Bahamian Conch Fritters with Cat Island Cocktail Sauce

Name: Bahamian Conch Fritters with Cat Island Cocktail Sauce
Yield: makes 24 to 30 fritters
Ingredients: Vegetable oil, for frying (about 1 quart); 1 pound fresh or frozen conch meat, finely chopped; 1/2 large onion, finely chopped; 2 celery stalks, finely chopped; 1/2 cup finely chopped green bell pepper; 1/2 cup finely chopped red bell pepper; 1/3 cup cornmeal; 1/3 cup flour; 1 egg; 1/4 cup buttermilk; Salt; Hot sauce; 1 mango, peeled, seeded, and diced; 1/2 cup ketchup; Scotch bonnet-based hot sauce, such as Inner Beauty, as you dare

December 14, 2011

The summer before I started cooking professionally, a friend and I spent three months on a sailboat in the Bahamas. Hey, it was tougher than it sounds! Every day we had to catch our dinner with spears, no less. If we didn’t get a fish or lobster, one thing we could always count on was finding conch. They were and are delicious, but man, are they labor-intensive, as it’s hard to extract the meat from their shells. These fritters, which are easy enough to stir together on a sailboat and are served all over the Bahamas, are so delicious that we didn’t (and you won’t) much mind the work, especially as your conch meat will already be extracted from the shell. Serve them with ice-cold beer, plenty of hot sauce (or my Cat Island Cocktail Sauce), and a creamy Lime Mayonnaise (p. 181) that will help cool the fire. And don’t be surprised if they inspire you to slip into a swimsuit and snorkel mask.

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