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Preparation
30 minutes
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Cooking
15 minutes
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Difficulty
Easy
Steamed snails with lemongrass and coconut water are both delicious and sweet, incredibly enticing. Would you like to try it? Let’s head into the kitchen and cook this steamed dish with this very simple and quick recipe!
Ingredients for Steamed Snails with Lemongrass and Coconut Milk For 4 people
Snails 1 kg Fresh coconut 1 fruit Kumquat 6 fruits Lemongrass 7 stalks Garlic 4 cloves Chili 7 fruits Kaffir lime leaves 5 leaves Cooking oil 2 tablespoons Fish sauce 2 tablespoons Common spices A little (Sugar/ monosodium glutamate/ seasoning powder)
How to choose fresh and delicious snails
- Choose live snails; when you touch the mouth of a live snail, the snail will retract slightly inward.
- If the snail’s operculum is right at the mouth, then that snail is plump and has thick flesh, so choose to buy it.
- Drop the snails into a basin of water; if the snails sink, they are alive.
- Avoid buying snails at the end of the lunar month as they are in their breeding period, making the meat less tasty.
- Do not buy dead snails as they will smell bad when cooked and are inedible.
How to prepare Steamed Snails with Lemongrass and Coconut Milk
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Prepare the Apple Snails
After purchasing the apple snails, soak them in water overnight. To help the snails release all the dirt from their mouths, after soaking overnight, cut 3 chili peppers into small pieces and add them to the soaking water, keeping them for 2 – 3 hours.
Use a brush to scrub off all the algae sticking to the outside of the snail shells before proceeding with cooking.
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Prepare the Other Ingredients
For the fresh coconut, chop it to extract the water. Clean the lemongrass, then finely chop 2 sticks, and cut the remaining ones into pieces.
Peel and finely chop the garlic. Slice the kaffir lime leaves.
Remove the stems from the chili peppers and slice 2 of them, finely chop the other 2.
For the calamondin, slice 2 fruits into rounds, and squeeze the juice from the remaining 4 fruits.
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Steamed snails with lemongrass and coconut water
Add 2 tablespoons of cooking oil into the pot, heat the oil and add 1/2 of the minced garlic to sauté until fragrant.
Next, add fresh coconut water, season with 1 teaspoon of sugar, 1/2 teaspoon of monosodium glutamate, 1 tablespoon of seasoning powder, and bring the water to a boil.
When the water has boiled vigorously, add the prepared snails along with cut lemongrass and sliced chili. Stir well and cover to steam over medium heat for about 10 minutes.
To ensure the snails are evenly cooked, after 5 minutes of steaming, shake the pot of snails gently.
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Making dipping sauce for snails
Add the squeezed calamondin juice, 2 tablespoons of sugar, and 2 tablespoons of fish sauce into a bowl, and stir well until the sugar dissolves.
Then add grated lemongrass, minced chili, minced garlic, lime leaves, and sliced calamondin, and mix well to have a delicious sweet and sour dipping sauce for snails.
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Final Product
Now you have a delicious, fragrant dish of steamed snails with lemongrass and coconut milk to serve the family. The large apple snails, with their chewy and crunchy meat, still retain the natural sweetness, blended with the fragrant lemongrass and the sweetness of coconut milk.
When eating snails, combining with a bowl of dipping sauce that is sour, spicy, salty, and sweet makes it incredibly delicious.
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The above is a detailed guide on how to make snails steamed with lemongrass and coconut water, delicious and attractive from the crunchy snail meat to the fragrant smell of lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves, just smelling it makes you like it, eating it makes you love it. Wishing you success in making this delicious dish!
*Image and recipe source from YouTube channel Xuân Trúc Người Miền Tây
