If a richer sauce is preferred, thicken the sauce with ¼ cup cream.
Or, if a very plain sauce is preferred, reduce the cooking liquor to half the original quantity and finish it with 2 or 3 tablespoons butter.
Moules Poulette
Scrub 24 to 36 mussels well and wash them in running water. Put them in a saucepan with 2 tablespoons finely chopped shallots, 6 mushrooms, thinly sliced, and 1 cup white wine. Cover the pan and cook for about 6 to minutes, or until the shells open. Remove one shell from each mussel, leaving the meat attached to the other shell, and arrange them in a serving dish. Reduce the liquor in the pan to half its original quantity and add ½ cup cream sauce. Bring the sauce to a boil and add 1 egg yolk beaten with ¼ cup cream and a little of the sauce. Cook slowly, stirring briskly, until the sauce is well blended and slightly thickened, but do not allow it to boil. Correct the seasoning with salt, add a little freshly ground pepper and 1 tablespoon chopped parsley, and pour the sauce over the mussels.
Moules Bonne Femme
Follow the recipe for moules poulette, adding to the pan with the mussels ½ cup celery, cut in fine julienne, parboiled for 10 minutes and drained.
Moules Frites (Fried Mussels)
Steam mussels open as for moules marinière, using ¼ cup white wine. At serving time, dip the meal in fritter batter and fry in deep hot fat (375° F.). Drain and serve with fried parsley and tomato or cream sauce.
Or the opened mussels can he breaded à l'anglaise by rolling them in flour. in egg beaten with 1 tablespoon milk, and finally in fine bread crumbs. They may then be fried in deep hot fat or sautéed on both sides in butter.
The subject of snails is one which. I realize, does not interest all people. But one who bus never eaten the Frenchmans beloved escargots can hardly claim to know la cuisine française. More and more French restaurants in this country are now serving snails regularly. In France every restaurant does, and everyone eats them. I recall how amused I was a few years ago in a Vichy restaurant to see two youngsters, hardly more than six or seven years old, expertly pick up their escargots, dig out the snails, and eat them with all the relish of experienced gourmets.
Snails are found in various parts of Europe, but I don't believe that they are eaten with the same gusto anywhere Outside France. In France the best snails come from the wine-growing sections. Hut even there fresh snails are not a year-round food, because it is only after they have receded into their shells, closing themselves in for winter hibernation from the first of November through March, that they are prime. The rest of the year canned snails are served; and snails, fortunately, are excellent when canned. The seasonal situation does not affect us at all here in this country, because all the snails we eat here arc Canned and imported from France.
Preparing fresh snails involves a tedious process that includes many washings in water with salt and vinegar and cooking in court-bouillon for three or four hours. I won't go into these details because you will be using canned snails, and 1 am sure that you will be more interested in knowing how the canned ones are sold. Two sides are canned, the average sized snails and extra large ones. The former are put up two dozen and four dozen to the can for households and a hundred to the can for restaurants, the latter eighteen and twenty-four to the can for households and seventy-two for restaurants. The shells are packed separately in cartons that contain forty-eight shells for regular sized snails or thirty-six for the large size. Then there is a special package for the housewife which contains a can of twenty-four snails, a carton of twenty- four shells and seasonings for the butter sauce.
Canned snails are the easiest fare in the world to prepare. They have already been thoroughly cooked, and the shells have been cleaned and sterilized so that after the special butter and the snails arc put into the shells they need only be heated. The conventional way to eat snails is to pick up the shell with a holder made for tin's purpose and dig out the snail with a tiny two-lined snail fork.
To Prepare Canned Snails
For 24 snails prepare butter as follows: Cream 1/3 pound butter and add to it I teaspoon finely chopped shallots, 2 cloves garlic, crushed, ½ tablespoon finely chopped parsley, 1 teaspoon salt and a little pepper. Put a little of this butter in each of 24 shells, put a snail in each shell and cover it with the remaining butter. Pour 2 tablespoons white wine in a flat baking dish, arrange the shells in the dish and sprinkle them with fine bread crumbs. Bake the snails in a very hot oven or put the dish under the broiler until the crumbs are golden brown. Serve the snails immediately.
An unusual recipe for snails which does not require the use of the shells is a spécialité of the Burgundy country-side, where both snails and red wine are at their best.
Escargots au Vin Rouge (Snails in Red Wine)
Parboil ¼ cup fat salt pork, diced, for 5 minutes and drain it. Melt 1 tablespoon butter in a heavy pan or casserole and in it sauté the pork dice until golden brown. Add 1 ½ cups red wine, 12 small white onions, 1 large clove garlic, crushed line, and a bouquet garni made by tying together 3 sprigs of parsley, 1 stalk celery, ½ bay leaf and a little thyme. Bring the liquid to a boil, cover the casserole and cook the mixture slowly for about 1 hour. Add 24 canned snails and heat them for 5 minutes. Discard the herbs and thicken the sauce by swirling in manié butter nude by creaming together 1 tablespoon butter and ½ tablespoon floor. Add 1 tablespoon brandy and sprinkle the snails with chopped parsley before serving.
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