Lambie water

Ingredients

Conch

• 800 gconch meat
• cleaned and cut small
• juice of 3 limes
• 2 tablespoonssalt, for cleaning

The broth

• 2onions, chopped
• 6garlic cloves, crushed
• 3spring onions, chopped
• 3 sprigsthyme
• 1scotch bonnet, whole
• 2 tablespoonsoil
• 1stock cube
• 2.5 litreswater
• salt and black pepper

Provisions

• 400 ggreen banana or plantain
• 400 gdasheen or yam
• 300 gsweet potato
• 2carrots, sliced

Dumplings

• 200 gplain flour
• 1/2 teaspoonsalt
• about 100 ml water

To serve

• hot in bowls or cups
• hot pepper sauce
• lime wedges
• at a fish fry

Directions

1. Cut it smaller than for a stew. Spinners are rolled thin between the palms. Rinse the conch meat in cold water. Trim off all the dark outer skin. Cut away the hard orange operculum. Cleaning it properly takes real work.
2. Rub the meat hard all over with salt. Add lime juice and rub it again. Rinse it thoroughly in cold water. Repeat it until it is no longer slippery. Cut the cleaned conch into small pieces. Aim for about one centimetre across.
3. Cut across the grain where you can. Heat the oil in a large heavy pot. Add the chopped onions to the pot. Cook them for a good eight minutes. Add the garlic and the spring onions. Cook them for two more minutes. Add the cut conch into the pot. Turn it through the cooked onions. Add the thyme sprigs and the whole chilli.
4. Crumble the stock cube into it. Add all of the water to the pot. Bring the pot up to a full boil. Cover the pot and let it cook on. Give it at least one full hour.
5. Cook the conch first and add them later. Judging the conch takes a test. Cook it on if it still resists. Peel the yam and the dasheen first. Peeling the green banana takes a trick. Cut the ends off with a knife first. Score the skin lengthways in three places.
6. Cut all the provisions into large chunks. Aim for about four centimetres. Keep them in water until you use them. Add all the provisions to the pot. Add the sliced carrots with them. Add more water if it is too thick.
7. Cover the pot and simmer it on. Cooking them takes about half an hour. Put the flour and salt in a bowl. Add the water a little at a time. Bring it together into a firm dough. It should be firm rather than soft. Knead it briefly until it is smooth. Shaping the spinners takes practice. Take a small piece of the dough. Roll it between both your palms.
8. Roll it into a thin tapered length. Aim for about the thickness of a finger. Drop the spinners into the simmering pot. Do not crowd them all together. Let them simmer for about fifteen minutes. There should be no raw flour centre.
9. Add hot water if it has thickened too far. Taste it and adjust the salt as needed. Add plenty of black pepper as well. It is drunk hot and hot in both senses. Ladle it into bowls or into cups. Put hot pepper sauce on the table. It keeps two days refrigerated.

Technique

• Water in Caribbean usage means a thin soup rather than a stew, as in fish water and goat water; it stays thin and is served in a bowl or cup to drink as much as spoon, so add hot water as the dumplings and provisions thicken it.
• The conch needs a full hour of simmering before the provisions go in, since it will not soften faster and the root vegetables would collapse waiting for it; cut it small and across the grain, which shortens the fibres and tenderises it considerably faster.
• Caribbean dumplings are plain flour and water with no raising agent, rolled between the palms into thin tapered spinners; the dough must be firm, since soft dough dissolves into the broth.

Substitutions

• Yam, dasheen, sweet potato and green banana are interchangeable as provisions.
• Flat rounds work as well as spinners for the dumplings.

Variations

• The whole scotch bonnet can be burst for more heat or lifted out for less.
• Some pots include salt fish or crab alongside the conch.
• It is sold in cups to drink standing at fish fries.

History

Made from lambie, the queen conch fished off Grenada, and sold at fish fries and roadside pots.

Frequently asked questions

What is Lambie water?

Lambie water is a soup & stew from Grenada: peppery broth of conch with provisions and dumplings, drunk hot. Made from lambie, the queen conch fished off Grenada, and sold at fish fries and roadside pots.

How long does Lambie water take to make?

Lambie water takes 45 minutes of preparation and 1 hour 45 minutes of cooking. The recipe makes serves 6. It is rated medium to make.

What can I substitute in Lambie water?

Yes, within limits. Yam, dasheen, sweet potato and green banana are interchangeable as provisions. Flat rounds work as well as spinners for the dumplings.

What is the most important thing to get right in Lambie water?

Cut across the grain where you can. Heat the oil in a large heavy pot. Add the chopped onions to the pot. Cook them for a good eight minutes. Add the garlic and the spring onions. Cook them for two more minutes. Add the cut conch into the pot. Turn it through the cooked onions. Add the thyme sprigs and the whole chilli.