My personal favorite of all the Bahamian cuisine is cracked conch.  In preparing cracked conch, the secret is to pound the meat very thin.  In order to facilitate this and the uniformity of the portion size, you should slice the large white muscle down the middle into at least two pieces.  Then pound the conch until it looks like it's going to fall apart.  Our recipe calls for you to then dip it in egg and roll it in cracker meal.  Having tried many cracked conch recipes I personally prefer to mix a little milk with the egg and then roll the conch in flour.  You'll also see conch salad on menus or you can prepare your own version of this peppery mixture using diced conch meat, canned or preferably fresh tomatoes, cucumber, celery, onions and lime.  Conch chowder is also excellent, if they put in an adequate amount of conch.  I’ve had it made using canned soup as a base, but don’t recommend it.  

Peas and Rice

Peas and rice are almost always served with Bahamian dishes whether you order it or not.  The recipe we've presented is typical of the recipes you'll find in Abaco where the pigeon peas are simmered with salt pork, bacon or ham, along with some tomato paste, onions and other seasonings.  When this concoction is ready and sufficiently soupy, the rice is added.  The trick with this recipe is to get just the right amount of soupy peas and water combined with just the right amount of dried rice so that the end result is finished before it gets gummy.  This is a lot trickier than it sounds for I've tried it many times and found it difficult to get the mixture to come out right. An alternate technique which gives me consistently good results, although some would call it a short cut, is to cook the rice separately in the standard manner ( 2 cups water: 1 cup rice). Cook the pigeon peas in a separate pot with all the spices. Immediately before serving, use a slotted spoon to combine the drained peas, tomatoes, pork and seasonings with the properly prepared fluffy rice in a skillet over low heat, much as the Orientals would prepare fried rice.  You need to add just enough liquid from the peas mixture to keep the rice from sticking. You'll never see this recipe written in the Bahamian cookbooks, but having peeked in the kitchen a few times, it seems to me as if I'm not the only one using this technique.    I've  also found it helpful to use canned pigeon peas. 

The Bahamians add lots and lots of hot pepper when they cook for themselves, but they don't usually serve it to the guests in the restaurants, unless it's requested.  You will frequently see a West Indies hot sauce on the table along with various brands of Louisiana hot sauce.  Be especially careful of the West Indies hot sauce!  

Crawfish (Spiny Lobster)

Crawfish is generally prepared somewhat similar to lobster. We've usually had them broiled or baked, although boiling works quite nicely as well.  We recently learned that even fried crawfish can be quite tasty.  We had heard about fried crawfish on the menu at one of the popular restaurants in Green Turtle Cay for many years and had always avoided it because it seemed somehow inappropriate to fry such a delicate and tasty morsel. While doing research for this chapter I finally decided that I just had to abandon tradition and try it.  Well, lucky me! We selected some small crawfish tails, cut them into bite size pieces approximately one half to three quarters inch in their largest dimension, and rolled them in a tempura-like batter and deep fried them.  They were delicious!  If the word "tempura" bothers you in a chapter on Abaco cuisine just use some pancake batter and leave some lumps in it.   I can guarantee this one.  

Grouper  

Grouper is clearly the favorite fish throughout all of Abaco.  It has tender white meat and you'll see it on all the menus.  I'm told that by the time it gets to the restaurants, all fish is grouper.  I'm not sure if this is true, but I do know there is not enough grouper out there to go around. There are plenty of other good fish which cook up nicely, but you rarely see them on the menu.  I've had excellent filleted yellow tail and excellent snapper.  As I've said in the chapter on fishing, even the lowly grunt makes a fine meal, but you rarely see these on the menus.  You can't go wrong in the Abacos if you like fish.

Some of these recipes are retained from Wilensky's second edition, to which I can add little other than what I've already mentioned.  In general, I prefer to roll fish in cracker meal and conch in flour.    

