Anyone who’s ever been to the Bahamas (should) be familiar with today’s dish, Conch Salad!
…except not made with conch. I know, it’s not really conch salad at this point then, but we’ll get to that. Conch salad is prepared same to what many are familiar with as ceviche, but using conch shellfish versus prawns or fin fish. For those wishing to skip to ahead, I am preparing my dish based on TasteTheIslandsTV recipe.
I will be using crawfish instead of conch, 1. because I couldn’t physically find any locally and 2. of the quick delivery frozen online sources, I could not verify they were sourced sustainably. Queen Conch, while not critically endangered in general, is nearly extinct in several areas due to overfishing. So if conch is actually available to you, please make sure it’s farmed in a way that isn’t detrimental to the native Caribbean peoples who use it for their regular meals.
LET’S DO THIS:
- 8-12 ounces conch or crawfish tails, cleaned and bruised – if you are using conch, make sure you use a two-wash method (one wash in lukewarm saltwater, a second in cool fresh water to remove the “slime” layer)
- 10 tablespoons lime juice (about 2/3 cup, 4-8 limes depending on size)
- 5 tablespoons orange juice (about 1/3 cup, 1 large navel orange)
- 2 diced tomatoes, de-juiced as much as you can without crushing the tomato
- 1 large diced onion
- 1 peeled and diced cucumber
- 1 large bell pepper, diced
- 2 jalapeno peppers, diced
- 1-2 habanero peppers, diced (optional)
- salt and pepper to taste
- Fresh cilantro, chopped
- Other optional ingredients (I did not use) can include tropical fruits or avocado
Prep time for me was one hour (18:15 to 19:15)
Here’s what you’re going to do:
- Mix all ingredients except the cilantro thoroughly
- Cover and refrigerate for forty five minutes to two hours, shaking occasionally to ensure equal “cooking”
- Serve with the chopped cilantro
That’s it! Your only time on this is the prep and the chill.
Verbrennen's Place 