By Elvira de las Casas From Que Rica Vida

Conch fritters are just one more product of the cultural melting pot of the Caribbean, where native foods merged with European and African cuisine to create what we know today as Creole food.

The meat of the conch—a large sea snail with a decorative shell—is tough, but when prepared correctly it tastes delicious in soups or salads. It’s also great when fried.

When I was a young girl in Cuba, I spent a few months at the beach each year, and I remember returning home carrying a bagful of snails, algae, small sea horses and a variety of marine species that remained in my room until my mother decided to perform some deep cleaning and everything went to the garbage. Until the next year…

Back then, my cousins would remove this mollusk from the conch by hanging it from a wire until the shell fell to the floor. I never would have imagined that it was actually a delicacy of Caribbean cuisine, highly regarded throughout the islands—especially in the English-speaking ones.

In the Bahamas, the conch is prepared with chili peppers and lemon juice in a delicious and refreshing salad. Sometimes they are cooked with onion, ham and bread, which forms a yummy broth called conch chowder.

My favorite conch-related dish is conch fritters, where the conch meat reaches perfection! On most Caribbean islands, the conch meat is pounded before cooking in order to tenderize it and is then combined with tomato, onion, bell peppers and celery to make the fritters.

Many conch fritter recipes include coconut milk, cilantro, peppers and yucca. These ingredients add acidic, sweet and spicy flavors, which combine to make exquisite dishes that are a wonderful novelty for tourists and delicious everyday food for the islanders.

To prepare fritters, cut the white part of the meat into chunks, and season them with salt, pepper and lemon. Mix the meat with onions, bell peppers, eggs, flour and baking powder. Bread the chunks and fry them. Serve with lemon, a spicy dip or mayo.

If you’ve never tried this Caribbean delicacy before, I advise you to take a trip to Key West in South Florida, where you will enjoy the best conch fritters in the world! I do it all the time, so I know what I’m talking about! Have you ever tried them?

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