Appreciation for snails is a culinary similarity between the French and Vietnamese. Although, Vietnam definitely wins in the different types of snails consumed and variety different dishes! Boiled, sautéed, braised, cooked in noodle soups- you name it! Restaurants dedicated to snails are beloved institutions in Vietnam.
Even if you are not ready to eat snails in full form, this is a great introductory dish. Traditionally done with ốc bươu đen (Pila conica) that are native to Vietnam, we made ours with canned French snails more commonly found here. French snails are much softer and less chewy, but the taste was still wonderful!
The snails are mixed with 2 types of pork (minced pork and giò sống- “raw sausage”), woodear mushrooms, lemongrass, lime leaves, and seasoning to make the filling- which is stuffed into the shells and steamed. A stalk of lemongrass is used to create cradle for the filling, allowing you to easily remove it from the shell when cooked!
Ốc nhồi thịt • Stuffed snails
Course: Main, AppetizersCuisine: VietnameseDifficulty: Medium2
servings30
minutes20
minutes50
minutesIngredients
Snail shells (20 to 30 depending on the size)
- Giò sống – Raw ‘sausage’ meat
150 g 150 minced pork (store in freezer for 30 minutes before use)
1/2 tsp 1/2 bouillon powder
1/2 tsp 1/2 sugar
10 g 10 ice water
1/4 tsp 1/4 tapioca starch
- Filling
130 g 130 snail meat (canned or frozen) – see notes for whole snails
100 g 100 minced pork
Giò sống from above
12 g 12 dry woodear mushrooms (50g rehydrated)
8 8 lime leaves
20 g 20 shallots
3 stalks 3 lemongrass
1 tbsp 1 fish sauce
1/2 tsp 1/2 sugar
1 tsp 1 bouillon powder
1 tsp 1 MSG
- Dipping sauce
25 g 25 sugar
30 g 30 fish sauce
20 g 20 water
15 g 15 lime juice
1 1 lime leaf
3 g 3 MSG
1 tbsp 1 ginger – minced
Chilies (optional)
Directions
- Make the giò sống (raw sausage meat): combine all the ingredients in this section (aside from the ice water) in a food processor and process for 30 seconds until well combined. Add 1/4 of the ice water and process for 10 seconds until combined. Use a spatula to scrape down the sides of the food processor bowl. Repeat until you are out of ice water.
- Remove the tough outer layers of the lemongrass and set them aside for later. Mince the soft centers.
- Mince shallots, finely chop re-hydrated wood ear mushrooms, chiffonade/finely slice lime leaves into very thin ribbons.
- Combine all the ingredients in the filling section.
- Cut the reserved outer layers of the lemongrass from earlier into 10-15cm lengths.
- To stuff the snails: take a shell, connect the two ends of a piece of lemongrass and insert the other side into the opening of the shell perpendicularly. Holding the lemongrass in place, take some filling and stuff that into the cradle created by the lemongrass. Add enough filling so that the amount inside and outside the shell are about the same.
- Add the stuffed snail shells to a steamer basket (try not to crowd them too much) and add water to the pot below. If you do not have a steamer basket, you can put the snails in a heatproof bowl, put a metal steamer rack or another heatproof bowl upside down into a pot, fill the pot with water just below the bowl containing the snails.
- Heat the pot on high until water starts boiling. Steam snails for another 15 minutes.
- While snails are cooking, make the dipping sauce. For the lime leaf, chiffonade it like the ones added into filling.
Notes
- For whole snails:
If they are already cooked, simply pull them out from the shells with a small fork or a bbq skewer.
If they are raw, poach them in water with some lemongrass for 3 minutes before removing them from the shells.
If you are lucky enough to have access to live snails, soak them in water with chopped chilies for 1-2 hours to remove the slime before poaching.
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