Escargot with Garlic Butter and Splash of Cognac – a 10 minute dish

(click photo above for the series of photos – there are about a dozen photos that didn’t make the cut, leading up to the money shot)

I eat most anything, and especially take a liking to items of food that normally cause a crinkly nosed “eeewwww” from most, as evidenced by this post. Slimy snails, cod fish sperm sac and regurgitated bird spit, it’s all good. And…you know you’ve got strange food when none of your normal food blog categories fit. It’s not chicken. It’s not seafood. And I certainly don’t want to create a whole ‘nother category called “slug.”

I hope I haven’t grossed you all out.

Well, if you enjoy escargot at fancy schmancy restaurants, I’m here to show you that it only takes 10 minutes to make them at home. The escargots come in a convenient can – even the restaurants get them from a can! Well, did you really expect that when you order escargot from the restaurant, the chef heads out the back door, scouring on his hands and knees for a few juicy buggers to cook?

A fancy recipe name for Snails in a Can.Just a few ingredients and you’ll be on your way to a fancy horse-doovies (what Andrew calls hors d’oeuvres)You can find cans of escargot at most major supermarkets (look in the same isle as other canned seafood, usually top shelf) for about $7 a can. 18 escargots per can.

I got these escargot dishes at a local cookware outlet store and then found these shells online somewhere. But you don’t really need these large shells. In fact, you don’t even need the escargot dish. Just use a shallow oven-proof dish.

Escargot with Garlic Butter and Splash of Cognac

Preheat oven to 450F.

Smushed clove of garlic +1/2 stick of softened butter + big pinch of kosher salt + minced parsley. Open can of escargot, drain. Stuff an escargot in a shell, Smother it with garlic butter. The more garlic you smother, the more garlicy buttery goodness you get to mop up with a hunk of bread.

oooh, but hey, look what I found in the liquor cabinet!

Cognac.

Splash some cognac all over the shells. Stick in oven for 7 minutes. The garlic butter melts and mingles with the cognac – perfect for dipping.

Husband has a point.

Scott:

I don’t get it.

People forage for snails. Cook and remove them from their shells.

Stick ‘em in a can.

You open the can.

Stick ‘em in a new shell, not their own.

Cook them again.

Then remove them from their not-their-own-shell to eat.

Why bother?

The photos that didn’t make the cut

Or I should just say – the photos that led up to the money shot.