Sacre Bleu! Escargots Are In Danger! Enjoy Them While You Still Can!
The escargots at Benoit. Photo credit: Pierre Monetta
Platydemus manokwari. It could be your worst nightmare if you love eating escargots, or snails. (Which is all of us, really, because it’s just an excuse to use utensils that make us feel like royals and then sop up butter, garlic, and herbs with slices of baguette.)
NPR blog the Salt reports that this Platydemus manokwari, an invasive species of flatworm with an appetite for snails, has been found in a Normandy greenhouse. This marks its first appearance in Europe and the beginning of its potential designs to wipe out our beloved little shelled snacks.
“We’ll see,” Philippe Bertineau, Executive Chef of French restaurant Benoit New York City, told us. Bertineau, who has enough snails in stock to last until the end of June, has seen this kind of radical reaction before. “They said something similar about oysters, and then we still found a way to get good oysters. I’m going to wait to see what happens.”
Of bigger concern to Bertineau is getting the right kind of snails. At Benoit, he serves only wild pomecea, “the Kobe beef of snails,” which he imports from France, Italy, and eastern Europe. “The bad snails,” which largely come from Indonesia and Vietnam, are “eating trash in farms,” he says. The ones he serves are “more clean and pure” tasting. “I never really had a bad snail if it’s good one, you know? What you want is the product, that’s what’s important.”
If there is a shortage of his beloved wild pomecea, Bertineau says he would take escargots off the menu rather than source a different kind. “You’re not going to say you’re serving wild King salmon and then served farmed stuff,” for example, he says. “If people want good snails with garlic and parsley, then that’s what they should have. And if there’s a shortage of those, there’s no use in serving them at all.”
And for those of us who care about escargots mainly for their abilities to carry butter and garlic to our mouths, Bertineau says he would serve frog legs in a similar preparation.
Escargots in Garlic and Parsley Butter
by Philippe Bertineau
Serves 3
1 lb. plus 3 Tbsp. room temperature butter
36 wild Burgundy snails, removed from their shells and rinsed
1 shallot, finely-minced
1 1/2 heads garlic, peeled and finely chopped
2 bunches parsley, chopped
¼ bunch tarragon
2 tsp. fine sea salt
1 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1 small brioche, sliced and cut in 36 small rings the size of a quarter
1. Pre-heat oven to 350ºF.
2. In a sauté pan on low heat, melt 3 Tbsp. butter. Add snails, shallots and 1 head chopped garlic and cook for 10 minutes.
3. Add 1 bunch choppd parsley. Then set aside and let cool.
4. Meanwhile, in a blender, mix 1 lb. butter, 1 bunch chopped parsley, tarragon, and 1/2 head chopped garlic until very smooth. Season with salt and pepper.
5. In 12-snail gratin dishes, place 1 snail in each hole, and cover with garlic butter up to the brim. Add fine brioche croutons over each snail.
6. Bake each dish until the butter is bubbling and the croutons are golden-brown, 7 minutes. Serve immediately.
