Bahamas Food Guide

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Gourmet Conch Burger Recipe

If you are self-catering in the Bahamas, then this is a great recipe to try out using some fresh conch. Purchase conch from Potter's Cay, they will take it fresh out the shell and even scorch it for you, ready for you to rinse and cook when you get home.

Ingredients

Makes two good sized (6oz) burgers

- 6oz of fresh conch meat

- 6oz pound of fresh shrimp

- juice of 2 sour oranges

- 1 green onion (spring onion), finely chopped

- 1 clove of fresh garlic, minced or finely chopped

- chilli pepper (to taste, if desired)

- freshly ground pepper and salt (to taste)

....and don't forget your burger buns and salad garnish!

Get the ingredients together - here we have the prepared conch and the shrimp, along with some finely chopped green onion, a clove of minced fresh garlic, some freshly ground black pepper and some hot chilli pepper (the yellow bits) to give some fire to the burger.

If you want to server the burger 'rare' in the middle (conch is great served rare), then we recommend wither using cooked shrimp, or marinating the shrimp in lime juice first, so as to 'cook' it ceviche style.

Here's the star of the show - a fresh conch, fresh from the market.

Scorch and chop your conch - using a sharp knife, score the flesh, then chop into small pieces - this will make it tender and allow the marinade to enter the meat.

Marinate the conch - add the juice of two sour oranges (you can use limes too), as well as salt, if desired. Leave to marinate for an hour or so, not forgetting to work the marinade into the conch flesh once in a while

Drain off the marinade and then into the blender - just a short blend, long enough to be able to form a nice burger patty, but short enough so that the burger will have a good texture - we don't want baby food here!

Form your mix into burger balls - note the texture, having not over-blended

Coat in flour and form into patties - you dip them in egg first, then coat in flour, and repeat, if you want a really crisp coating on the burgers

Into the pan to brown - I prefer to cook them through using a little vegetable oil (I find olive oil too strong for seafood), using a non-stick pan.

There you have it - a delicious conch (and shrimp) burger - served in a burger bun, with a slice of local vine ripened tomato.

I wish the photo was better, but the light bulbs in the apartment were yellow - very common in the Bahamas. I'll take my own light bulbs next time (seriously!)