Fish and Shellfish Recipes - Lemon Grass Snails Recipe

Ingredients

• 24 fresh snails in their shells

• 225g/8oz lean minced (ground) pork, passed through the mincer (grinder) twice

• 3 lemon grass stalks, trimmed and finely chopped or ground (reserve the outer leaves)

• 2 spring onions (scallions), finely chopped

• 25g/1oz fresh root ginger, peeled and finely grated

• 1 fresh red chili, seeded and finely chopped

• 10ml/2 tsp sesame or groundnut (peanut) oil

• sea salt and ground black pepper

• chili sauce or other sauce, for dipping

Serves 4

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Method:

1. Pull the snails out of their shells and place them in a colander. Rinse the snails thoroughly in plenty of cold water and pat dry with kitchen paper. Rinse the shells and leave to drain.

2. Chop the snails finely and put them in a bowl. Add the minced pork, lemon grass, spring onions, ginger; chili and oil. Season with salt and pepper and mix well.

3. Select the best of the lemon grass leaves and tear each one into thin ribbons, roughly 7.5cm/3in long. Bend each ribbon in half and put it inside a snail shell, so that the ends are poking out.

4. The idea is that each diner pulls the ends of the lemon grass ribbon to gently prize the steamed morsel out of its shell.

5. Using your fingers, stuff each shell with the snail and pork mixture, gently pushing it between the lemon grass ends to the back of the shell so that it fills the shell completely.

6. Fill a pan a third of the way up with water and bring it to the boil. Arrange the snail shells, open side up, in a steamer that fits the pan. Cover and steam for about 10 minutes, until the mixture is cooked.

7. Serve hot with chili sauce or another strong-flavored dipping sauce of your choice.