Conch

My first experience with conch (pronounced “conk”) is a memorable one.  I knew nothing about conch except that it’s a marine mollusk very high in protein housed in a pretty pink shell.  I had never seen it in its raw form, neither had I tasted it, and was open to giving it a try.  I now knew how to spear fish, adding conch to my list of obtainable seafood would be great!

Of course one did not spear conch, it had to be picked up from the ocean floor.  This entailed diving to depths I could not achieve without a dive tank so I had to watch for divers coming ashore with conch in their boats.

One day while strolling along Friendship Beach I spotted men cleaning conch at the far end where the whaling boats were pulled up.  I quickened my pace so that I could watch them, and to see if I could buy a conch to carry home.  They had a large pile of the lovely shells and were busy removing the conch meat, not an easy task!  The mollusk cannot be taken from the shell until an opening is made at the pointed end of the shell with a hammer and chisel and the muscle severed with a knife.  This is the reason it was so hard to find an intact shell on the beach, every shell I had come across had a hole in the exact same spot and now I knew why.

When the mollusk was pulled from the shell I couldn’t help exclaiming “YUCK!”, it was for sure the ugliest creature I had ever seen.  It looked like some kind of sci-fi creature squirming and glistening in the sand and I was not so sure I wanted to take one home with me!  Plastic bags were a rarity on Bequia (we washed them  like clothing and used them over and over) and having come unprepared I would have to carry the conch in my hands all the way home.

The fishermen kindly cut off all the ugly bits and guts (and to my relief the eyes!)  and washed the conch in the sea.  I should have asked them then and there how to cook the conch, didn’t think of it as I thanked them and scurried home with my treasure from the sea.

Now what??  It wasn’t like fish, shrimp or lobster.  It was also not like beef, pork or chicken.  My lack of cooking experience combined with such alien food had me in a quandary as to how it should be prepared.  In my ignorance I decided to bake it; had I been able to “google” conch I would have realized that baking was going to make the conch almost inedible.  I put salt and pepper on the “beastie” and put it in my pre-heated oven, figuring half an hour should do the trick.  Well, I was hungry and ate the conch anyway the best I could, it was like trying to masticate a large rubber band!  Baking had only made the mollusk tough and pretty much impossible to chew, making my first impression of conch a negative one.

Over the years I have learned how to cook conch in a variety of ways and each method is delicious if done properly.  My favorite is thinly sliced raw conch marinated in lime and flavor pepper; the lime cooks the conch somewhat and makes it tender, still a bit chewy but tangy and refreshing.  Conch souse (soup) and curried conch require the use of a pressure cooker and are very tasty.  I also like cracked conch where the meat is pounded with a meat mallet (not easy, needs a lot of pounding!) until thin, then breaded and fried.  The conch can also be ground in a blender and added to a batter for conch fritters, something that had not yet been introduced on Bequia in the 1970’s.

However, In all my years in the Caribbean I have yet to come across a recipe for baked conch.  You live and learn!