The giant African snail, scientifically identified as Achatina achatina also referd to as the tiger snail due to its strip colouration. This is a specie of air breathing land snails that are native to western Africa. They have the reputation of being one of the largest land snails in the world as they can grow up to 15 inches long, weighing up to 0.95 kilograms which is a little above 2 pounds.
Protected by a very hard conical-spiral shaped shell with yellow and dark brown stripes. It retracts into the protection of its shell once startled and will only come out when it feels the danger may have passed.
The Snell has two sets of retractable tentacles on its head, each individual tentacle is capeble of independent movement. the longer pair of tentacles pointing upwards holds its eyes which are sensitive to light, while the shorter pair pointing to the ground are powerful sensors that helps the snail navigate it's way and detect food.
It loves the tropical and subtropical rainforests of west Africa, places like Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Togo, Benin, Ghana, Liberia and Ivory Coast. During the dry seasons they go into hibernation underground while in the rain seasons, you can find them in moist environment like leaf litter, under rocks and logs, among the dry leaves of plantain or banana trees or track them by following their slime. They are more active at night while resting in cool-moist places during the day.
Most native snails have a flat muscular under side known as it's foot. With some successive waves of muscular contractions along the foot, a snail glides or crawl on it's foot covered in epithelium cilia, leaving a slimy trail behind. It has to produce more slime to traverse a dry spot compared to a damp surface.
The Achatina achatina are herbivores, feeding primarily on leaf litter, dead plants, and decaying organic matter. I feed mine with pawpow and watermelon, it loves it. With it's strong teeth, it bites and munches on food like nuts, leaves, fruits, stems and buds then digest and excretes the waste as a nutrient-rich fertilizer.
Because of their feeding harbit, you will not like them in your garden as they may wreck havoc as they eat crops like cocoa, banana, groundnuts and cauliflower. To get the needed amount of calcium, I feed them with egg shell, else they would eat up the shell of young snails.
A single tiger snail is both mail and female, this hermaphrodites can each lay an average of 15 to 20 eggs each time and can lay up to 1200 in a year. they burrow and lay their eggs in the ground where the soil is moist and rich in organic matter. After about 21 days, the young will emerge.
The consumption of raw snail is not advisable. The meat of snails is considered a delicacy with a lot of potential health and nutritional value.
My Peppered Snail brochettes Recipe
| Cuisine: | Nigerian |
|---|
| Preparation Time: | 30 minutes |
| Cooking Time: | 45 minutes |
| Servings: | 4 |
| |
Ingredients
| QTY: | Item | Description |
|---|
| 4 | Tiger Snails | Average large |
| 2 | Onions | Large size |
| 4 | Scotch gBonnet peppers | To your taste |
| 2 | limes | To your taste |
| 1 | Bay leaf | For seasoning |
| 1 | Cup of Vegetable Oil | For a quick fry |
| 8 | brochettes Sticks | To holds the snail |
| | |
Instructions
- Gently Scrub the Snail with fresh lime to remove the slime.
- Split it open and remove the gizzard before a vigorous scrub.
- Salt it, add your seasoning and boil with little water, make sure it cooks till it's almost dried.
- Blend some pepper with onions and garlic.
- chop and slice some pepper, onion for the stick decorations.
- heat up the oil in a pan with medium heat, and saute the sliced onions and peppers until it is translucent. Add the snail with blended Ingredients and after adding Curry, time and salt saute for more 15 minutes
- Now arrange your snail on the stick, alternating between pepper and onion and any vegetables between the snails, some red, green and yellow will make it more attractive
- Server in plate decorated with fresh cabbage
- Enjoy
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Edited with PhotoStudio Captured by manuelhooks
