African Giant Snail Recipes

Peppered Snails, a signature dish in Nigerian cuisine, often grace the menus of local restaurants and appear as appetizers at social gatherings. Mind the spice though, as this dish is known for its heat!

Ingredients You’ll Need:

10 medium snails
4 habanero peppers (adjust according to your spice tolerance)
5 plum tomatoes
2 onions
1 large stock cube
1 cooking spoon of vegetable oil
Salt (season to taste)
To Serve:

1 onion
Toothpicks

Helpful Notes on Ingredients:

• Be mindful of how much seasoning you add to the snails. Their unique texture prevents them from absorbing much seasoning, so they can easily become too salty.
• If you prefer, you can omit the tomatoes and use only habanero peppers. However, you’ll need a large number of peppers to create enough sauce for the snails, and this can result in an excessively spicy dish where the taste of the pepper dominates.

Preparation:

1. Start by removing the Freeze dried snails from the pack.
2. To Rehydrate soak in luke-warm water overnight to get it soft before cooking
3. Chop one onion into large chunks, and finely dice the other.
4. Mince the habanero peppers.
5. De-seed the tomatoes and cut them into thin slices.

Cooking Steps:

1. Place the cleaned snails in a pot, cover them with water, and add the stock cube and the chunks of the first onion. We’re using larger onion pieces to infuse their flavor without having them in the final dish.
2. Cook on medium heat, adding more water if necessary to prevent burning.
3. In another pot, combine the sliced tomatoes, diced pepper, and onion. Cook on medium heat until they soften. Stir occasionally to prevent sticking or burning.
4. After around 30 minutes, the snails should be fully cooked. They’ll retain a bit of crunch even when cooked through.
5. Remove the large onion pieces from the snails. Turn the heat up to high and keep stirring until the liquid in the pot is fully absorbed. This way, we retain all the flavorful stock. Set the snails aside.
6. Once the water has evaporated from the second pot, add vegetable oil and fry the mixture for about 5 minutes, stirring continuously to prevent sticking.
7. Season with salt, stir well, then add the cooked snails. Stir thoroughly, adding more salt if needed.

And there you have it! Allow the dish to cool slightly, skewer the snails with toothpicks, and serve garnished with sliced onions. Enjoy your delicious Peppered Snails!