Snail Enema Done

Today is day 4 of letting the cargols  finish their “snail enema,” as phrased by a very good friend of mine. Now that they have purged their one footed bodies of snail stool, it is time to wash them in water, salt, and vinegar (latter to disinfect) them. This is done about 2 times with salt and vinegar, 3 times with just salt, and then washed about 9 more times with just water. The salt releases snail saliva, a viscous texture you do not want in the tomato  sauce. 

You must keeping rinsing the snails with water until it runs clear and snail caquetes have drained away. This process takes about a good twenty minutes of filling the sink with water, washing, rinsing, draining, and starting over.

I'm a pollastre, I just couldn't wash these snails. Eusebio kindly offered to wash the cargols for me.

The water must run clear.

Notice the transparent strings of saliva on Eusebio's fingers and the foam the saliva creates?

Remove broken shells, you don't want a crunch crunch of broken shell bits  in your sauce. These I set back in the grassy lot.

It’s on to ofegar them, now they must drown in a pot of aigua, filling the pot with a good amount of water to ensure drowning. I didn't even know snails could drown. Yes, it sounds horrible, but Eusebio says it's like eating any other animal product that at some point had to die. He's so matter-of-fact when he answers you, that he leaves you without paraules. 

The cargols are left in the pot with water and salt around the top edges in case they try to make a run for it. The idea is that they drown and slowly die with the rising water temperature from the sun. 

I had to keep watch and poke the run away snails back into the water. 

Sad news or good news--I guess it depends on who is in the pot. The day was kind of cloudy and prevented the water temperature in the pot from rising, I had to transport the pot to the stove and MAKE the water temperature rise--you know what I'm getting at right?!? I wasn't pleasant turning up the + sign on my ceramic top stove to make the water boil. For Eusebio, letting them die outside in the sun is more considerate then boiling them to death. I guess it's like when you have to boil a lobster live. Once that process was over, I drained the water and  put them in a sieve and prepared the rest of the ingredients for the tomato sauce.

Chopped some onion.

Used half of this chorizo and cut it in cubes.

Cubed panceta and pernil.

Panceta, pernil, chorizo, and ceba.

Fry the onion first on low heat, then add the rest of the ingredients, then add 1 can of crushed tomato sauce. Let simmer for about 15 minutes or until sauce thickens and add about half a cup of water, and simmer for about 2 minutes. 

Add snails and cook for half an hour.

Done and ready to eat with a tooth pick. I will refrain from eating this tonight, I can see the tentacles sticking out on some snails, don't care for snail eyes pointed my way. A veure que trobo per menjar aquesta nit.

Nutritional facts: cargols are 15% protien, 2.4% fat, and 80% water. This is an excellent meal for anyone following a high protein low fat diet.  

Cargols and Their Poo Poo

The funniest thing happened this morning. Eusebio and Marcos decided to search for cargols while waiting for me to return from my errand. I was off early this morning, and upon my return I saw the famous Eusebio with a yellow mesh bag in his hand and Marcos straggling behind him. Behold all cargol lovers, snails picked straight from the wild.

Nicely bunched together

They went to an empty and overgrown grassy lot and hand picked cargols de mongetes. "The best" he claims because they are found in the wild and not farmed. Eusebio says he is going to teach me how to wash and cook them, yeah!

Step 1 : Purgar-- purge their poo  poo by feeding them flour to cleanse their digestive system or just let them poop for three days without feeding.

They must be left hanging for three days so they can get rid of their "caquetes," in other words they eliminate their stools.

p.s. They call me Patri, Catalan for Patty.

Cargols Means Snails

Of the many wonderful Catalan cuisine dishes I have eaten, there is one I have tasted, enjoyed, and crossed off my list of menu items to request when dining out, cargols. I have tried escargots in a buttery garlic sauce back in the day when I wanted to expand the range of my culinary palette and appear cultured. I still remember the six, huge, thick snails served on a white plate with an escargot tong and fork at a restaurant  somewhere in Solvang, CA. It seemed like such a European thing to do, eat this one footed mollusk delicacy, too expensive to eat for the price of six little creatures in a butter and garlic sauce. I quickly got over it. 

Or so I thought. Cargols are very much present here in Catalonia and in my life because my husband relishes eating them with an intensity as he picks and chews, then lifts the empty shell to his mouth to suction out the sauce left inside. Slurpppp. He used to ask when was I going to learn how to cook cargols  like his Tieta Teresina. My answer to that question was always the same, “Never.” I enjoying cooking and I have nothing against this type of cuisine, but I will not spend hours in the kitchen laboring over a dish I am not going to eat. This cargol fix of his comes around every two months. It’s one of his all time favorite dishes, but I will leave it to restaurants to make him happy as he carefully pulls the snail from its shell with a long wooden pick. I have tried cargols here and they are very savory, but when I see the cooked snail pulled out of its shell, I get a bit uncomfortable.

The size of cargols here are small and a deep brown in color. They're coiled, shiny, and tight when removed from their shell. Maybe I stared to hard at them when I had them a second time in a rich tomato sauce and kept wondering about their tentacles. Perhaps it was the idea that they looked too much like the snails in between my plants or like the snails my mom would fling in the air when she was out pulling weeds when I was a little girl. The cargols on my plate no longer looked appealing with each one I pulled out. 

vi de taula

I do, however, participate eating this dish my way as David relishes with such passion his cargols a la llauna. When the snails are nearly eaten, I will reach for a piece of pa de pagès per sucar al suc. I might not eat the cargols, but I will dip my bread into the oil left on the pan because it is absolutely delectable. Now if his Tieta Teresina, who is 83 years old, had prepared cargols in tomato sauce, you can bet that I would be dipping my bread in that sauce too. 

cargols a la llauna--snails prepared in a square iron pan

rows of neatly arranged snails with shell openings facing up. this cargol dish
 is prepared with salt,  pepper, and olive oil and  cooked on an open grill. normally snails are boiled and sauteéd. 

hot finger burning snails

understand why I can't eat cargols anymore?

eating all i oli with pa de pagès, perfect combination for eating cargols

this is the delectable suc I was talking about, pan drippings are the best

 sucar bread in oil

best carbonated water to help aid digestion from eating so many cargols. Vichy Catalan is commemorating the 125th  year of the Statue of Liberty

empty shells

happy belly means happy man

tallat, catalan expresso with a small amount of milk

restaurant El Taller in Caldetes, a small seaside town