Rapana. The horror of the Black Sea - rapana. Is rapana edible?

Rapana belong to the predatory genus of gastropods of the needle family. This species is widespread in the waters of the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Since 1947, a population of rapanas has also been found in the Black Sea, since there were no starfish there (considered dangerous for rapanas). The described representatives of gastropods use small bivalves such as oysters and mussels as a food source. To open their shell, rapanas use their muscular leg. Younger individuals, on the contrary, use a tongue-drill, the surface of which is covered with teeth, to open the shell of a mussel or oyster. But the rapana themselves become victims of starfish.

Rapanas are also called sea snails. The shell of this mollusk has a broad oval shape with a low curl, the very last whorl is slightly swollen. The shell is colored brownish-gray; there are axial thickenings on the surface of the shell, as well as spiral-shaped ribs (see photo). The size of the shell varies between twelve and fifteen centimeters. The inside of the shell is characterized by a rich orange hue.

In nature, there are only four varieties of rapana:

• Far Eastern;
• veiny;
• Thomas rapana;
• Black Sea

The largest representatives of this family are the Far Eastern rapana, since the size of their shell reaches about eighteen centimeters.

The described sea snails are found at a depth of about forty-five meters. Rapana can be attached to rocks or lie on the seabed. Mollusks move with the help of a muscular leg.

Sea snails are caught from the Black Sea to prevent rapana from destroying mussels and oysters. A variety of beautiful souvenirs are made from the shells of the described mollusks, and the edible part of sea snails has found its use in cooking. Rapan is eaten raw, boiled, fried, stewed, baked or grilled.

How do rapana differ from trumpeter?

Trumpeters and rapans differ from each other in many aspects. Experts say that it is impossible to confuse such representatives of gastropods.

Firstly, the trumpeter is much smaller in size than the rapana. Its shell has a beautiful helical shape, resembling a twisted elongated cone. Rapana, unlike trumpeters, are much wider and plumper.

Secondly, trumpeters are fairly easy to cook. But with rapana you need to tinker a little, otherwise the meat of the sea snail may become “rubbery”. Also, rapana should be cooked at a fairly low temperature.

Thirdly, rapana prefer to live in warm regions; they are very often found at the bottom of the Black Sea. But trumpeters, on the contrary, love to live in the northern seas and Far Eastern regions. Over eighty species of whelks live in the Barents, White and Baltic Seas.

Beneficial properties and harm

Rapans are more beneficial to the human body than harmful. Moreover, people can consume shellfish meat at almost any age (with the exception of small children). Rapana contains a special protein that is very easily absorbed by the body, and also contains a colossal amount of various amino acids, which are necessary for the productive activity of the brain and for the rapid restoration of energy reserves.

In addition, medical experts call other beneficial properties of this product, namely:

• has a beneficial effect on the hematopoietic system;
• normalizes the activity of the nervous system;
• normalizes metabolism;
• helps the body maintain the activity of the cardiovascular system in normal tone;
• maintains the quality of vision at the proper level;
• helps strengthen the immune system;
• improves kidney function.

Rapana meat also contains an astronomical amount of various vitamins (A, B, E and PP) and minerals (iodine, potassium, calcium, sodium, phosphorus, iron, magnesium) necessary to strengthen the immune system and fight various diseases and viral infections.

The calorie content of rapana is not too high. However, you should not abuse this product so as not to harm the body.

The nutritional value of these shellfish lies in the content of proteins, carbohydrates, fats, dietary fiber and water.

The only contraindication to the use of rapan would be individual intolerance to this product. The mollusk cannot cause any further harm to health.

How to clean a sink?

