Spicy Sea Snails aka Balitong

Balitong is a type of sea snails found in the muddy coastal river mouth in Malaysia and is known as ‘ siput sedut ‘ in the Malay language. It is one of the favourite seafood item that can found in most seafood restaurant in Malaysia. Most Malaysian love this sea snails /malaysian escargot. :P It has a crunchy texture and sweet taste.

Piggy gal and myself are the only one who know how to enjoy eating them. Daddy and Piggy boy will shun from them as these snails are covered with mud when purchased from the wet market. They are quite unsightly actually so I understand why these guys don’t like to eat them… Malaysians will know what I mean :))) They are sold at the wet market with the mud still on their shells at a price of RM 7 per kg.

I don’t cook them often coz it entails a lot of work . The snails have to be first soaked and rinsed in water many times until the snails are totally rid of the mud. Then using the back of the cleaver, chopped off the end part of the snail of about more than 1/4 inch , one by one . After that, I have to soak them once again in water to rid them of the chippings otherwise when we suck the meat out of the shell, the chippings will get stuck in our throat. After which drip dry them in a basket. Next, get all the spices ready for stir frying the snails and the final step ,heat up the wok and tada...next get our butts seated and enjoy a plate of mouth-watering stir fried spicy sea snails. Hehe... Piggy gal and myself will start our race of who manages to get the meat out of the shells first. And who can eat the most !

Another hard task. You have to suck hard at one end first then suck a few times from the front of the snail in order to get the meat out of the shell. Next, you have to remove a thin layer of shell like membrane from the front part of the body before you can start to chew on the crunchy sweet snail meat.....yummilicious no doubt...a night of sucking the snails....the sound can be quite errr...disturbing..... chut chut chutting away ( in cantonese it means kissing the snail ):)) For that reason , I don't order this dish at the seafood restaurant coz it can be quite embarassing if you have guest for dinner :P

Mouthwatering Stir fried Spicy Sea Snails

The art of eating this snails is to suck the end part

then the front....this is the only way to get the meat out

and you have to remove the round shell like membrane

before you can eat it :) Can you spot the shell like membrane

from the photo above???

the snail meat is crunchy and sweet!

Stir Fried Spicy Sea Snail/ Balitong

Ingredients:

300 gm sea snails/ balitong- washed and cleaned
2 - 2.5 tbsp of olive oil/ vegetable oil
1 tbsp of dried prawn – soaked and pounded fine
1 sprig curry leaves

Spice ingredients:
1 tbsp chilli paste
2 shallots
2 garlic
1 tbsp of fish curry powder
1 tbsp tom yam paste

Seasoning
1 tsp of sugar
¼ tsp salt
1 tsp of anchovies /ikan bilis stock granules
2 tbsp of water

Method:

Blend the spice ingredients in a food processor into a fine paste.

Blanch sea-snails in boiling water for a minute. Drain.

Heat oil in a wok and sauté dried prawns, curry leaves and blended spice ingredients until fragrant.

Add the sea-snails and fry well to combine. Stir in seasoning and bring to a quick rolling boil. Dish out to serve.

Enjoy and have a nice weekend!

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