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Tharoi Thongba (Water Snail Curry)
Tharoi Thongba (Water Snail Curry) is a traditional Indian recipe (from Manipur) for a classic curry of snails in a chilli and fermented dried fish flavour base with galangal and Sichuan pepper leaves. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic Indian version of: Water Snail Curry (Tharoi Thongba).
prep time
15 minutes
cook time
30 minutes
Total Time:
45 minutes
Serves:
4
Rating: 
Tags : CurryChilli RecipesSpice RecipesHerb RecipesIndian Recipes
I'm quite partial to snails and often buy a tin of brined snails when I can get them. This classic curry from Maipure is based on the local snails, but escargot, tinned or fresh make an acceptable substitute.
This dish uses Sichuan pepper leaves, which is a critical/essential ingredient in the dish.
Ingredients:
500g Snails (tharoi) (either fresh or tinned)
1 small bunch Sichuan Pepper leaves (Mukthrubi Mana)
250g galangal roots, sliced into long strips
5 Fermented dried Fish (Ngari)
10-15 Red chillies
1 Onion, coarsely chopped
3 Garlic cloves, peeled and crushed to a paste
2 thumb size piecess of ginger, peeled and crushed to a paste
1 tsp ground Corriander seeds
1 tsp ground Cumin seeds
1 tbsp cooking oil
2-3 Bay leaves
salt, to taste
1 midium-sized potato, chopped
5-10 citrus leaves (or whole culantro/Burmese Coriander leaves)
Method:
If using fresh snails, bring a half a pan of lightly-salted water to a boil. Add the smails and cook for 20 minutes. Drain then allow to cool before removing the meats from the shells.
If using tinned snails, start here. Place the potato, galangal and chillies in a steamer basket and setam for 15 minutes.
In the meantime, roast the ngari (fermented fish) in a pan until it becomes soft and slightly brown. After it is done, leave it in a small bowl with a tiny amount of water to soften it. Or you can add the ngari along with red chillies inside the steamer.
Open the steamer, then turn out the vegetables into a large bowl and set aside it to cool. Remove the chilies and mash with the ngari and salt to make chili-ngari paste. Now, pound the veggies in a mortar and mix it with the chili-ngari paste then work in 750ml (3 cups) water to prepare base for the curry.
Heat up a wok or deep frying pan dry fry the snails. Keep cooking, stirring constantly stirring until the water that seeps out of the snails evaporates and they become slightly crunchy.
In another pot, heat up the oil and add the Bay leaves. Now, stir in the chopped onion, crushed garlic and ginger together with the ground cumin and ground coriander until the mixture becomes golden brown in colour.
Stir in the curry base, bring to a boil and cook for 1 minute. Stir in a further 750ml (3 cups) water and bring back to a boil.
Add the snails and mukthrubi mana (Sichuan Pepper leaves) and continue cooking over high heat for a further 10-15 minutes. Season to taste with salt then take off the heat.
You can garnish with coriander leaves, if desired. Serve hot with rice.
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