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!