Abalone without baloney

Following our wonderful visit to the abalone sea farm of Sylvain Huchette up at Kerazan on the North Breton coast, we invited our neighbors in to enjoy our cache of fresh organic gastropods! They are very simple to prepare and within minutes we had them sizzling in butter on a hot pan. As one of our friends said, we have something both delicious and beautiful! The shells will be inserted into the candelabra over the main dining room as a permanent reminder of a superb starter!! Thank you Sylvain Huchette and France Haliotis!!

Ingredients ( serve 6)

1 kilo of fresh abalones (25 in total)

2 parsnips

2 leaves of fresh kale

50g of butter

vegetable oil to fry the kale and shavings of parsnip

Salt & pepper to season as required.

Method

The abalone will be served as a starter on a bed of parsnip purée dressed with crispy kale and parsnip shavings.

First peel the parsnips. Then take18 shavings from the parsnip and set aside. Slice the remaining parsnip and boil on a pan until soft. Once soft, strain the water and blend the buter into the parsnip purée. Keep warm. Fry the parsnip shavings on a hot pan with oil. Set aside when golden. Fry the kale leaves in hot oil until it is crispy. Set aside and keep warm.

Using a spoon, remove each snail from its shell. Try to keep as much snail as possible by sliding the spoon close inside the shell. Then clean off the snail removing intestines and valve. Rince off and dry the abalones. Using a wood hammer and a clean cloth, gently pound each abalone once. In a hot pan, place 20g of butter. When sizzling, add the abalones cooking for two minutes on each side. Prepare the warm plate first adding the purée, then the cooked abalone and dress with the crispy shavings and kale. Spoon over any remaining hot butter and immediately.