Snail Redemption and Palava Sauce

I go into the kitchen to get my knife. I need to cut up the snail on my plate.

Back at the table we (Kenneth, Andrew, and I) all agree to take a bite of snail on the count of three.

Andrew’s two Liberian friends are amused that we are making such a big deal of this. They eat snails all the time.

“One.”
“Two.”
“Three.”

We all take a bite and chew. I find the snail to taste like a baked clam but with firmer flesh. The flavor of the Palava sauce compliments the snail.

I also enjoy the small personal victory of eating an African snail.

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In a previous post I shared my attempt to cook giant African land snails. What happened afterward, that I haven’t previously shared, was that I failed to eat those snails out of a mix of poor cooking and irrational fear.

To explain, I was afraid that I would get sick from eating the snails even though logically I knew that to be foolish. I had boiled the snails so long that nothing could’ve survived. But fear favors type 1 statistical errors, ‘false positives’. It is very easy to be afraid of everything, because you can never be wrong. If I never eat a snail I can never get sick from eating a snail. I may be robbing myself of a gratifying life experience, but at least I can never be wrong.

In addition to being afraid, I cooked my snails in a French style. The problem with that is:

“Those wanting to cook classic Burgundian butter and garlic-laden escargot should be wary of the Ghanaian Tiger Snail and the Thai Apple Snail which is delicious if prepared in classic Asian and West African dishes, but unsuited in taste and texture for French cuisine.”[1]

(this article was discovered by Kenneth a week after my snail cooking debacle)

SO, I was afraid of eating snails and when I took a bite of my snails cooked in a French style they tasted terrible. I threw out my snails.

I had been hoping for a chance at snail redemption since then.

A new opportunity to eat giant African land snails arose when two of Andrew’s Liberian friends offered to cook us Palava sauce while we watched and learned. As with many Liberian dishes multiple meats were used. The four types of meat used in the sauce were chicken, beef, snail, and fried fish.

The sauce is made with Palava leaves boiled in palm oil. The preparation style is similar to Cassava leaf, using a two-pot method. One pot is used to boil the greens in oil. A second pot is used for the meat. The last step is to combine the two pots and continue cooking until ready.

Here’s a recipe for Palava Sauce.

African-Recipe-Secrets

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[1] Winemag