There are several ways to clean rapana from the sink. Experienced experts name three main ways to get the edible part of a shellfish by separating the meat from the inedible digestive part of the rapana. So, let's look at each method separately:

1. Hot method. This method of cleaning rapana from a sink requires a lot of patience. Initially, the product should be boiled. After rapana, you can easily remove it from the sink. However, during the cooking process, the shellfish will emit a very unpleasant odor, because along with the meat, its inedible digestive part is also cooked.
2. Using a penknife or with your own hands. This method implies the following. You need to take the rapana with your left hand, and then use the index finger of your right hand or a sharp knife to sharply pull the mollusk out of the shell, placing your finger between the leg and the shell. This way you can immediately separate the inedible digestive part of the rapana from the meat. Of course, this method of cleaning a mollusk from the shell is quite labor-intensive. Experts advise doing this work quickly and without delay, since rapana can go deep into the sink, and then it will be very difficult to remove it. After completing the procedure, your fingers may turn purple, but don't worry, the color will wash off quickly. It should be noted that this method is only suitable for cleaning large rapanas, the size of which reaches more than six centimeters.
3. Cold way. To do this, you will need to place live rapana in the freezer and freeze it. Seafood should remain in the freezer compartment for three hours. After this, the frozen rapana should be removed from the freezer and left to thaw at room temperature on the kitchen table. Next, you will need cutlery; you can use a fork, which we will later use to remove the rapan from the sink. The body of the mollusk must be cleaned, removing everything unnecessary, leaving only the edible part of the carcass - the leg (in other words, the front part of the body of the rapana). By the way, you can also eat rapana liver, but if you don’t know how to properly prepare this offal, then it’s best to start from the front part of the mollusk’s body.

So, we have described to you three ways to clean rapana from the sink. You can choose any of the proposed methods that you like best and that suits you.

Methods for preparing rapan

How to cook rapana at home? Cleaned shellfish meat can be prepared in various ways, namely: boiled, fried, stewed, baked in the oven, or marinated and then grilled.

Before each method of preparing a product, rapana must be cleaned from the shell (how to do this was indicated above) so that you are left with only the edible part of the seafood.

How to cook rapana? Experienced chefs suggest using this method. You will first need to sprinkle the peeled rapana with salt and grind it thoroughly. If your shellfish were frozen, then you need to wait until the product defrosts. After this, the rapana meat should be placed in a saucepan and filled completely with cold water (with a margin of about one centimeter). If you have a lot of meat, then you don’t have to fill the brine with liquid at all. The shellfish will be cooked in their own juice. Place the container with the contents on the stove and wait until the meat boils, after which the heat should be reduced to a minimum. How long does it take to cook rapana? Shellfish meat is cooked for about five minutes, but no more, otherwise the product will be impossible to chew, since it will turn into “rubber.” By the way, instead of water, you can take mineral water along with lemon juice or white wine. Boiled rapana meat is stored in the refrigerator compartment for no more than a day.

How to fry rapana? Initially, cleaned rapana meat should be boiled (the cooking method was indicated above, but do not add salt). After cooking, the product must be removed from the liquid and cut into small pieces. Then you will need to cut the onion into half rings and fry in a frying pan until the onion acquires a golden color. Next, you need to add chopped boiled rapana meat to the fried vegetable and continue the frying process. When all the liquid comes out of the shellfish, the rapana should be fried for another four minutes, adding some spices at your discretion. Fried rapana goes well with kohlrabi and cauliflower.

Stewed rapana is also very easy and quick to prepare. To do this, you will first need to rinse the clams thoroughly and then boil them in salted water for about a couple of minutes. After this, the rapana meat must be separated from the inedible part, rinsed again under running water and cut into small pieces. Next, cook the frying (onions with carrots) in a frying pan, then add chopped rapana, salt, add a little sour cream and simmer over low heat for about five minutes.

Pickling rapana at home is not difficult. You will need to rinse the raw seafood meat thoroughly under running cold water. Then a small onion needs to be peeled and cut into half rings. Peeled and washed shellfish meat should be mixed with chopped onions and completely filled with pomegranate juice, putting the finished marinade in the refrigerator for about twelve hours. After this, the pickled rapana can be served along with olives, lemon slices or herbs.

