(laughing)
(grunting)
- Saved it.
(light-hearted music)
- Limpets thrive in this environment,
rocky reef type area, lots of seaweed.
So you have to sneak up on these things,
clip them off the rock before they know you're there,
otherwise they'll clamp down.
They're really hard to get off without breaking the shell,
which we're totally trying to avoid.
So if you spook one of these things
and you're having a hard time getting it off,
just go to the next one, don't break the shell
because otherwise it's just gonna kill it.
So these are limpets,
a type of sea snail similar to an abalone.
They're native here to this reef in Port Orford
on the Southern Oregon coast.
We think that these are a great alternative to abalone.
We use them in our restaurant Erizo.
This is gonna have a little bit more mild flavor
than abalone 'cause abalone is much larger, it's much older,
it definitely has more of the seaweed flavor of what it eats
mainly 'cause it's feeding so much on kelp,
whereas this snail kind of feeds on finer algae
and moss that grows on the rocks,
so it doesn't have nearly as profound of a taste
as abalone does, that really desirable umami flavor,
but it does have, it does have that flavor
just a lot more mild.
(light music)
We just try to take them in moderation,
keep that in mind,
and also not, try not to take everything out of one stand.
So usually this area where you see a patch of them
is called a stand of limpets
and we just try to take, you know, a few of the larger ones
and leave the majority of them there
so we don't wipe out a whole rock.
(water bubbling)
(light-hearted music)
So here we have one of the limpets that we harvested,
as you can see this is the underside,
this is the shell that you'll see attached to the rock.
And then this here is the foot of the snail.
This is what it uses to attach, suction on,
protect itself from predators.
Like I was saying, you have to sneak up on these things
because this foot is really strong and it will just
suction onto the rock and make it really hard to harvest.
And then here in the front is the mouth
that it has a kind of a little beak in there that it uses
or a tooth to scrape the moss off the rock
and it's kind of been said that that substance
that the tooth is made of
is actually almost as hard as a diamond
or even harder in some cases.
And then underneath the foot is the liver,
which is one of the most delicious parts,
'cause it's filled with kind of that seaweed that it eats,
very similar to an abalone.
The liver is a delicacy and considered, like,
the best part of the abalone by a lot of aficionados.
So if you harvest these,
you're gonna want to put them in a container
inside of a cooler,
like a little plastic container in ice
and with a loose fitting lid,
don't cut the oxygen off and,
and don't, you know, get 'em too cold,
that's why we put them in a container.
Don't bury them in ice
because they will die almost immediately.
Any kind of clam or oyster or things like that,
burying them in ice, it's kind of like, is a myth.
So I try to think about the temperature of this water,
it's like 45, 50 degrees, kind of, you know,
maybe an ice block in the cooler with the rest of the stuff,
and they'll stay alive for several days in that fashion.
We're just gonna take, you know,
about a dozen or so of the larger specimens
and we're gonna leave most of everything else.
So harvest these in a manner of an idea
that you're gonna serve them as an appetizer essentially,
rather than a main course because of the yield
that you're gonna get off of them.
And also because of just how long this species
does take to grow.
(light-hearted pizzicato strings)
(truck revving engine)
All right so, we're set up here on the beach
at Port Orford Heads.
We have a small fire going here, just some lump charcoal,
little grill grate.
Our limpets that we picked earlier
are still live, still moving, perfect condition.
We're just gonna wipe them gently clean.
(light-hearted pizzicato strings)
So we just have some grapeseed oil
that we're gonna use to brush on the limpets
it's gonna help with caramelization.
And I'm just gonna use my finger
just because the shape
is a little bit strange of the limpets,
so this is going to be the most effective tool.
Just make sure that it's evenly coated over the surface.
It's all we're looking for, no excess oil.
So I'll just blot them dry afterwards,
you just want the thinnest possible coating of oil
that you can.
So just to avoid any flare ups on the grill.
And then we're just gonna go straight over
hottest part of the fire, meat side down,
and this'll cook really quick,
so just do a couple at a time,
whatever you're comfortable with.
And we're just gonna let 'em go for about 30 seconds here.
You can really smell them start to cook,
start to caramelize.
Obviously don't wanna let 'em get too dark.
Just kinda gauge how hot it is.
We're just gonna let 'em go over here.
So as you can see just a little bit of golden
around the edge.
You're not going for anything too crazy.
We're gonna flip it over here just for a second.
As soon as this liquid underneath just starts to bubble,
as you can see right there,
they're just, that limpet is done.
That's how fast they cook.
So another key to being able to tell
that the limpet is done
is just sort of touching the foot here
and it should be completely separated
from the bottom of the shell,
have completely disconnected,
retracted back and sort of firmed up.
We just experimented with them
after we started harvesting for the first time,
trying to figure out what the best way to cook 'em was.
But there is a similar method to cooking abalone like this.
There's a way that you can grill abalone in the shell.
I mean, it's a very indigenous cooking method, grilling,
so I wouldn't attribute it to anybody,
but it's, you know,
something that has been done by Native Americans
for a very long time.
Abalone is one of the first foods
of some of the coastal Native Americans.
We're just, you know,
trying to find the simplest ways of preparing these
that's gonna extract the most natural flavor from it
and sort of highlight that ingredient
and not really do too much, no excess, no frills,
no elaborate preparations or excessive ingredients
that are gonna take away from this thing
because it's just so delicious and beautiful on its own.
We really don't wanna mess with it at all.
Just kind of let the flavor speak for itself,
with a natural cooking method.
So now we just have our mustard seed oil here
that we're gonna finish right over the top.
This kinda has a wasabi flavor,
goes really nice with the brinyness of this limpet.
And then after the oil,
we just have a little bit of flake sea salt,
made in Netarts Bay, right on top
and that completes the dish.
One of the biggest issues that
the California and Oregon coast are facing
is the decimation of the kelp forests
due to overpopulation of purple sea urchin.
So essentially when the kelp got wiped out,
the abalone lost their main food source
and the abalone in California has literally disappeared,
and it's starting to, this issue is creeping up
and it's already in Oregon
and we're already starting to see less and less.
We're kind of just trying to shine a spotlight
on this alternative species that can be harvested
if you're out here at the coast.