Snails - Caracoles

Here's my newest experience. I stopped at Nery's house on Fri PM & Paco came home from work (construction near the marina) with a bag of snails. Yes, with just a face mask, he had been diving for snails during his lunch break, I guess & probably had around 100 in this bag. So, we went to Panchita's house to cook them because they didn't have a pot big enough. The only "seafood" I cook is fish, so this was a learning thing for me. So, we boiled them in shell until cooked, took out of the water & pulled off the cap & pulled out the meat & all the rest of the insides. Only 1/2 of what's in the shell is actually edible. And what started as a large bag I could hardly lift became a bowl, 2 pounds, maybe, of actual meat. (Shells are saved for a craft project). My next lesson was how to eat these Mexican mariscos. Well, duh – with chopped tomato, onion, garlic, chile, lime & cilantro, of course. Add clamato & serve like a cold soup with crackers or crisp tostadas & you have Ceviche de Caracol.

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