How to cook frozen rapana? The shellfish meat will need to be subjected to secondary processing. For example, if you have a kilogram of rapana, then the product must be filled with four glasses (volume two hundred milliliters) of water, adding a couple of glasses of ten percent table vinegar and table salt. Cook shellfish meat until the product becomes soft. The cooking process takes approximately fifteen minutes. However, after ten minutes, the rapana meat must be constantly checked for softness so as not to overcook the product.

Now you know how to cook rapana at home so that the finished dish turns out very tasty and appetizing.

Below is a video that describes the method of preparing rapana.

Use in cooking

In cooking, rapana is used in many recipes. For example, the meat of the product described can be cooked with mushrooms, vegetables, sour cream, cream sauce, batter.

In addition, some chefs prepare pate, shish kebab, sashimi, and chops from rapan.

Also on the pages of cookbooks you can find very original recipes for dishes using rapana. Shellfish meat is added to pasta, pilaf, salad, soup and risotto.

The edible part of rapana can also serve as a snack for beer.

Dishes from rapana turn out to be truly delicious, aromatic and so tasty that you will lick your fingers.

Rapana- This is another type of mollusk that lives in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, as well as in some adjacent seas. Rapana is famous for its meat and shells, which are often sold as souvenirs (see photo). The whole secret of rapans is that they need to be cooked correctly in order to preserve the unsurpassed taste of this dish.

Several decades ago, rapana lived only in the Sea of ​​Japan, but in the 50s, someone brought mollusks to the Black Sea, where they began to breed and soon filled most reservoirs.

Nowadays, rapana are considered predatory marine pests, as they feed on oysters and mussels. Due to the disappearance of mollusks, which are responsible for filtering water, the condition of the Black Sea has deteriorated significantly in recent years. The population of rapans can only be controlled with the help of starfish, since they feed on rapans, but the water in the Black Sea is not salty enough to make the habitat of starfish as comfortable as possible.

Rapans live at depths of up to 45 meters; they can be attached to rocks or lie on the bottom. They move with the help of their legs, thanks to which they also open the shells of other mollusks. The eggs of the rapana are laid on rocks or on the shells of other rapana, from where new mollusks then hatch.

Rapana shells are usually used as souvenirs that tourists take home. But nowadays it is practically not appreciated.

How to cook rapana?

Rapana can be prepared in various ways. The most important secret of preparing rapana shellfish at home is the minimum amount of heat treatment. At home, rapana can be prepared in several ways: fry, boil, bake, marinate, make a chop or barbecue. There are a lot of recipes for making rapana on the Internet. You can find a recipe for preparing a dish from rapan to suit every taste and prepare the shellfish at home.

It is necessary to cook rapana for no more than four minutes. It is preferable to eat them raw, but if you decide to cook them, it is better not to overcook them for more than the specified time. In this case, they may become tough and tasteless.

Benefits, harms and contraindications

The benefits of rapans are much higher than the benefits of other mollusks, since they feed exclusively on meat. Due to this, rapan meat contains a large amount of protein, which helps the body restore energy.

In addition to protein, rapan meat contains quite a lot of various microelements that help support the body’s immune system: potassium, sodium, calcium, iodine, iron and phosphorus. Rapana also contains a huge amount of vitamins, such as E, C, A, PP and B vitamins. Together, all these elements help our body fight diseases and viruses more effectively.

As for contraindications, the use of rapan can only be harmful if a person has a personal intolerance to the product.

Without exaggeration, souvenir items made from rapana shells can be found in every home. This trinket is quite beautiful in appearance, and also allows you to hear the “sound of the sea” at any time of the year, you just need to put the shell to your ear. Of course, in reality it is not the sea that is roaring, but the blood in the vessels, but how pleasant it is to remember summer days spent on the warm seashore with this sound.

The owner of this magic shell is . This is a predatory mollusk that appeared in the Black Sea less than a hundred years ago, and has already managed to excite the country’s ecologists with its presence. The thing is that rapana destroys colonies of bivalves such as mussels and oysters with impunity, and reduces the number of scallops and even crabs. This situation arose due to the lack of natural enemies of this gastropod killer. Where rapana was brought from, its population was controlled by the starfish - the main enemy of this mollusk. However, the salinity of the Black Sea is lower than that of the Sea of ​​Japan and starfish cannot live here.