Conch Conch Chowder-Coopers Town

1 qt. conch diced

6 large potatoes, diced (I like fewer)

2 onions, diced

4 oz. bacon or pork

4 tomatoes, sliced

2 tsp. salt

1⁄4 tsp. pepper

Wash, drain and chop conch. Fry the pork or bacon and onions until the onions, are lightly browned. Add potatoes and tomatoes, and barely cover with cold water. Add salt and pepper and cook slowly for 30 minutes.  Add conch and more seasoning if desired. Continue to cook slowly 10 to 15 minutes longer. Chowder may be thickened by adding crushed or cracked biscuit crumbs.  

Cracked Conch-Marsh Harbour

Cut away the soft parts of the conch and trim the remainder so that only the large white muscle remains. Cut this in half lengthwise, and pound it flat with a meat hammer until it looks like cheesecloth.

 If you don't have a meat hammer, that's OK.  Some Bahamians pound conch with the bottom of a coke bottle. Marinate the steaks in lime juice, then drain and pat dry. Dip steaks in beaten eggs, then into cracker crumbs, and fry them slowly in hot oil or butter until they're golden brown on both sides. Garnish with wedges of lime and serve. One conch per person is an average serving.

   Peas 'n Rice

1 cup of pigeon peas or black eye peas

1 1⁄2 cups rice

2 oz. salt pork or bacon, diced

1⁄4 cup cooking oil

1 small onion, diced

1⁄2 tsp. thyme leaves

1 cup tomatoes or 1 tablespoon tomato paste

1 tsp. salt

Pinch of black pepper

3 cups of water

Boil the peas until very soft. Fry pork or bacon in 1⁄2 gallon pot in the cooking oil until it's almost brown. Add onion and tomatoes and cook until the onion is golden brown. Add thyme, salt, black pepper, and the boiled peas, and simmer for 15 minutes. Stir at intervals. Add water and bring to a boil on medium heat. Add rice and stir in. Let it cook with the cover off until the water is gone from atop the rice. Stir, put cover on pot, and cook on low heat 45 minutes. This should be fairly dry when done. Add more water if needed. If the rice isn't cooked enough, mix a little salt and water, sprinkle it over the rice, and let it cook another 20 minutes. Stir well and serve. This makes enough for 6 entrees, or 10 side dishes.

  Conch Fritters - Man-O-War Cay

1 cup raw conch, ground

1 medium onion, ground

1 medium celery stalk, ground

3 tbs. Worcestershire Sauce

1 tbs. tomato paste

1 tbs. Tabasco

1 cup flour

1 tbs. baking power

1 egg

Water, salted to taste

Grind onions and celery, then conch. Combine all ingredients except water. Add the salted water a little at a time, stirring the ingredients as you do, until a semi-stiff batter results. Heat deep fat over medium heat until hot. Use a teaspoon to transfer batter from the bowl to the hot fat. This should be done quickly. Allow fritters to turn golden brown, but not dark. Serve warm with cocktail sauce.

Conch Salad - Hope Town

1 cup raw conch meat, diced small, the smaller the better 

2⁄3 cup fresh tomatoes  

1⁄2  cup cucumber

1⁄4  cup onion

1⁄4 cup celery

1⁄3 cup lemon juice

Hot pepper and salt to taste

Combine all ingredients in a salad bowl and mix thoroughly. Cover bowl and let it stand in icebox for 30   minutes. Mix well and serve.  

Grouper Grouper - Great Guana

2 lb. filleted grouper

2 large onions

4 tbs. soy sauce

1 clove garlic Chili sauce

Salt and pepper to taste

Cut the grouper into four pieces. Cover with white wine and the above ingredients in individual foil wrappers. Marinate overnight or longer.

Make sauce by boiling 1 tbs. cooking oil and 2 tbs. flour together until brown, over medium heat, stirring constantly. Beat 2 egg yolks with 1⁄2 cup grated cheese and 1 tbs. water. Add a little of the sauce to the egg and cheese mixture, stirring constantly, then return the mixture to the rest of the sauce. Stir until the sauce reaches the boiling point. Don't let it boil or the cheese will become lumpy.

