Amuse Bouche – Snails in Phyllo Purse, Wild Mushrooms, Creamed Cardoons, Parsley

A quick note on the Israeli posts below… I don’t envy journalists in the least! What an incredible pain in the ass to have to write on a deadline. These posts were done for Chicago Magazine’s, The Dish.

So now that the postings are done, it’s time to get back to the regularly scheduled programming. In other words – in case you’ve forgotten – cardoons! For those of you tired of hearing about them, not to worry. My case of them is quickly depleting and I’m afraid most of my guests prefer to eat them with a shovel and not even consider what they are. Probably more so that their attentions are distracted becaause I’ve been pairing them with not your middle of the road ingredients: quail (not weird at all), sweetbreads, snails, and above this post will be calves tongue when I get to it.

Fairly simple stuff here… the snails are samples I received from an outstanding supplier based in Oregon called Foods in Season. The snails are from a farm in California and are raised by a lady that feeds them on basil. They did arrive frozen and out of the shell, but had a good deal more flavor than a canned variety. For the preparation, the wild mushrooms were sauteed in butter with garlic and shallots. The snails which had been well cleaned and dried of excess liquid were added in. Once the ensuing liquid was cooked dry, they were seasoned with salt and chopped parsley, transferred to a cutting board, rough chopped and bound with a pinch of bread crumbs. From here it cooled and was filled in the phyllo and baked.

The cardoons were cut, placed in cream, seasoned with with salt and fresh garlic, and cooked until tender and most of the cream was absorbed. The parsley is simply blended with garlic and olive oil.