Snails Sommeroise / Escargots A La Sommeroise

Serves:

Ingredients:

100 Snails
3 tb Flour
Salt and pepper
3 Garlic cloves
4 Canned anchovy fillets
6 Shelled walnuts, ground
1/2 lb Fatty bacon
1/2 c Olive oil
7 oz Pork rind
1 Pared orange peel
1 Basil sprig
1/2 Bay leaf
2 Thyme sprigs
Vinegar
6 1/2 lb Whole trimmed spinach leaves

Method:

Preparation time 3 hours.
Cooking time 2 1/2 hours.
Starve the snails for at least 8 days, then wash them in several changes of water until clean.
Rinse with vinegar, then drain.
Place the snails in a saucepan of boiling water with the thyme, bay leaf, basil, orange peel and pork rind.
When the snails are almost cooked, drain them and remove them from their shells.
[I guess boiling them makes it easier to remove them from their shells.
--mkm] Brown the snails in olive oil with the fatty bacon, very finely chopped [I assume the author means chop the bacon first.
--mkm], the ground walnuts, anchovy fillets, crushed garlic and salt and pepper.
Thicken the mixture with the flour, then serve on a bed of spinach.
[Make sure you wash all the grit off the spinach first.
--mkm] Rose, red or white wines: Tavel, Chusclan, Coteaux d'Aix-en-Provence.
[From "Larousse Traditional French Cooking.
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