Blog | November 4, 2022

Conch salad

It’s officially conch season and Chef de Cuisine Artemio Lopez is sharing his zesty, rich and delicious recipe for conch salad. Conch season opens every 1 November in the Cayman Islands and ends on 30 April.

Chef Arte’s conch salad is served with crispy homemade cassava chips.

Serves six.

Ingredients:

  • 12 oz. sliced conch thinly sliced.
  • 4 oz. cucumber thinly sliced
  • 4 oz. jicama shredded
  • 2 oz. sliced red onion
  • 6 ea. seasoning pepper thinly sliced
  • 1/4 cup cilantro leaves thinly sliced

Salt to taste

Dressing:

1/3 cup lemon juice

1/4 cup lime juice

3/4 cup orange juice

1/2 scotch bonnet with no seeds

2 cups starfruit (carambola)

Salt to taste

Chips:

1/2 piece of cassava peeled and thinly sliced.

1 qt. vegetable oil for frying.

In a pot bring the oil to 350 F and start frying the cassava in batches until golden brown. Make sure they don’t stick together. Once fried, season with a little salt, keep aside until ready to use.

For the dressing:

in a blender, combine the lemon, lime and orange juice, add the starfruit and scotch bonnet, blend for about a minute making sure all is well incorporated, strain using a fine colander and season with salt.

For the salad:

In a bowl, mixed the conch, cucumber, jicama, red onion, half of the amount of the seasoning pepper and cilantro. Pour in the dressing and combine for about a minute, season with salt then let marinate for about 5 – 6 minutes.

To serve, using a shallow bowl, place the salad in the middle of the dish spreading it just a bit then pour the left over dressing, then place on top the remaining seasoning pepper, and place the cassava chips on one of the sides of plate. Enjoy!