 g no salt, soft butter
1 tsp. sugar
finely chopped parsley
pepper
salt and other spices to taste
breadcrumbs
empty and clean snail shells (can be artificial - ceramic)
In large container work the melted butter, sugar, salt, parsley, pepper and other spices, to a smooth batter. Place a small amount of this batter inside each snail shell, insert a snail into the shell, then complete filling the cavity with soft butter batter. Sprinkle with the breadcrumbs and the remaining melted butter. Arrange the snails on baking pan
and bake in a hot oven for about 8 minutes. Enjoy!
This recipe, for 6 servings, is one of the oldest and most traditional
preparations of the French cuisine.
ESCARGOTS À LA BOURGUIGNONNE 3
First, prepare the traditional "beurre d'escargots" :
1000g butter (about 2 lbs) ; 25g salt ; 5g pepper ; 50g garlic ; 35g shallot ; 90g parsley ( all finely chopped)
(these are my own proportions, they can be modified according to your taste)
Knead all together and then put a little of this paste in the bottom of a shell , put back a cooked snail flesh, and stuff completely. Usually 5 g are used for a shell (a tea spoon).
Stuffed shells are heated in oven (200 °C or 390 °F) until butter is starting to bubble and served immediately in special plates with holes. (Snails are picked with a special little fork).
ESCARGOTS A LA ELLO
This recipe has been developed by "Escargots Ello" cuisine. Use recipe as directed in Escargots a la Bourguignonne, but instead of snail shells use 2-cm-thick slices of boiled potato. Using a spoon, make a hole in the center of each slice, and place the snail and ingredients in this hole. Serve with a good dry red wine. The potato in this recipe combines well with the snail and melted butter, intensifying its flavor. It can be served as main course. Also, there is no need to use a pincer or any special forks, sometimes difficult to find.
COLD SALAD
36 small cooked snails
3 tomatoes cut up in cubes, no seeds
3 lettuce leaves finely sliced
3 leaves of peppermint, chopped
½ cup olive oil
lemon juice
1 tbp apple vinegar
salt & pepper to taste
Mix ingredients in a salad bowl, season with salt, pepper, olive oil, lemon juice and vinegar.
GRILLED SNAILS
10 to 12 cooked snails per serving
slices of bacon
mushrooms
1 beaten egg
salt & pepper to taste
garlic
flour or breadcrumbs
butter
olive oil
On roasting sticks alternate 1 or 2 snails with pieces of bacon and mushrooms. Dip in batter made of beaten egg, olive oil, salt, pepper and garlic. Then plunge in flour. Fry in butter, turning the snails in the pan until they are golden brown.
ESCARGOT AND SPINACH TRAUME
ingredients for 1 serving :
1 pk Fresh spinach, cleaned and Trimmed
1, 12 count can large snails
2 oz Feta cheese
2 md Cloves garlic, minced
1 oz 1/4 inch diced onion
1 oz Pine nuts
Salt to taste
1/2 oz Pernod
STEP 2 INGREDIENTS
12 lg Romaine lettuce leaves with Ends snipped
1 qt Water
1 tb Oil
preparation:
STEP 1: Saute onion in butter until transparent over medium flame. Add pine nuts, garlic; saute 1 minute. Add spinach; saute until limp. Add escargot and remaining ingredients. Saute 1 minute; remove from heat. Chill.
STEP 2: Bring water and oil to boil; add romaine lettuce and cook till limp. Remove from water; chill. Take 1 romaine lettuce leaf and lay flat on counter. Divide spinach and escargot into 6 equal portions. Place one portion in middle of romaine lettuce leaf; fold ends over to create a golf ball size portion. Place in baking dish; heat in 350F oven. Top with Orange Garlic Butter. preparation Thai Shrimp and Asparagus
When the shrimp have cooked and the asparagus spears are bright green and still crisp, spoon everything onto a plate, sprinkle cilantro and sesame seeds on top, and you have one of the most interesting combinations of sweet and hot flavors around.
A possible side dish to enhance the Thai Shrimp and Asparagus - jasmine rice. It is starchier and stickier than long-grain converted rice and more flavorful.
I use Thai Kitchen Sweet Red Chile Sauce.
Makes 2 to 4 servings
½ cup Thai chile sauce
¼ cup canned low-sodium chicken broth or water
½ pound already peeled and deveined medium-size shrimp
Water
16 medium-size asparagus spears (about half a pound)
1 teaspoon reduced-sodium soy sauce
¼ cup fresh cilantro leaves
1 teaspoon toasted sesame seeds (see note)
Prep time: 10 minutes.
Cooking time: 6 to 8 minutes.
In medium skillet, bring chile sauce and broth to a simmer over medium-high heat.
Add shrimp, reduce heat to medium and cook, turning shrimp until they turn pink and opaque and are cooked through and sauce thickens somewhat, 3 to 4 minutes.
Meanwhile, pour water to a depth of 1 inch in a large skillet and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Rinse asparagus spears and snap off and discard their tough ends.
When water comes to a boil, add asparagus and reduce heat to medium.
Let asparagus simmer until it turns bright green, 3 minutes.
Drain water from skillet, cut asparagus into serving pieces, and then add soy sauce to asparagus.
To serve, spoon shrimp onto plates. Garnish shrimp with asparagus, cilantro and sesame seeds, if using.
Note: Toast sesame seeds in a small heavy, dry skillet over medium-high heat, stirring until seeds turn golden brown, 2 to 3 minutes. Do not use a non-stick skillet for this.


