Conch chowder

Ingredients

Conch

• 500 gconch meat, cleaned

Base

• 150 gsalt pork or bacon, diced
• 2onions, chopped
• 3 stalkscelery, chopped
• 1green pepper, chopped
• 4 clovesgarlic, crushed
• 2 tbsptomato paste
• 400 gtinned tomatoes

Pot

• 1.5 litresfish stock or water
• 3potatoes, diced
• 2carrots, diced
• 4 sprigsthyme
• 2bay leaves
• 1whole goat pepper or scotch bonnet
• salt and black pepper

To finish

• 2 tbspbutter
• juice of 2 limes

To serve

• hot sauce
• lime wedges
• crackers

Directions

1. Check where your conch comes from before anything else. Queen conch is listed on CITES Appendix II and a number of Caribbean fisheries have been closed or restricted through overharvesting, so buy from a supplier who can tell you the source.
2. Clean the conch, trimming off the dark skin and the operculum, and rinse it thoroughly.
3. Pound each piece with a mallet until it is visibly flattened and slack. Conch is dense muscle, and unpounded it stays rubbery no matter how long you cook it for.
4. Cut it into small dice, or mince it coarsely.
5. Render the salt pork in a heavy pot until crisp, then lift the pieces out and set them aside.
6. Soften the onion, celery, green pepper and garlic in the fat for 10 minutes.
7. Add the tomato paste and fry it for 2 minutes until it darkens, then add the tinned tomatoes.
8. Pour in the stock, add the potatoes, carrots, thyme and bay, and drop in the whole goat pepper.
9. Simmer for 25 minutes, until the vegetables are tender.
10. Add the diced conch and cook for a further 20 minutes and no longer.
11. Conch has two windows: a couple of minutes, or well over an hour. Twenty minutes of gentle simmering after pounding lands in the workable middle, and a hard boil undoes all the pounding you did.
12. Lift out the pepper, stir in the butter and lime juice, and season.
13. Serve with the crisped pork scattered over, plenty of hot sauce and crackers on the side.

Technique

• Pound it, then simmer gently. Those two things decide whether the conch is tender or inedible.
• The whole pepper gives fragrance without heat. Anyone who wants fire adds hot sauce at the table.
• It is one of many Bahamian uses for queen conch, whose harvest has shaped island cooking for centuries and is now tightly managed for that reason.

Substitutions

• Whelks or large clams, which behave similarly and need the same pounding.
• Frozen cleaned conch, which is how most of it is sold and is perfectly good.

Variations

• Made creamy with milk rather than tomato, in the New England manner.
• With a splash of dark rum and a spoonful of sherry at the end.
• Cracked conch, the fried version, made from the same pounded meat.

History

One of the many Bahamian uses for queen conch, whose harvest has shaped island cooking for centuries.

Frequently asked questions

What is Conch chowder?

Conch chowder is a soup & stew from Bahamas: tomato broth with pounded conch, potato and thyme, peppered hot. One of the many Bahamian uses for queen conch, whose harvest has shaped island cooking for centuries.

How long does Conch chowder take to make?

Conch chowder takes 40 min of preparation and 1 hr of cooking. The recipe makes 6 servings. It is rated medium to make.

What can I substitute in Conch chowder?

Yes, within limits. Whelks or large clams, which behave similarly and need the same pounding. Frozen cleaned conch, which is how most of it is sold and is perfectly good.

What is the most important thing to get right in Conch chowder?

Pour in the stock, add the potatoes, carrots, thyme and bay, and drop in the whole goat pepper.