Periwinkles

Fresh, live periwinkles ready to be cooked

Getting ready for tomorrow’s Quarterly Chef’s Dinner at Café Presse includes preparing periwinnkes.  Know as bigorneaux in France, small sea snails are poached then picked straight from the shell using a pin and dunked in mayonnaise.  Accompanied by a glass of pastis, preferable facing the Mediterranean.  Ah, another time perhaps.

These beauties were beach gathered (they are a nuisance species to the mussel and oyster industries, so we can feel good about eating as many as we can!) so we took the extra step of soaking over night in sea water to get all the sand out.  Next they are poached in salted water with parsley, bay and black pepper.

Finished cooking. still in their steaming broth

If you would like to give them a try, there are still a few places left for tomorrow’s dinner.  Give us a call at 206.709.7674

Quarterly Chef’s Dinner at Café Presse featuring the food of Normandy
Tuesday March 20, 2018, 6:30pm.