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So last winter, in Florida, we had several strong cold fronts that came in one after another in a short period of time
and it left tens of thousands of seashells along the beaches here on the west coast
And lucky for me these fighting conchs made up the majority of it
So I had the chance to collect a ton of these small conchs and try to make a few dishes out of them
Check out this photo from our local newspaper.
This was what it looked like for miles up and down the beaches in Pinellas County
When I was working in restaurants before, I worked with queen conchs, but never with fighting conchs since their not commercially harvested
So this was new to me
Usually they are spotty to find and you only find one here and there, because they’re normally in deeper waters, away from the beach
But this was a neat opportunity because they were so easy to harvest after the storms
So I’ve heard of people eating these type of conchs before
but like I said this is a first for me. And as it turns out, they were really good
They’re not as sweet as queen conchs but it’s not a bad substitute
Also, as of when this video was uploaded, you’re legally allowed to collect them in Florida
But do check with your state regulations
I’ll post a link below for Florida. The only banned conch is the Queen conch, which has been on the prohibited list for a while now
Alright guys, enough of the intro, hope you enjoy the rest of video!
Conchs spend their entire life on the sea bottom, so naturally they're going to be sandy
Unless you like sand in your dishes, I suggest rinsing these thoroughly in running water for at least a minute
and make sure to shake em up a bit as you rinse them
Here I’m dropping them in hot water and I’ll bring it up to a boil and let it simmer for about 20 minutes
Too be honest you guys, this is the first time I’ve ever worked with this type of conch, so it was a wild guess
and it turned out 20 minute was perfect. A little bit long and the muscles would have become tough and chewy
After they’re cooked, rinse them in cold water to stop the cooking
This is the fun part, and it’ll take a few of them before you get the touch
Take a skewer or a small fork and slowly work out the conch meat. And turn the skewer as you’re pulling
So the foot is the hard plate on the bottom of the conch, it looks and feels like a big fish scale and this isn’t edible, so just pull it off and throw it away
The second part you gotta remove is the lining on the muscle
This is part of the stomach, liver, and all the other innards
Don’t eat this, its very bitter and taste terrible. Don’t pull a Andrew Zimmerman on this one
So what you’re left with is a single piece of muscle
Now the part thats closest to the foot is the toughest part
And normally with large conchs, this section is usually cut off and discarded, and some fisherman will even use it for bait.
But since these guys are the smaller version of what’s harvested commercially, they’re not as chewy. So I’m keeping them o
After you get all the meat out, Rinse them again!!
There’ll still be very sandy even though they were rinsed in the shell before
I rinsed this batch 3 times and they still had a bit sandy
Unless you like extra crunchy food, its better to rinse them several times.
Okay, so after you made sure there were no more sand, dry it off with paper towel and and they should look something like this
At this point, they’re ready to serve. But that would be too boring, and I doubt you’re here to watch boring stuff, so lets dress it up a bit
So for the salad base, use what ever greens you like and garnish with toppings you like
But keep in mind to use ingredients that won’t steal the show. The focus point is the conch
This time I’m using red bell pepper, radish, shredded daikon, and artichoke
And for the dressing, I’m going to mix grated ginger with ponzu sauce
I love using ponzu as a dressing, I think it pairs very well with a lot of seafoods, especially raw fish
So give it a try, if not use some type of vinaigrette dressing, I’m sure it’ll go just as well
Aside from the salad, you can cut these into smaller stripes and mix it in the same sauce as before. and make it into a hand roll or a sushi roll
Personally, I think the salad turned out the best because I can truly enjoy the full crunchy texture of the conch meat instead of it being cut up
Some of you guys might be asking if conch can be eaten raw, and the answer is absolutely, in fact most are served raw at sushi bars
But the only way to take out the conch meat when its raw is to chisel the horn of the shell and cut the connecting muscle to release the meat
Its actually a pretty cool process if you never seen it
theres a few youtube videos showing you how. But since these conchs were so small and I had so many, its just easier to work with them cooked
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