In the cookbook published years ago by Antoine’s restaurant of New Orleans, the author claims that when the dish known as Oysters Rockefeller was first invented, the French chef was actually looking for a substitute for escargot. Had that chef looked a little harder, he might have found a much closer cousin to the European snail.
In a recent post titled Bycatch of the Day: Texas Whelks,we wrote about the oyster-eating sea snails variously known as oyster drills, biganos and whelks. As mentioned, Chris Shepherd served these at the Foodways Texas symposium lunch in Galveston simmered in a spicy crawfish boil. We loved the flavor–but craved a little garlic butter.
Tommy Tollet at Tommy’s Steaks and Oyster Bar in Clear Lake took that idea to it’s logical end. After simmering Texas whelks until tender, he dressed them up like escargot. Each whelk gets wrapped in a spinach leaf and broiled in garlic butter with a topping of parmesan in one of those cute little escargot dishes. The result is amazing. The whelks have a little more flavor and chewier texture than the snails–I ate mine with garlic toast and single malt Scotch.
Tommy’s Steaks and Oyster Bar is considering putting Texas whelks on the menu. Reef and several other Houston restaurants also feature them as specials.