Rice with rabbit and snails

How to make rice with rabbit and snails.

Snails in gastronomy are loved and hated alike, to many they seem to us an exquisite delicacy and to others they are simply repulsive.

There is no doubt that they are part of the Mediterranean culture and cuisine, especially the Spanish and French (the famous escargot). And in many cases, a Valencian paella without snails is not paella.

In Spain we find traditional recipes made with snails in the Valencian community , they are famous in Tafalla (Navarra), in some areas of Mallorca, in Logroño at the festivals of San Juán, Lleida, Álava, consumed throughout the Northwest region and the Vega Alta in Murcia, as an important part of traditional Aragonese cuisine at the San Jorge festivities and without forgetting Madrid as one of its quintessential tapas.

This weekend we prepare this rice with rabbit and some snails following all the advice of the Lourdes March rice bible, ” The book of paella and rice ” that I always recommend in my rice recipes .

I have had the opportunity to have Encarna explain the recipe step by step while preparing it. It is very important to use a quality rice, in the blog we trust La Fallera pump rice , which always gives us good results.

Here I leave it for you to cheer up in your house and put your boots on.

Before starting with the rice. The snails

1. The first step is to clean the snails. All we have to do is wash them several times with plenty of water so that they release the dirt and slime that they usually have.
2. For those who do not like to clean them, canned snails are sold in the usual stores, clean, purged and precooked, which only need a short boil with the sauce.
3. Then we must cook them in a saucepan with plenty of water until they are completely covered and we start to heat the water.
4. Immediately the top of the casserole will begin to fill with foam, you must remove it with a slotted spoon.
5. Add 2 bay leaves and a good handful of salt. When the water is very dirty, put the snails in a strainer.
6. Salt them to taste and place them in another saucepan with very hot new water, so that they continue to boil for 15 or 20 more minutes, set aside and drain when they are already. We reserve for the rice.

Caldito to add to the rice

1. We put water in a saucepan to heat, add thyme and rosemary.
2. We are going to prepare an infusion with these herbs to flavor the rice without later finding them in the final dish, it will be enough to boil them for about 15 minutes.
3. We will add the ñoras in the last 5 minutes of cooking. So that they are hydrating and at the same time, we will take advantage of the fact that they color the rice water a little. Strain and reserve for the end of the recipe.
4. The ñoras put them aside and remove the skin so that they are not bothersome when eating and we leave their meat to add to the rice.

Preparation of the rice base with rabbit and snails

1. Peel the garlic cloves and chop as best as possible. We reserve.
2. We chop the green pepper very fine so that it melts in the cooking. It is important that its texture is not noticed but the flavor it gives to rice is.
3. We cut the rabbit into small and regular pieces (well chopped) and season with salt and pepper.
4. Add the minced garlic cloves and a little thyme.
5. Add the oil to the paella, when it is hot add the rabbit and fry it until the meat is golden brown (about 10-15 minutes at medium temperature).
6. Add the pepper, the skinless tomato, the meat of the ñoras to the paella and fry together with the rabbit. This process takes about 5 minutes over medium heat, always stirring constantly.
7. When the rabbit is well browned and the vegetables are poached, add the cooked snails. We remove everything with a spoon, bringing all the flavors together.

Cooking the rice and presenting the rice with rabbit and snails

1. We introduce the rice and stir everything gently so that it is well impregnated with the stew and absorbs the flavor. Leave for 5 more minutes on medium heat.
2. For the bomb rice issue, the exact measurements are 2 and a half parts of water for every 1 rice.
3. Mix in the rosemary and thyme flavored water, the saffron (previously toasted) and once the rice has absorbed all the flavor of the stew we add the water to the paella.
4. In this case they are 600 g. of rice with which we will have to add 1 liter and a half of water.
5. We raise the temperature to the maximum until it starts to boil and then we lower it to half and it is done little by little. This process lasts between 15-20 minutes, it all depends on the fire.
6. Halfway through cooking we taste the broth and rectify with salt. After fifteen minutes the liquid must have been consumed and the rice must still be a little hard and the famous socarrat should begin to form.
7. Remove from the heat and let stand 5 minutes covered with clean cloths.
8. The rice will finish making and the socarrat will be completed out of the fire.

And that’s it, serve it freshly and generously.

You can see all the photos of the step by step recipe for rice with rabbit and snails in this album. Do not miss any detail and you will get a delicious rice.

Tips for a rice with rabbit and yummy snails

• Mª Angeles completes this step with her comment, it is an important point if you have the opportunity to “ fool the snails ”: “ My grandmother always did it and I remember it with great affection because we were always scolded for touching them. When they are collected they must be put in a saucepan with water in the sun, so that the snails take out the “molla”, on the edge of the saucepan you must put salt (as when making a margarita) so that they do not escape. Then they are cooked and so they have the chicha in sight and get more flavor. ”
• If you want more flavor in your rice, I advise you to have the rabbit about 2 hours macerating before preparing it so that the flavors come together.
• Once the rice has been spread over the paella, it should be removed as little as possible. Otherwise it will release its starch and in the end the grain will not be loose.