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How to cook lambi?
Here, found this one online: http://www.lameca.org/dossiers/lambi/photos/lambi_2ans.gif
It looks kind of scary, I am not sure I would like to eat it.aranoid:
It looks yummy, sort of reminds of another delicacy!
Yes, save the conch!
Do not cook it!
Florida Dealers Charged with Smuggling Tons of Queen Conch
Yanandu
Do not cook it!
Florida Dealers Charged with Smuggling Tons of Queen Conch
Yanandu
Not to worry! All sea food in this country is imported from China for long time now.
I ate lot of them alive in the Bahamas. They chop them alive and you eat. Mucho potencia!!
Regarding cooking, I ended up with a delishious soup-puree:
2-3 lambies (deveined and cleaned and chopped)
10 cloves of garlic (peeled)
3 large tomatoes
some Cayenne pepper, sea salt, salsa picante, two table spoons of black rice
1 table spoon of olive oil
two glasses of bottled cholera-free drinking water
Everything put in the Zojirushi automatic rice cooker. When done - two minutes in the Vita Mixer (high speed). And you got a puree to die for!!
Reading this reminded me of some of my happiest days living in Freeport, Bahamas. On the road out to West End settlement, you can see tens of thousand empty shells dumped back into the sea, some used for access jetties and cemented together.
I had an architect from Glasgow working on the design for the container port staying a few weeks with me, I took him to the conch vendor to buy some fresh conch, cleaned but with the head / eyes still attached. On getting home I cut off the head and eyes stalk, placed on a lime which had been halved and displayed the eyes "following"him around the kitchen. This disturbed him sufficiently that he chose not to eat the conch I was preparing with the salad and lime juice etc, rather he had bought a tin from the supermarket and asked he have this instead, but with the salad. I noticed the name on the tin as "Sheba " Tuna & Chicken, so I waited until we were both finished to ask if he ate cat food on a regular basis. He was not very talkative for the remainder of his contract !!!!. :cheeky:
I had an architect from Glasgow working on the design for the container port staying a few weeks with me, I took him to the conch vendor to buy some fresh conch, cleaned but with the head / eyes still attached. On getting home I cut off the head and eyes stalk, placed on a lime which had been halved and displayed the eyes "following"him around the kitchen. This disturbed him sufficiently that he chose not to eat the conch I was preparing with the salad and lime juice etc, rather he had bought a tin from the supermarket and asked he have this instead, but with the salad. I noticed the name on the tin as "Sheba " Tuna & Chicken, so I waited until we were both finished to ask if he ate cat food on a regular basis. He was not very talkative for the remainder of his contract !!!!. :cheeky:
Not a good idea - I see conch shells on sale here as souverniers - it must be assumed conch meat is local.
Leave the conch alone!
Eat farmed fish - its better!
Yanandu.
Are there parts of it you're supposed to throw out (guts, etc.) or do you just chop the whole thing up and cook it?
A few years back (shortly after Leonel's first election) there actually was a moritorium on harvesting and selling Lambi in the DR (legally) due to overharvesting. It was hard to come by, but not impossible. I seriously doubt the conch population actually recovered in the year or so it was in effect. People just wanted their lambi back.
removing a conch from it's shell. at 3:02 in you men might want to look away...
YouTube - Conch cleaning Abaco Bahamas
YouTube - Conch cleaning Abaco Bahamas
Lambi was one of the major sources of protein for the Tainos. In some areas of the Caribbean, you can still find piles of conch shells six feet high. The populations can be over-harvested in the short term but because they have a planktonic stage of life, new conch will repopulate damaged areas provided the environment is still good.
The Turks and Caicos Islands are big exporters of the meat and it's regulated there by fishing methods and simply because there are fewer fishermen. When they bring the conch up, they "knock" the top of the shell to put a hole into it, then they cut the muscle holding the conch inside the shell. It always gives me a chuckle to see the beach vendors selling knocked shells for as much as $10 a pop. It's like selling broken egg shells.
When you see them in the reefs, their shells are normally covered with algae and other "bio-erosion" You can see their two eyes poking out from underneath:
But like any other snail, they can pull themselves into their shell and have little shield type cover to seal the hole called an operculum, which they also use as a digging tool:
Some of their predators can drill through the shell to get at the meat. They are not pretty when you pull them out of the shell. Their main predators are rays while they are still juveniles. The horns on the shell make them harder to swallow whole.
