The classic French dish title, Escargots à la Bourguignonne, means snails with rich, fragrant garlic parsley butter, in this case, baked in a casserole dish. Yep, no need to stuff them in shells! This way is much, much easier and just as delicious!
This recipe is adapted from one by the late great Anthony Bourdain, from his book, Les Halles Cookbook: Strategies, Recipes, and Techniques of Classic Bistro Cooking, where he shares recipes from his French bistro in New York.
In the introduction to the escargot recipe, he declared that in all of his (at the time) 28 years working in US restaurants, he had never seen a single restaurant serving fresh snails. To his knowledge even the best ones use canned escargots.
Well, if they are good enough for Anthony Bourdain, they are certainly good enough for me. If you don’t have this cookbook, allow me to entice you to get a copy. The recipe for the mushroom soup alone is worth the price (so creamy and rich, with zero actual cream - and do NOT skip adding the little bit of sherry at the end - so good!) but my favorite part is all the snarky asides and personal commentary that accompany the recipes. Anthony Bourdain at his absolute finest.
I was fortunate enough to get my copy as a gift from my daughters one Christmas so it’s a treasured book in more than one way. I highly recommend it if you are a fan of 1. Anthony Bourdain and/or 2. French cooking. I wanted to add an Amazon affiliate link but it looks like the book is out of print. The only available copies are so expensive, which is disappointing. See if you can borrow one from your library.
Escargots à la Bourguignonne
This recipe will serve four for a generous appetizer or two little pigs for an absolutely super rich lunch. In a nod to adding something healthy if eating this as a whole meal, a fresh tomato salad with a simple vinaigrette goes nicely. Two cans of snails yields about 220g once they are drained and rinsed.
Ingredients
2 (7.5 oz or 200g) cans snails in brine, drained and rinsed
1 shallot or half a purple onion, minced
½ cup or 120ml dry white wine
1 head garlic, peeled and separated
1 ounce or 28g flat parsley leaves
1/2 cup or 113g butter
Salt and pepper
To serve:
1/2 long baguette, sliced in rounds
Method
In a small pot, combine the snails, shallot (or onion) and white wine and bring to a simmer.
Cook for 15 minutes. Drain and set the snails aside. Anthony adds this comment, which made me laugh: “I know, I know—they’re ugly. But they’re good. Hang in there.”
In the food processor, combine the garlic and parsley and pulse until finely chopped.
Add the butter and process until the mixture is a smooth, green paste.
Season with a little salt and pepper.
Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C.
Choose a baking dish where the snails will cover most of the bottom. Spoon the snails into it. Dollop the garlic parsley butter over the snails.
Bake for about 15 minutes in your preheated oven or until the butter is melted and there is the slightest color on the snails.
Remove from the oven and serve immediately with the sliced baguette.
Enjoy!
It's the first Wednesday of the month so my Foodie Extravaganza Foodie friends are sharing recipes again. This month our theme or main ingredient is garlic! Many thanks to our host, Radha of Magical Recipes.
- A Day in the Life on the Farm: Garlic Ginger Chicken Nuggets
- Sneha’s Recipe: Garlic-Keto Paneer Steaks In Cafreal Masala
- Karen’s Kitchen Stories: Garlic and Chive Flower Buns
- Palatable Pastime: Roasted Garlic Sautéed Squash
- Food Lust People Love: Escargots à la Bourguignonne
- Magical Ingredients: Garlicky Pink Peppercorn Paneer
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