Rapana adapts well to changes in water composition, temperature changes, and has high fertility. Its weapon is the radula, a kind of tongue that the mollusk uses to make a hole in the shell of its prey, like a drill. Then the rapana releases poison into the mussel, thereby poisoning it and eventually absorbing it. Rapana venosa can grow up to 15 cm - such individuals can open the mussel valves using the muscular strength of their legs.

Unfortunately, the disappearance of mussels significantly affects the deterioration of the ecosystem of our sea, because these mollusks are natural filters. Environmentalists believe that if a solution to this problem is not found, an environmental disaster may occur.

Thanks to the organization of the official industrial catch of rapana, permitted at the end of the last century, the number of this predator can be controlled. This opportunity arose with the emergence of demand for rapana meat. Just a couple of decades ago, this mollusk was valued only for its shells. Now, workshops for the production of venous rapana meat are opening on the coast, which is sold to restaurants as a seafood delicacy.

Among the local residents of coastal settlements there are those who want to catch shellfish for lunch, and some sell home-cooked rapana meat on the beaches of resort towns to intrigued vacationers. In addition, lovers of sea fishing consider the insides of this gastropod to be a very good bait for catching almost any Black Sea fish.

It has another interesting feature - an iron that produces purple - a substance that has long been used to dye fabrics. And when you try to open the shell, this dye leaves purple stains on your hands that are difficult to wash off and have an unpleasant odor.

Thus, through the joint efforts of official organizations and ordinary residents, it is possible save the inhabitants of the Black Sea from the spread of this beautiful, tasty, but such a dangerous predatory mollusk.

Rapana are predatory mollusks with a decorative shell, which have become the hallmark of holidays on the Black Sea coast, destroying valuable commercial oysters and mussels

Description

Rapana (from Latin Rapana) is a genus of predatory gastropods with a shell length of about 12-15 cm. Currently, the mollusk lives everywhere in the Russian Black Sea shelf. This genus includes five species, the most common of which is veined rapana - those beautiful shells that we bring as souvenirs from the Black Sea coast. Rapana is common in the western Pacific Ocean and was unintentionally introduced into Europe (from the North Sea to the Black Sea), as well as into the western Atlantic. Initially, this species lived in the Far East in the Peter the Great Gulf and off the coast of Japan, and at the beginning of the 20th century, according to some information, it was brought into the Black Sea after Soviet torpedo boats were transferred from the Sea of ​​Japan in 1947 (rapans attach their masonry to the bottoms of ships). Since rapans had no natural enemies in the Black Sea waters, for example, starfish, their populations grew greatly and began to cause damage to the fauna of the Black Sea (rapanas massively eat valuable commercial mussels and oysters). Currently, thanks to intensive maritime transportation, the habitat of rapans has expanded to the Mediterranean and North Seas. Rapana have spherical short shells with a whorl, colored from gray to brownish-red with dark brown stripes on the spiral ribs. Some have multi-colored or black veins on the outside of the shell. The inside of the sink is usually painted bright orange or beige. Far Eastern rapanas reach up to 180 mm in diameter, while those from the Black Sea are slightly smaller, up to 120 mm.

Rapans are predators that feed on small bivalves, such as mussels and oysters, the shells of which they open with the help of their muscular, strong legs. Young rapana, using their jagged tongue-drill, drill holes in the shells of their victims and open them. So the rapana destroyed almost all scallops and a significant number of oysters in the Black Sea, and now they are destroying mussels and some other bivalves. They live on any type of bottom, moving with the help of their muscular legs. They are very prolific and undemanding to living conditions; they easily tolerate fluctuations in salinity and a decrease in the amount of oxygen in the water. Black Sea rapana reach sexual maturity at 2 years, and Far Eastern rapana at 5 years. Spawning of mollusks occurs from the beginning of July to the end of August and lasts 15-20 days. One clutch contains from 100 to 500 white or light lilac cocoons, shaped like pods, and each cocoon contains from 250 to 1000 eggs. The embryo develops inside the cocoon for up to three weeks, and then the hatched larva settles to the bottom. In the first year of its life it grows quickly, the shell hardens, and then growth slows down. The age of the rapana can be determined by the annual rings on the cap.

