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We did it.
Last weekend, we cooked up our snails and ate them.
And they were good.

Yes, I did feel slightly bad for eating them and yes it was fairly disgusting but I would probably do it again especially as their death serves some sort of purpose rather than simply stopping them eating all Jo’s flowers.

As previously posted, we waited until their poo had turned orange as we only fed them carrots and water then we stopped feeding them about 24 hours before cooking time. I got a medium pan of water going on a rolling boil with a large kettle full of water ready to go as well. I washed them all with cold water and made sure that they all shrunk into their shells so were alive. I then dropped them into the water and kept it boiling for a good 15 minutes. I had to change the water about 3 times over. The first pan full turned bright green with a frothy scum on the top about an inch thick. The second pan was slightly less green with only a small amount of scum and the last pan had a bogeyish tinge to it but nothing else. After 15 minutes of cooking I drained the pan into a colander and doused with lots of cold water before using a thin meat skewer to take them out of their shells and dropped them onto some sea salt to help take off some of the slime that was still on them (or so I hoped!).

Next I chopped up far more cloves of garlic than I should have and added this to a small omelette pan we have with a large knob of butter. When the house stunk of garlic I dropped the snails into the pan and sautéed until I’d effectively cooked off the small amount of slime that was still coming off the little buggers. Note that I didn’t try to chop off the snail’s hybrid pancreas–liver thingy nor did I chop them up. I figured that I eat whelks, winkles, mussels etc. as is so I would do the same with these.

Whilst all this was going on I made a lovely, simple mushroom risotto to go with the snails and so poured in the cooked snails, garlic and butter into the risotto pan at the same time as the parmigiana. According to Jo it was very delicious albeit very garlicky.

Finally, here are some links that I found helpful during my research with the first 3 links being very helpful:

• Cooking with Richard: English Snails 4 - Snails with pancetta, sage, lemon and rocket
• SFGate: Eating Your Garden Snails
• YouTube.com: Gordon Ramsay - Picking and cooking snails
• mattbites.com: A Snail’s Pace
• Blogjam.com: Garden Snail Risotto
• eHow: How to Cook Snails
• guardian.co.uk: Shell shock
• BBC Food: Heston Blumenthal - Snail Porridge

Popularity: 3% [?]

Jo has starting collecting loads of snails from our garden and rather than killing them immediately, she suggested that we cook them as Gordon Ramsey suggested on the F Word a series or so ago. So we now have several jam jars full of them with carrots inside and in a week or two when their poo turns orange they are ready to be eaten! Yummy! Found this delightful article on eating your own snails which confirms much of what we suspected. Also found an entry over at Cooking With Richard (the new entry on my regular read blogroll) which is equally helpful. More will be posted when I have it.

Popularity: 9% [?]

Feeling a trifle full right now, my friends. You see I got let down for a big lunchtime eat out by Laura, so I decided to treat myself to a little Mixed Grill at the office restaurant which was today’s special. I duly got my meat on and stuffed my face for a staggering £4.50 which sadly did not include a pint of hot sweet tea.

What you see before you is a feast comprising (from the top-left in a clockwise rotation):

• Chips
• Onion Rings
• Yellow Mustard
• Heinz Tomato Ketchup
• Two Pork Sausages (hidden under O Rings)
• Grilled Tomatoes
• Gammon Steak (hidden under Toms)
• Lamb Steak
• Fried Mushrooms

All this and I still have some Parkin left over in a little box on my desk…….

Popularity: 17% [?]

The New Street Brasserie is located within the ground floor of the Atlantic Hotel in New Street, Chelmsford. Due to its location it can be slightly difficult to find, but well worth the trouble. Jon Tindall’s reputation as a chef is so strong, that he is the first person to be voted a Masterchef of Great Britain on reputation alone - quite an achievement.
Based around a cosmopolitan menu with a huge selection of fish and seafood dishes, Jo and I were spoilt for choice when we went there a few weeks ago. The food was fantastic, the wine selection very decent and the price slightly above average at about £90 for two people.
So what did I have? Well, we’ve been twice now so I will give you details of the past two meals:

Meal One
Starter: Moules Marinière
Main: Steamed Lobster with a Caesar Salad on the side
Desert: Summer Fruits Cheesecake with fresh Raspberry Sorbet

Meal Two
Starter: Moules Marinière (Again!)
Main: Seafood Platter - Whole Cromber Crab, Mussels, Scallops, King Prawns & Oysters served on crushed ice
Desert: Chocolate Truffle Cake

Overall, the food is outstanding. Jo and I are both huge seafood lovers so this was a sumptuous banquet. Everything was perfect and the Moules Marinière were the best I have ever tasted and actually prompted me to send my compliments to the chef. They were the special the first time we went and had been put onto the main menu by our second visit due to popularity!

The New Steet Brasserie is not to be missed at gets a big THUMBS UP from the GingerNinja.

Popularity: 12% [?]