Gullah Conch Stew Recipe

She would dice them, and that’s what we serve,” writes chef Charlotte Jenkins of this conch stew in her cookbook Gullah Cuisine. She served the beloved Gullah Geechee dish at her restaurant of the same name, the now-closed Gullah Cuisine in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina.

Conch is a mainstay of Lowcountry cooking, starring in Gullah recipes from fritters to stews. Here, roughly chopped conch strikes the perfect balance between chewy and tender, while salt pork adds just the right amount of richness. Both proteins are cooked low and slow with plenty of aromatics until the stew is thick and glossy.

Adapted from Gullah Cuisine: By Land and By Sea by Charlotte Jenkins. Copyright © 2010.

Available from Evening Post Books.

Ingredients

• 2½ lb. fresh or frozen conch meat, coarsely chopped (5 cups)
• 12 oz. salt pork (or bacon or deli ham), coarsely chopped (2 cups)
• 1 celery rib, finely chopped
• 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
• 1 small sweet or yellow onion, finely chopped
• ¼ cup all-purpose flour
• ¼ cup vegetable oil
• Steamed long-grain white rice, for serving

Instructions

• To a large pot, add the conch, pork, celery, garlic, onion, and 8 cups of water. Bring to a boil, then turn the heat to medium-low, cover the pot, and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the liquid is reduced by about a third, about 3 hours.
• To a small skillet over medium heat, add the flour and oil and cook, whisking continuously, until the flour turns brown, about 5 minutes. Stir the flour mixture into the stew and continue simmering over medium-low heat until the conch is tender, 1–2 hours.
• Serve over rice.