Bake fish in foil wrapper over charcoal or in medium oven for about thirty minutes. Open foil and add sauce and serve.

  Grouper "Fingers" - Cherokee

3 lbs. grouper filet

5 limes

1 cup cracker meal

2 eggs

garlic salt and All Spice to taste

Cut the grouper into strips approximately 2” x 1⁄2", season with garlic salt. Mix All Spice and lime juice and let stand for one hour. Roll the strips in the eggs, then in the cracker meal. Deep fry in a heavy iron skillet until golden brown.

"Corned Fish" - New Plymouth

In the days before refrigeration, Abaco people "corned" their fish to preserve them. Some old timers still do. The fish are scaled, gutted, scored, and salted. They are then dried in the sun for 6 to 15 hours depending on size. I've seen them strung on tree branches or laid out on rocks. The fish heads are not removed. This is done mostly with small fish, including grunts, porgies, yellowtail, and turbot (trigger fish).

To prepare after corning (curing), boil for a few minutes in a covered pot Squeeze the juice of a lime, or sour orange, or lemon into the gravy, and add hot peppers if you like highly seasoned food. Pour the gravy over the fish and serve. The fish is served with the heads intact unless you ask specifically to have the heads removed. Abaconians think they don't look right with their heads removed.

Corned fish is usually served with grits, Johnny cake or bread, and avocado if its in season. If you see fish and grits on a menu, this is likely what you will get.  Local people sometimes refer to the "three G's"-grits, grunts and gravy.

  Dried Fish - Darrel

An alternate way to preserve and use dried fish begins with filets sliced into thin strips, like beef jerky. If the strips are thin enough (1⁄8 inch), they will dry in one day if placed on foil in a sunny place on deck. The process can be accomplished quickly in the oven, but the trick is to go very slowly so as to not cook the fish. Not necessary, but a marinade of your choice can add to the flavor. Try Worcestershire or soy sauce flavored with garlic, onion, lemon, or Tabasco sauce. Fish dried in such a manner, should keep several weeks if kept in a dry location with good air circulation. It can be eaten as a snack or as a meal served with grits or peas and rice.

  Yellowtail - Walkers Cay

2 large filleted yellowtails or 4 small ones

1 cup of white wine

1⁄8  cup of lime juice

3 tbs. butter

3 tbs. flour

Salt and pepper to taste

Marinate fish in lime juice and salt. Cover with wine in a buttered baking pan and bake for about 20 minutes in a medium oven.

Make sauce paste in separate pan, mixing butter and flour. Pour wine and fish juices into sauce paste and mix over low heat until smooth and thick.

Pour sauce over fish and broil until browned lightly.

  Crawfish - Grand Cay

Broil and serve with lemon butter sauce.

1 crawfish serves 1 person.

Stuffed Baked Crawfish - Fox Town

Cut all legs and feelers from the crawfish. Turn crawfish on his back and slit completely down the middle. Remove all meat from head and put in your favorite stuffing. Loosen the meat from the tail shell. Baste with lemon butter. Bake at 300° F for about 30 minutes. Sprinkle with grated cheese and chopped bacon and serve.

Stuffed Baked Crawfish - Fox Town

Cut all legs and feelers from the crawfish. Turn crawfish on his back and slit completely down the middle. Remove all meat from head and put in your favorite stuffing. Loosen the meat from the tail shell. Baste with lemon butter. Bake at 300° F for about 30 minutes. Sprinkle with grated cheese and chopped bacon and serve.

  Crawfish - Pelagos

I always carry a metal pail for boiling lobsters. Cook the live lobsters in boiling sea water with seaweed and an onion. Melt some butter on the side, squeeze a lemon into it. As you eat the lobster, dip each fork into the melted butter. I'll guarantee you'll call this elegant eating. 