ESCARGOTS WITH MUSHROOMS
Clean and cut mushrooms. Saute, with a little garlic or onion according to your taste, for about 5 minutes, stop when there is no more water.
Season with salt and pepper, add snails (previously cooked, even still frozen) and a glass of white wine.
When wine is well reduced, add the above butter, or beurre à la bourguignonne. It is optional to add a little Cognac.
Stop cooking when butter begins to bubble and serve in special plates.
An alternative : replace butter by cream and chopped tarragon.

DUDDY”S SNAILS AND PORTS
"Snails and baby portobello (crimini) mushrooms are sauteed in a spicy garlic sauce. Serve on whole wheat crackers for an unforgettable appetizer."
Original recipe yield: 6 serving
1/4 cup butter
15 helix snails from can, without shells
10 crimini mushrooms, chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
6 green onions, chopped
4 tablespoons Louisiana-style hot sauce, or to taste
1/4 cup red wine
1 pinch salt and pepper to taste
1 (10 ounce) package whole wheat crackers
Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the snails, mushrooms, garlic, green onions, hot sauce, and red wine. Cook and stir for about 20 minutes, until the liquid has reduced, and mushrooms and snails are tender. Taste and season with salt and pepper. Serve with whole wheat crackers.
FILET OF ESCARGOT "AU BLEU DE LANGRES"
(for 8 people)
8 pastry shells in the form of a cup.
4 dozen of escargots
0.5 litre of milk
35 grams of flour
35 grams of butter
0.15 grams of Landre's Blue Cheese
0.1 litre Bourgogne aligote
Salt, pepper and nutmeg.
The day before the dinner, drain the escargots (in case of canned escargots) and then marinate them in the Bourgogne aligote. The rest of the bottle can be used to make Kir as an aperitif. (Kir is black current crème with dry white wine).
The d-day make a light Bechamel sauce well seasoned with salt, pepper and grated Nutmeg.
Lightly warm the pastry shells in a tepid oven.
Heat the escargot in the wine with a pinch of salt to keep them some taste.
Drain the escargot, distribute them among the pastry shells and keep them warmed in the oven.
Crumble the Langres blue cheese and mix it with the Bechamel sauce that should be hot.
Pour it in the pastry shells.
Place the filled pastry shells on the plates with a spoonful of sauce on the bottom with a small twig of chervil and a cherry tomato on each plate.
Eat very hot with the rest of the Bourgogne aligote (if any remains or plan for another bottle that is not a luxury when eight are at the table).

