Stuffed River Snails

Ingredients

• Large river snails (ping-pong ball-sized, about 20-25 pieces; buy in the morning and leave to purge sand for the afternoon)
• Pork (250g; best cut is the 'Qianjia' meat, a mix of fat and lean at a 3:7 ratio)
• Fresh Mint leaves (a small bunch, the finishing touch)
• Perilla leaves (a small bunch, a perfect match with snails)
• Ginger (1 small piece)
• Green onions (2 stalks)
• Guilin Sanhua Wine
• Light Soy Sauce
• Salt
• Cooking Oil
• Pickled bamboo shoots (optional, 50g)
• Garlic (optional, 4-5 cloves)
• Dried chilli peppers (optional, 3-4 pieces)
• Oyster sauce (optional)
• Starch (optional)
• White pepper (optional)

Steps

1. ### Purging (Prepare half a day in advance)
2. Buy the snails in the morning and place them in a basin of fresh water. Let them sit and purge sand all afternoon.
3. You can drop a few drops of cooking oil or mustard into the water to speed up the purging process.
4. ### Processing the Snails
5. Use a brush to scrub the snail shells clean (this step can take some time).
6. Use a pliers or a kitchen knife to cut off the tail of each snail (trimming about 1/3 to half).
7. Bring a large pot of water to a boil, add the snails, and blanch for 1-2 minutes (do not cook too long, the meat will get tough).
8. After blanching, use a toothpick to remove the snail meat from the shell. Remove the snail top and the black mud vein.
9. Rinse the empty shells with water and shake dry to set aside.
10. ### Making the Filling
11. Wash the snail meat with salt, then chop it into coarse crumbs (do not puree into a paste; keeping the texture gives a good chew).
12. Chop the pork into a paste (mince).
13. Finely chop mint leaves, perilla leaves, ginger, and scallions.
14. Place the snail crumbs, pork paste, chopped mint, chopped perilla, minced ginger, and chopped scallions into a bowl.
15. Add 15ml Sanhua wine, 15ml light soy sauce, and 3g salt.
16. Optional additions: 10ml oyster sauce, 2g white pepper, 10g starch.
17. Stir in one direction until the filling is thick and elastic.
18. To save effort, you can put all the ingredients listed above directly into a meat grinder and blend them.
19. ### Stuffing
20. Use chopsticks to stuff the filling into each snail shell. Try to fill it tightly, but do not tear the shell.
21. Finish stuffing all the snails.
22. ### Stewing
23. Heat the wok, pour in 30ml cooking oil, and optionally stir-fry pickled bamboo shoots and dried chillies to release their aroma.
24. Pour in about 300ml water or stock. Add 15ml light soy sauce and 2g salt. Bring to a boil over high heat.
25. Place the stuffed snails into the pot, cover with a lid, and simmer over medium-low heat for 10 minutes.
26. Do not flip the snails frequently during the stewing process; wait until the meat filling is about 60-70% cooked and set, then gently flip them.
27. Remove the lid, add the remaining fresh mint leaves and perilla leaves, and simmer for another 2-3 minutes.
28. Turn the heat to high to reduce the sauce until thick, and serve.