My family and I escaped to the Bahamas for a few days of sun and fun late last week. We went to Atlantis, and had an absolutely terrific time.
The best meal of the trip (by far!) was at Nobu, conveniently located in the hotel. A dish I really enjoyed at a few other eateries there, though, was Bahamian conch salad.
Conch is a mollusk common to Bahamian waters. It is often fried, but healthier ways to serve it are in a chowder or a ceviche-like salad. When I got home and researched different conch salad recipes, I found that there are many ways to prepare it. It is quite spicy and usually contains lots of citrus juice: tomatoes, cucumber, celery, and green pepper generally make an appearance, as well.
I purchased some (frozen and par-cooked) conch at my local fish market and set about creating my own variation. If you can’t find conch, you could use sustainable scallops or shrimp, pre-cooked a bit if you like, in this recipe.
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Recipe for Conch Salad
Ingredients
- 2 cups bite-sized conch pieces
- juice from 4 limes plus additional lime juice to taste
- 1 bunch fresh cilantro leaves minced
- 1/2 ripe avocado diced
- 2 medium Belgian endives trimmed and sliced thin (or use chopped tomato, cucumber, celery, green pepper or a combination)
- 1 hot red chile pepper minced (seed the pepper if you don't want the salad to be too spicy)
- olive oil
- coarse sea salt
Instructions
- 1. Place the conch pieces and lime juice in a non-reactive bowl. Cover and refrigerate for 8-24 hours.
- 2. Drain the conch well and discard the lime juice.
- 3. Add the cilantro, avocado, sliced endive, and the chile pepper, along with the additional lime juice, to the marinated conch.
- 4. Refrigerate for a few hours, if possible. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt before serving.
