Black Forest Escargot Soup

Lorac's Note:

A German dinner party soup. Badische Schneckensuppe was the house specialty of the Zum Ritter in in Durbach. If you don't like escargot, use extra mushrooms instead. My dinner guests couldn't tell the difference between the minced escargot and the minced mushroom and there was not a drop of soup left over. I used extra Pernod because I did not have aniseed.

• Total Time: 1 hrs 40 mins
• Prep Time: 50 mins
• Cook Time: 50 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 4

• 1/4 cup unsalted butter
• 2 tablespoons finely minced shallots
• 1 tablespoon finely minced garlic
• 1/2 lb mushroom, finely minced
• 1 cup riesling wine
• 1 cup beef broth
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 1 cup creme fraiche or 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 (7 1/2 ounce) can escargot, drained and very finely minced (reserve liquid)
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh chives
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh parsley
• 1/4 teaspoon finely ground anise seed
• 2 egg yolks, lightly beaten
• 2 teaspoons Pernod (optional)

Beurre Manie

• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 tablespoon sifted all-purpose flour

Directions:

1. Beurre Manie: Combine butter and flour in a small bowl and blend well.
2. Soup: Melt butter in a large heavy sauce pan over low heat, add shallot and cook 5 minutes.
3. Stir in garlic, cook 1-2 minutes, add mushrooms and cook 15 minutes, stirring constantly.
4. Pour in wine, broths and creme fraiche, simmer 20 minutes.
5. Stir in escargot, reserved liquid, chives, parsley and aniseed.
6. Pinch off bits of Beurre Manie and whisk into soup, one at a time.
7. Beat 1 tbsp of hot soup into the egg yolks, add 3 more tbsp one at a time, whisking vigorously.
8. Add egg mixture to soup, stir in Pernod and let soup "mellow" over low heat (do not boil) 1-2 minutes.

Reviews

[YivvyB]

I just made this soup for the restaurant i work for and after a few small changes (due to lack of supplies) this soup is fantastic!! the only things that I changed were red onion for shallots, scallions for Chives and Dr Konstintin Frank's Cuvee Blanc instead of a straight up reisling. DELICIOUS!!

[Charlis Meador]

This was delicious! The local snails in Northern Califoria are escaped escargot from some restaurant in San Francisco (feral snails?!?!!?), that love to hang out on my artichoke plants, so I am always looking for ways to use them. After the initial preparation of the snails, this recipe went very fast. I used Chardonnay for the wine, all chicken stock, fennel seed instead of aniseed and garnished it with fennel fronds. (I didn't have the pernod, so I didn't use it.) The servings say 4-6, but I had no trouble finishing it off by myself in 2 sittings. Thanks for a very unusual and delicious recipe.