Google Strombus Gigas for info on the animal. I'm not big on the lambi salad, but conch fritters are pretty good. As for raw, you have to be careful because some parts are not safe to eat raw(the eyes?). I hear they can live up to 40 years.
The Turks and Caicos Islands are big exporters of the meat and it's regulated there by fishing methods and simply because there are fewer fishermen. When they bring the conch up, they "knock" the top of the shell to put a hole into it, then they cut the muscle holding the conch inside the shell. It always gives me a chuckle to see the beach vendors selling knocked shells for as much as $10 a pop. It's like selling broken egg shells.
When you see them in the reefs, their shells are normally covered with algae and other "bio-erosion" You can see their two eyes poking out from underneath:
But like any other snail, they can pull themselves into their shell and have little shield type cover to seal the hole called an operculum, which they also use as a digging tool:
Some of their predators can drill through the shell to get at the meat. They are not pretty when you pull them out of the shell. Their main predators are rays while they are still juveniles. The horns on the shell make them harder to swallow whole.
Google Strombus Gigas for info on the animal. I'm not big on the lambi salad, but conch fritters are pretty good. As for raw, you have to be careful because some parts are not safe to eat raw(the eyes?). I hear they can live up to 40 years.
What with all the waterborne disease going around the island at the moment I would say the way to cook lambi is -
"THOROUGHLY!!!"
"THOROUGHLY!!!"
well let the Conchman chime in:
conch is the staple food of the Bahamas, as it is so plentiful thereand and a result they have many ways of preparing and cooking it.
Besides conch salad, my favorite, you have scorched conch, conch chowder, steamed conch, conch fritters, stew conch, cracked conch, and grilled conch.
Bahamian conch salad:
skin the conchs or buy them skinned already, as this can be a pain in the ass if you dont know what you're doing. Dice them into small cubes or pieces not bigger than the tips of your pinky. Dice up tomatos, onions, green peppers, and celery, mix together. Cut up some bird or goat peppers, not sure what you call them here, but the really spicy red or orange ones. Squeeze enough lime juice to put the whole mixture half submerged in a bowl, this could take 15 to 20 limes for a 4 person spread. Add some fresh squeezed sour or regular orange. Add some salt. Mix everything up really good.
If you cook conch as in cracked conch, steamed conch, conch chowder, etc....make sure you tenderize it properly. Its best to eat conch either uncooked, or cooked like crazy as it will harden when you start cooking it. There are plenty of conch recipes on the internet, Bahamian recipes are extremely tasty.
conch is the staple food of the Bahamas, as it is so plentiful thereand and a result they have many ways of preparing and cooking it.
Besides conch salad, my favorite, you have scorched conch, conch chowder, steamed conch, conch fritters, stew conch, cracked conch, and grilled conch.
Bahamian conch salad:
skin the conchs or buy them skinned already, as this can be a pain in the ass if you dont know what you're doing. Dice them into small cubes or pieces not bigger than the tips of your pinky. Dice up tomatos, onions, green peppers, and celery, mix together. Cut up some bird or goat peppers, not sure what you call them here, but the really spicy red or orange ones. Squeeze enough lime juice to put the whole mixture half submerged in a bowl, this could take 15 to 20 limes for a 4 person spread. Add some fresh squeezed sour or regular orange. Add some salt. Mix everything up really good.
If you cook conch as in cracked conch, steamed conch, conch chowder, etc....make sure you tenderize it properly. Its best to eat conch either uncooked, or cooked like crazy as it will harden when you start cooking it. There are plenty of conch recipes on the internet, Bahamian recipes are extremely tasty.
you cut away the eyes, horn, and dark nose-looking parts. There is the twistle, the clear worm like looking thing, its edible but most people throw it away. And you have to do a thin cut on one side to get out the sand like substance which are probably some guts or something. You pretty much want clean white and pink meat. Dont forget to skin the black skin off that is on one end, there is white meat under there.
What do those plastic cups of lambi salad sell for nowadays? You sell beach vendors sell them sometimes.
Some more conch recipes:
Conch Recipes | Keys Fisheries Market & Marina | Fresh Florida Keys Seafood
Some more conch recipes:
Conch Recipes | Keys Fisheries Market & Marina | Fresh Florida Keys Seafood
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