Remark: Langres Blue cheese is difficult to find. You can also use other good blue cheeses such as Bleu d'Auvergne, Bleu des Causses, Fourme d'Ambert or Fourme des Monts Yssingelais.
SKEWERS OF BROCHETTES ESCARGOTS
Small wooden pikes
Parsley, garlic, shallots (scallions) and breadcrumbs.
Salt and pepper.
Oil.
Chop the garlic, the parsley and the shallots and mix with the breadcrumbs.
Drain the escargot without drying them and put them on the pikes.
Roll the skewers in the mixture above.
Fry the breaded escargot in oil.
( 1/2 litre of oil in casserole, heat moderately : oil should not smoke).
Fry until each one is golden.

ESCARGOTS WITH MUSHROOMS
Clean and cut mushrooms. Saute, with a little garlic or onion according to your taste, for about 5 minutes, stop when there is no more water.
Season with salt and pepper, add snails (previously cooked, even still frozen) and a glass of white wine.
When wine is well reduced, add the above butter, or beurre à la bourguignonne. It is optional to add a little Cognac.
Stop cooking when butter begins to bubble and serve in special plates.
An alternative : replace butter by cream and chopped tarragon.
Knead all together in order to obtain a smooth paste and use it as you would "beurre à la bourguignonne".


GOAT CHEESE STUFFING
proportions for 100 snails (previously cooked in court bouillon):
400 g of goat cheese ( or greek feta )
100 g of butter
4 cloves of garlic (finely chopped)
salt

Knead all together in order to obtain a smooth paste and use it as you would "beurre à la bourguignonne". Goat cheese stuffing it's my best recipe (and very easy) :
proportions for 100 snails (previously cooked in court bouillon):

SNAILS, CRETAN STYLE, W/ VINEGAR OR TOMATOES
1lb Snails
1/2c Olive oil
1/4cRed wine vinegar
1lb Snails
1/2c Olive oil
Salt
1Onion grated
1/4cChopped fresh parsley
1lb Peeled, chopped tomatoes
The Greek gift for having a word for it applies richly to snails, usuallycalled "salingaria" on the mainland, but "hohli" on Crete and "karaoli" on Cyprus. Hohli are a favorite Cretan food, and the delicious cooking methods explain why. Snails are scrupulously avoided except in summer,
when they are considered safe to eat. Since snails absorb the odors and taste of foods on which they feed, Cretans catch them after a rainfall,put them in a covered container, and feed them for several days on wheat, flour, and perhaps some thyme. Then the real fun begins. The amounts of the other ingredients in this recipe are based on a pound of snails. One pound of snails serves 1 or 2. First be sure all the snails are alive, then wash them thoroughly incold water and place in their shells in a container large enough to hold them. Pour hot water over them to cover and bring to a boil. Add a teaspoon of salt for each quart of water and continue to boil for 20 minutes, skimming off foam. Drain the snails, then wash in cold water and drain again. In a deep, heavy pan, heat olive oil almost to the boiling point, using 1/2 cup olive oil per pound of snails. Add the snails and fry for 10 minutes, turning carefully with tongs to avoid spattering oil.Pour in 1/4 cup red wine vinegar for each pound of snails. Remove from heat and stir constantly for a few minutes. Remove the snails to
individual plates and serve hot with a little of the remaining sauce, and
some bread and wine, as an appetizer or first course.
SNAILS BRAISED WITH TOMATOES
Prepare the snails for cooking as directed above. In a deep, heavy pan,heat 1/2 cup olive oil per pound of snails, add some salt for seasoning and then the snails. Cover, lower the heat, and cook for 10 minutes, turning once. Add a grated onion and 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley per pound of snails. Stir over medium heat for a few minutes, then add a pound of peeled, chopped tomatoes for each pound of snails. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes, or until the tomatoes are tender. Serve with fried potatoes and baby zucchini salad.