"Something Smells Fishy"
This was a simple and easy dish. I only had to get one pot dirty, and
in all fairness if I didn’t use any curry powder, I wouldn’t have made a mess
of any pots at all. Seasoned conch, tossed with pumpkin, okra and spices wrapped
in foil and cooked until tender.
My husband’s loves, all in one dish; conch and okra. Before I met my husband,
I don’t think I knew what conch looked like in real life. I heard words like conch
soup and conch fritters. But when you are eating those things at restaurants
you don’t know what in it, is the conch. In all honesty it was SpongeBob SquarePants
who taught me while in college what a conch was. Remember that episode with the
magic conch shell? That was my ‘ahaaa’ moment. Who knew it was a snail? And
that those beautiful sea shells that we all know and love, were once home to
conch.
I am growing to appreciate conch as the years go by. I was never a fan
of it, especially since I was not exposed to it growing up. My mother never ever,
ever, ever, cooked conch. And even now when I say I’m cooking conch, she turns
up her nose. But here I am with a husband who adores it, so I cook it.
Now it’s a meat that is readily available in my freezer for any time he
wants to indulge. Since I made the smoked curry conch, I have been cooking conch
more often. I employed a few tricks to tenderize it. Firstly I purchased a malate
and I did beat it as thin as possible. Secondly the marinade with the veggies and
the lime juice was used with the hopes that the acids would break down the meat
overnight. I think they worked because after 50 minutes in the oven the conch
was fork tender. The conch master has approved this recipe and I’m sure if you’re
a lover of conch you will love it too.
Ingredients (printable recipe)
For the marinade
2 lb cleaned conch
¼ cup chopped Onion
¼ cup chopped Sweet pepper
¼ cup chopped Tomato
3 Garlic cloves shredded
1 teaspoon Salt
¼ teaspoon Black pepper
½ teaspoon ground Allspice
1 teaspoon Lemon juice
For the foil roast
2 tablespoon coconut oil
1 tablespoon curry powder
2 cups chopped pumpkin
1 cup chopped okra
1 fish flavored bullion
1 Scotch bonnet pepper
3 tablespoon salted butter
3 garlic cloves shredded
Instructions
- Clean the conch so that it’s all white meat
- Place in plastic film and pound as flat as possible to tenderize
- Cut into bite size pieces
- Season with onion, sweet pepper, tomato, garlic, salt, black pepper, allspice and lemon juice.
- Marinate in the refrigerator overnight
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
- Wash and peel the pumpkin chop into cubes, wash and slice the okra
- Place the coconut oil in a pan to heat up on medium high heat
- Add the curry powder and cook for a minute
- Add the entire mixture of marinated conch and sauté for a few minutes
- Add the pumpkin and okra and stir to completely incorporate
- Season with the fish bullion cube, or salt to taste
- Pour the contents onto a thick ply sheet of foil
- Slice the hot pepper over top
- fold the foil in half sealing the edges to create a pouch with the conch inside
- Place in the oven on a sheet pan and cook for 50 minutes
- In a bowl mix together, the shredded garlic and butter into a paste
- After 50 minutes remove from the oven, cut open the top of the foil
- Place dollops of garlic butter all over the conch
- Put back in the oven for another 10 minutes
- Remove from the oven stir and serve
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