  Curry Lobster - Kira

2 tbs. margarine or butter

1⁄2 tsp. curry powder (according to your taste)

1 cup chopped onion

1 cup chopped pepper

1 tbs. plain flour

1 cup chicken broth

2 lbs. lobster, chopped (1⁄2 inch)

Sauté the onion and pepper in margarine, until the onion turns clear, add flour, and curry power. Constantly stir mixture until flour is cooked, taking care not to scorch the flour. If you don't cook the flour long enough, the final sauce will retain a taste of the flour. If this happens to you or if you lack experience cooking flour this way, substitute corn starch- the texture and flavor will suffer very little and is considerably easier. Add the chicken broth and bring to a boil until thick. Add the lobster and cook over low heat for about 10 minutes. Serve over a bed of rice, with a fresh salad. A canned three bean salad, if chilled; substitutes nicely for a fresh salad.

This recipe works equally well with conch, also served over a bed of rice. We've also found that Knorr's Curry Sauce (a pack-aged mix) works quite nicely when we're not in the mood to really cook.

    Traditional Key Lime Pie

Key Lime Pie is an island favorite, but there are many variations.  Ideally, it should be made with the juice of the small key lime which is smaller and more tart than regular limes, although regular lime juice may be substituted. Much debate can be heard regarding whether real  key lime pie should have a pastry crust or a graham cracker crust and whether it should be topped with meringue or whipped cream. I would join the fury on the side of a pastry crust and meringue as the  traditional pie, but must admit I do it with a store-bought graham cracker crust for expediency, because I don’t like to heat up the galley as is necessary with the pastry crust.  I like the meringue topping best, if I’m going to serve the whole pie at one setting, but the meringue does not keep well in the cold plate.  If I’m going to serve the pie over several days, I slice one piece at a time and top each individual piece with whipped cream.

To make the filling, mix one can of Eagle Brand sweetened condensed milk, about 4 ounces of key lime juice, and four egg yolks.  Do not add the egg white to the filling.  Pour the filling mixture into the pie crust and let it set in the cold refrigerator for at least four hours, or preferably overnight.  Don’t try this underway, it will make a big mess.  Once it has set, you’re safe to sail.  When I use the meringue topping, I like to start with the white of four eggs, a cold whisk, and a cold bowl.  Add about 2-3 tablespoons of sugar and beat until it stiffens to the point where the meringue “peaks”.  An electric beater simplifies this process, without one you may opt for the whipped cream topping.  You may adjust the sugar to taste.  Once the pie is topped with meringue, place the pie in a hot oven for about five minutes, just long enough to brown the peaks on the meringue.  If your oven is not hot or you leave the pie in too long, you will cause the filling to turn back to liquid. NOT GOOD!

Allow to cool, serve and enjoy.

  LOW CARBOHYDRATE VARIATIONS

The current interest in the various low carbohydrate diets brought me to experiment with the following low-carb variations.

Key Lime Tarts 

Prepare the key lime filling, using 14-16 ounces of heavy whipping cream, 4 egg yolks, 4 ounces of key lime juice, 16-18 packets of Nutrasweet (or sweeten to taste), and one package of Knox brand unflavored gelatin, dissolved in about 2 ounces of water.

Sprinkle a thin layer of graham cracker crumbs in the bottom of baking cups and add the filling, chill overnight. Top with whipped cream, garnish with a thin slice of key lime.  Makes about 15 tarts.

Low carb key lime pie as prepared by the author, Darrel Wyatt, M.D.

Note: Key lime pies are NOT green!

    Key Lime Ice Cream

Mix about 32 ounces of half and half (or heavy whipping cream) not milk! with about 32 packets of Nutrasweet, 2-4 ounces of key lime juice, two whole eggs,  and freeze in an ice cream freezer.  If you are worried about the use uncooked eggs, the eggs can be omitted. Enjoy.

Cracked Conch

Crush some pork rinds with a rum bottle or other convenient rolling pin.

After pounding the conch almost paper thin, marinate it in lime juice, roll it in a mixture of cream and eggs, then coat in in the crumbs of the crushed pork rinds instead of flour (as in the traditional approach).  Pan fry in hot peanut oil until golden brown.  This low carb coating works equally for fried chicken or grouper.