Happy Fourth of July. I purchased two conch at Blue Moon this Wednesday. My first question to the sales staff at the fishmonger was “how to remove the conch from the shell?”. The answer was straightforward simple. ‘Hit the shell with a large hammer several times until the shell breaks up.’, she advised me. Back at my home I searched the video showing ‘how to remove conch from the shell’. She was right. Every video shows the cracking method. I, however, wanted to do it in more sophisticated way than hitting the shell, so I searched the Japanese site. Here I found the perfect method to do it. Voala! I could remove the whole conch out of the shell without damaging the flesh and shell. Thank you! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYMJMTpZ8Ac
The video is in Japanese. Here are some clues what the guy is telling you, after taking the conch out of the shel. Please make sure that you follow the below instructions:
- Remove the intestine (not edible) and white, greasy-looking soft part (not edible). Except that all part is edible.
- Apply plenty salt over the edible part of conch and rub it between your hands; this removes slimy liquid from the surface of the conch; rinse the conch thoroughly under cold running water before proceeding the next preparation.
Conch can be consumed raw, steamed, stewed or fried. I made a conch risotto tonight.
While making the risotto I cooked thinly sliced conch in a buttered skillet over low heat, before adding them to the almost done risotto. The texture remained pretty firm (it is a good excercise for your jaw muscle) and the flavor reminded me of the one of nagareko (a kind of oyster).
Here is a different and an important subject. Are you scaling, gutting and filleting a whole fish by yourself in your kitchen? Great, but,…Then, you may have the same problem which I had especially during hot summer time. The intestines, fish heads, bones, scale,…everything thrown into the garbage bag in the garbage bin starts to smell next day. Farmer’s market compost near me only accept vegetables. I used chemical sprays to get rid of the smell. Nothing worked until I tried the way, below.
I hope you still subscribe a newspaper. If so, wrap them in the triple layered old newspaper. Please make sure to wrap it tight. Then, put it in a small plastic bag and tie tightly. Discard the bag in the garbage bin. You can control the smell.