not wanting to hijack atvalaska's thread on corn fritters, but inspired by local dirt's comment, I will give y'all, free of extra charge, my world famous conch fritter recipe. This was the number one selling appetizer at my seafood restaurant. Back then, I'd have to shoot you for peeking at the recipe, but now that I no longer make a living off of it, it's yours.
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Conch Fritters 5 pounds of prepared Conch Two beaten eggs One bell pepper, course chopped One large yellow onion, course chopped 4 cloves of garlic 1/2 cup chopped parsley 1 cup sifted AP flour 1 Tsp baking powder Salt and black pepper to taste 1 Tsp ground dry Thyme 1 Tsp Cayenne pepper 1/3 cup half and half or cream
Pound the conch meat, cut into chunks. Place half the Conch meat and one egg into the food processor. Work until you get a fairly smooth paste. Process the second half the same way. Set aside.
Place the next 4 ingredients in the food processor, and pulse until fine chopped. Scrape this into a large mixing bowl, add the conch meat and egg mixture.
Sift the flour with the next 5 ingredients. Add the dry ingredients, along with the cream, to the mixer bowl with the vegetables and conch meat/egg.
Using the Kitchen Aid mixer, mix on low speed until a stiff batter is formed. Use more, or less cream as needed.
Cover and refrigerate for at least an hour. Dust your hands with flour, and form the mix into golf ball shape and size portions.
To cook, drop the fritters into 375F oil. Flip once or twice to cook them evenly on all sides. When they float, and are golden brown, they should be ready. Crispy on the outside, creamy on the inside.
Serve with lemon wedges and your favorite hot sauce !
Nice, Sam! I love those little bundles of goodness! IMO, they are a required item on the menu for any restaurant that has "Seafood" in their name or description..
Thanks for the recipe!
Boggy, don't think they're available in the wild in your neck of the woods. More a Caribbean thing.
Slaves get what they need. Free men get what they want.
most seafood retailers sell Conch. Usually in 5# frozen plastic pails. Some will have thawed Conch in the case, and just sell that by the pound. There is some work involved. Most recipies call for pounding the Conch meat with a mallet. What you are eating, is the 'foot', so to speak. I found that the food processor did the job quick and easy. A video about the old school way
Nice. I haven't had a conch fritter in probably 25 years.
I'm going to give your recipe a go with clams, as I can dig them fresh. Unfortunately, the beaches have been closed for a while with fugged up bacteria. Hopefully it'll be GTG when it cools down in the fall.
“Life is life and fun is fun, but it's all so quiet when the goldfish die.”
I'm going to give this a try. Ran across some little old ladies selling lunches at a church in Key West a few years back and the conch fritters were amazing, Ive had a hankering to find a good recipe since.
I once visited a place where BBQ was a verb, Canadian whiskey was the norm and no sweet tea on the menu. Hell on earth for a Southern boy!!
if there is a secret at all to this, it's with the size of the fritters. Golf ball size, or ping pong ball size works good for me. Any larger, and they will over brown, but leave the center wet. Any smaller, and they will dry out inside, about the same time they brown correcty. A rounded Number 50 disher (1.25 tablespoon size) works great for portioning.