Official fishing of this mollusk has been permitted since 1998, when demand for the meat of this sea creature arose. Eaten in Japan and China. In our country, until recently, rapana was popular only due to its shell, which, in fact, became the calling card of the Black Sea, and now the demand for the valuable meat of this mollusk is already growing.

Rapana is a delicious protein delicacy. Many culinary dishes are prepared from them, including salads, stewed with vegetables, marinated with spices, but the most delicious is considered to be rapan meat, simply boiled in salted water without spices or additives. The shells should be cleaned well and boiled for 3-4 minutes, and after that you can easily remove the boiled shellfish with a fork and use its meat further for its intended purpose.

Composition and beneficial properties of rapans

Rapa meat is highly valued due to its high protein content (up to 18%) and minimal fat content (about 0.25%). The composition of rapan proteins is represented by the most valuable amino acids for the human body: glycine, alanine, proline, phenylalanine, lysine, etc. These amino acids are responsible for the formation in the body of the necessary proteins that make up our organs, tissues, muscles, tendons. In addition, amino acids are necessary for brain function, for the complete absorption of minerals and vitamins by the body, as well as for supplying energy to muscle tissue.

Rapan meat is rich in vitamin A, necessary for maintaining vision and healthy skin; calcium, which is the basis of human bone tissue and is necessary for both children and adults, especially those who have crossed the fifty-year mark (prevention of osteoporosis); phosphorus, which ensures kidney function and healthy cell growth, normal functioning of the nervous system and proper metabolism in the body. Rapan meat also contains iron, which is involved in the functions of hematopoiesis, magnesium, which is necessary to maintain the health of the reproductive system, and sodium, an essential element of the intercellular fluid, which ensures the transmission of nerve impulses.

Contraindications

Individual intolerance to seafood.

CHEMICAL COMPOSITION AND NUTRITIONAL ANALYSIS

Nutritional value and chemical composition "Rapana clam".

The table shows the nutritional content (calories, proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals) per 100 grams of edible portion.

Energy value Rapana clam is 77 kcal.

Main source: Skurikhin I.M. and others. Chemical composition of food products. .

** This table shows the average levels of vitamins and minerals for an adult. If you want to know the norms taking into account your gender, age and other factors, then use the My Healthy Diet app.

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USEFUL PROPERTIES OF RAPANA COLLUSK

Rapana clam rich in vitamins and minerals such as: magnesium - 18%, iron - 61.1%

What are the benefits of Rapana Mollusk?

• Magnesium participates in energy metabolism, synthesis of proteins, nucleic acids, has a stabilizing effect on membranes, and is necessary to maintain homeostasis of calcium, potassium and sodium. A lack of magnesium leads to hypomagnesemia, an increased risk of developing hypertension and heart disease.
• Iron is part of proteins of various functions, including enzymes. Participates in the transport of electrons and oxygen, ensures the occurrence of redox reactions and activation of peroxidation. Insufficient consumption leads to hypochromic anemia, myoglobin deficiency atony of skeletal muscles, increased fatigue, myocardiopathy, and atrophic gastritis.
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The nutritional value- content of carbohydrates, fats and proteins in the product.

Nutritional value of food product- a set of properties of a food product, the presence of which satisfies the physiological needs of a person for the necessary substances and energy.

Vitamins, organic substances required in small quantities in the diet of both humans and most vertebrates. Vitamin synthesis is usually carried out by plants, not animals. A person's daily requirement for vitamins is only a few milligrams or micrograms. Unlike inorganic substances, vitamins are destroyed by strong heat. Many vitamins are unstable and are “lost” during cooking or food processing.