In French cuisine, snail is a much celebrated delicacy. So, when I was in France, I did it the French way–chowing down a bowl of these sea snails/whelks, or Bulots in French. (Thanks Pip for your information.)
I absolutely loved them and couldn’t get enough. Served cold with garlic mayonnaise, all I could say was “C’est si bon!” (It is so good!)
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I found a recipe of Bulots Mayonnaise here, but for your convenience, I have summarized it below:
Bullots Mayonnaise/French Whelks with Mayonnaise Recipe (AKA "Belgian" Escargot de Bruxelles)
Servings 4 people
French Snails (Bulots Mayonnaise) Recipe - Served cold with garlic mayonnaise.
Calories 140 kcal
Ingredients
- 1/2 kg bulots
- 1 1/2 liters water
- 1 glass dry white wine or a little wine vinegar
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper, grain, not ground pepper
- 1 laurel leaf
- Some thyme leaves
- Some fresh parsley
- Salt to taste
For the Mayonnaise:
- 1 uncooked egg yolk
- 1 teaspoon French mustard from Dijon
- Peanut oil
- Olive oil
- Freshly squeezed lime juice
- 1 garlic clove
- Salt to taste
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Directions
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1Clean the bulots by soaking in salt water and then rinsed with clean water a few times. Place them in a pan with cold water (1.5 liters) wine, pepper, the laurel leaf, thyme and parsley. Add salt to taste and heat until it's boiling.
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2Skim when necessary, and let it lightly boil for 40 min.
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3When cooked, let the snails cool off in their cooking juices. When cold you'll eat them with thouthpicks. Everything but the opercula is edible.
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4In a bowl mix the egg yolk and the mustard with a little spoon. Slowly add (little by little) the peanut oil. Add a little olive oil (5 teaspoons) for flavour, and then salt and one teaspoon of fresh lemon juice to taste. Mix everything well and set aside.
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5Press the garlic clove or cut it into very fine slices. Add the garlic to the mayonnaise to fit your taste. Adjust mayonnaise to your flavour by adding more lemon juice, salt, or garlic to taste.
Nutrition Facts
Bullots Mayonnaise/French Whelks with Mayonnaise Recipe (AKA "Belgian" Escargot de Bruxelles)
Amount Per Serving (4 people)
Calories 140
Calories from Fat 27
% Daily Value*
Fat 3g5%
Cholesterol 111mg37%
Sodium 127mg6%
Potassium 500mg14%
Carbohydrates 3g1%
Protein 20g40%
Vitamin A 190IU4%
Vitamin C 0.5mg1%
Calcium 33mg3%
Iron 4.8mg27%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.
Christina
I recently had bulots at a little French restaurant here in New York City where I live.
I loved them and would like to find out where I can find them for purchase (preferably already cooked, but if that is an impossibility I’ll take them any way I can).
Many thanks for any help you may offer.
Christina
Rasa Malaysia
I have never seen them in the US. Tough luck, we have to import from France. ;)
joshua
does anyone mind giving me some background info on this eating snail habbits?
Anonymous
i think c’est si bon is a wrong transalation..
it should be c’est bon!..cause “c’est si bon” means if it IS good.
cheers!
c’est bonne comme ca
Zen Chef
I ate so many of those!
So delicious but so hard to find in the US. I need to plan another ‘eating rampage’ in France.
:-)
cherrypie
Once again…….thanks for your butter cake recipe. I love baking cake but never turn out right. Most of the time my cake turn out dry even I follow step by step! I feel very proud after my friends tasted my cake. Oh!one more thing I want to share with you…I’m from Ipoh.
Judy
I love them too in lemon chillie sauce. Yum!
Syrie
Yum! I will have to try these next time I am there.
Rasa Malaysia
All – thanks so much for your comments. Good stuff.
Chuck – the seafood trays served in the restaurants in France are mostly cold/chilled seafood. I started to really like them cold. :)
Lucia – they taste great. It’s like balitong, but without the slimey-ness. Really! If you like balitong, you will like it, they taste nothing like mussels, but with similar briny sweetness.
JadedOne – me too. After I tasted these, I will say that I prefer them over escargots / garden snails. They are just very good.
Joe – they are quite big, bigger than escargot.
Anonymous
I’ve had shrimp, crab, and fish (cerviche) hot or cold, depending on the dish. So I’d try snails cold, but I might switch back to the French way afterwards, since I love them that way.
S
YOYO Cooking
tasty~ so nice photo
and i’ll say:happy new year!happy new day!
"Joe" who is constantly craving
how come err the escargots are so “small” compared to the big juicy ones we get..?
JadedOne
Yes!! I had these in France as well. They were so good. I prefer them over regular ole garden snails. Unfortunately, they also gave me food poisoning, but it was worth it haha.
lucia
yuck! don’t think i will like it. how does it taste like? mussel? balitong?
May
Oh man! These snails are exactly like those I ate in the Buffet prepared Chinese style. All you can eat, eat until pengsan.
Veron
I say yum. Back in the Philippines we it big pots of snails cooked in ginger.
Maya
Hi Bee:
Welcome Back! Looks like you had a great trip.
Happy New Year!!
Wandering Chopsticks
Oh, I would devour them with a Vietnamese dipping sauce of fish sauce, chili peppers, lime, and ginger. Mmmm.
mycookinghut
I prefer them to be served warm and my favourite is Escargots de Bourgogne!!http://www.mycookinghut.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/12/redo1.jpg
Simplement délicieux!
pip
your ‘sea snails’ are actually bulot in french, or whelks in english. land snails are escargots and tend to be cooked in garlic butter. personally, i prefer the bulots … you can buy them already cuit (cooked) from seafood stalls in france … and they are absolutely divine!
Big Boys Oven
They are gorgeous and lovely! Had them in Paris & Belgium!
Chuck
I have to agree with Manggy. Hot is great. Cold… the jury is still out. I’ll have to try them cold before I can give you the final verdict.
Christine
J’adore les escargots :) We also like to dip them in Nuoc cham – so addictive.
Manggy
Yes, but I don’t think I could ever eat them cold. (Don’t like cold food..) But they are really good hot!