Title: Snails with Frogs' Legs / Escargots Aux Grenouilles
Categories: French
Yield: 4 Servings
48 | | Burgundy snails |
| | Court bouillon |
4 | | Shallots |
| | Chives |
3/4 | c | White Macon wine |
24 | | Frogs' legs |
1/2 | c | Milk |
| | Flour |
4 | tb | Butter |
| | Salt and pepper |
| | Chopped parsley, to garnish |
[Looking at the ingredients, I figure that this'll feed 4 as a main course
or 8 as an appetizer. -- mkm] Preparation 1 1/2 hours. Cooking 1 1/4
hours. Cook the snails in advance in a court bouillon, then remove them
from their shells. [There's a description of court bouillon in "Joy of
Cooking." Basically, a court bouillon is an aromatic liquid or stock,
sometimes containing wine, vinegar or lemon juice, used mainly for cooking
fish and shellfish, but also sometimes white offal (variety meats) and some
white meats. -- mkm] Chop them, together with the peeled shallots and a
small bunch of well-washed chives. Place these ingredients in a saucepan
with the wine, cover and simmer for 1 hour. Meanwhile, soak the frogs' legs
in the milk for 1 hour. Drain them, then roll in flour and saute in the
butter in a frying pan over a brisk heat for 10 minutes. Add the snails,
together with their cooking juices, and season with salt and pepper.
[Personally, I prefer to mill the pepper at the dinner table. The smell of
the freshly ground pepper would otherwise be lost. -- mkm] Turn up the heat
and cook for a further 5 minutes. Sprinkle with chopped parsley and serve.
White wines: Macon-Clesse, -Lugny, -Vire or -Ige, Hermitage, Crepy. [From
"Larousse Traditional French Cooking."]