A guest asked to be served slugs. Slug Round Up: there are several species of slugs here in the Pacific Northwest. The banana slug (a good guy) is the only native slug. When you look for slugs, they are surprisingly hard to find at times!
The slugs were "purged" by allowing them to eat clean basil as well as carrot peels. The first batch of slugs escaped their captivity!
Red Wine Vinegar: the slugs were put in a solution of 50% red wine vinegar (unfortunate color: not blood!) and water for 35 minutes. This caused most of the slime to be released.
After the vinegar, a couple of rinses of clean water and you have very presentable slugs.
I cleaned the slugs with that old stand by, the #11 X-Acto knife. Old biology lab skills came rushing back. After discarding the innards, there is just pure muscle left.
The cleaned slugs
Because we cleaned the slugs before noon, we vacuum packed them and put them in the fridge for a couple of hours while we worked on other projects.
The slugs were then blanched in simmering salt water twice. Here they go into a pot with a little stock and aromatic herbs and vegetable and are cooked until tender but not mushy. The slugs cool in this stock.
Final prep included diced carrots, shallot, touch of garlic, slugs. Local grappa was flammed, then butter was added and seasoning adjusted.
Slugs, the Final Presentation
The Little Menu Card for the Guest to take as a souvenir.
