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A RECIPE FOR PEPPERED SNAIL

Welcome to My Woven Words, as we all know, that Saturdays are for recipes. Today, you will learn how to prepare peppered snail on My Woven Words’ Food. A lot of Nigerians would do anything for a bowl of peppered snail, although we must also admit that not everyone goes haywire for this Nigerian delicacy. However, if you consider the health benefit of snails, you might just add it to your food timetable every now and then.

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WHY YOU SHOULD EAT SNAIL

Snails contain Protein, which provide a low calorie source of protein and Protein is essential for building and repairing muscle, and is also better at filling you up than carbs and fat. Iron which are essential for building red blood cells and carrying energy around the body. A lack of iron can lead to extreme fatigue and anaemia. Vitamin B12, which is needed for making red blood cells, keeping the nervous system healthy, releasing energy from the food we eat and processing folic acid. Luckily, snails have lots of it, Magnesium, which our bodies need to maintain a normal blood pressure, strengthen bones and also keep your heartbeat regular and Omega-3, which is good for your heart.

NEEDED INGREDIENTS FOR PEPPERED SNAIL

6 to 10 medium/large land snails

3 to 4 Scotch bonnet peppers(atarodo)

2 large tomatoes(needed only if you want it mildly spicy)

1 Red bell Pepper- (Tatashe; needed for the same purpose as the tomatoes)

1 large Onion bulb(chopped)

2 Seasoning cubes or 2 teaspoons seasoning powder

1\2 teaspoon Curry

1\2 teaspoon dried Thyme or Oregano

1\2 teaspoon Garlic powder or 1 fresh garlic(minced)

1\2 cup vegetable oil(about 1 large cookingspoon)

2 tablespoon Palm oil(optional)

1\2 teaspoon Ground Crayfish

For Ganish:

onions

Green bell peppers

HOW TO PREPARE PEPPERED SNAIL

If your snails didn’t come de-shelled and cleaned, you can do that by breaking the shell with a hard object, cut of the gut and wash the snail meat thoroughly with salted water and lime/lemon juice. Some people also clean their snail meat with alum because it does a faster job of removing the snail slime, but it also affects the taste and texture of the snails, that’s why lime/lemon juice is a better choice.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is peppered-snail-2.png — preparing snail

Now place the cleaned snails into a pot of boiling water, add half of the onion, garlic, thyme, curry, seasoning cube and a little salt and boil until tender. This takes about 25 minutes more or less, depending on the size of the snails.
When the snails are tender, take them out of the stock and set aside; but do not pour away the snail stock.
Properly wash the tomatoes, scotch bonnet peppers (atarodo) and red bell pepper (tatashe), pour into a blender and blend roughly.
Pour the blended pepper mix into a pan, and let it simmer until all liquid is gone and it begins to form some bubble holes. This process helps to cut off the sour taste of the tomatoes used and also cut down on the cooking time.

Now heat up the vegetable oil and the palm oil, until hot enough but not Smokey; add the onions and garlic and stir-fry until you can smell the sweet aroma of the fried onions.
Add the ground crayfish and stir fry for a few seconds, the crayfish is optional, but this extra ingredient, is what makes our Peppered snails stand out from the crowd as the best

When you begin to smell the sweet aroma of the fried crayfish, add the blended pepper mix and fry.
While frying, add the remaining seasoning cube/powder and any other spices you like. Add extra curry and salt to taste
Now add the boiled snails and mix together, leave to simmer in the pepper sauce for 5 minutes.
Add the boiled snails and mix together, leave to simmer in the pepper sauce for 5 minutes.
Add the chopped green bell peppers and the chopped red onions as garnish, mix well.