Seafood

_________________________

I met Gym Nasium through a poetry mailing list that I am a part of. He is a very talented poet, and artist. Check out his web site at La Galeria de GymArt. Please go and sign his guestbook! In the meantime, here is his recipe for conch soup..Gym tells me that this soup has (ummmm) strange and wonderful aphrodisiac qualities!!

The tale: I will never forget the very first time that I ate conch soup.I was living in the red ground district of Negril, Jamaica, and the woman who rented the small wooded house to me said to me one day that she had a "treat" for me... She started a small fire out back of my rented house and then filled an old tin with water... some veggies and much conch. She told me not to touch it and to let it sit there and simmer till dark... it smelled so freaking good too!!! She went on to tell me about the powers of conch...hinting that later the two of us would get busy... :-) Anyhow.... Later that night I ate a little too much of it I guess, because I was running around like a dog in heat... and I do mean heat! So the rumors are true and here are a few recipes for Conch soup~~~~(By the way, conch is pronounced "konk")

Conch Soup

Ingredients:
1 pound of conch
2 shredded coconuts
3 green bananas
2 carrots
2 pounds of yucca - it is better if you use yellow yucca
2 garlic teeth
2 large onions - yellow or white
2 green peppers
2 bouillon cubes
1/2 cup of coriander - small leaf
1/2 cup of coriander - broad leaf
1/8 cup of margarine
1 cup of coconut milk

Cut up the onions, garlic, green peppers. Peel and cube all vegetables (except the bananas) and fast fry them in the margarine. Add the bouillon cubes and the coriander. Liquefy together the meat and the milk of the coconuts, then sift the mixture - you may need to add some water to get it all out. Should end with approximately 3/4 liter of coconut milk. Add this to the fast fried vegetables, let it simmer around 15 to 20 minutes. Add the bananas and simmer for another 7 minutes or until the bananas are soft. Add the conch, peeled, and cut in small pieces; let it simmer five more minutes. Enjoy it. P.S. I don't know if you have access to broad leaf coriander. If you don't, I would suggest substituting it for regular coriander. 1 to 1 1/2 cups of the broad leaf has a sharper taste than the other. I can't get conch here in the U.S., so I plan to substitute scallops for it. Expensive but it is worth it.
*note from me: I believe that the green banana's Gym is talking about are plaintains, not to be confused with regular sweet bananas that we Americans think of...Also coriander is known is some areas as Cilantro...look for it in the Asian or Mexican sections of your grocery..You may find it fresh in the produce section, along with the other herbs.*

This is a recipe that my mom gave me...(Thanks MOM!)...A bit time consuming...but OH SO GOOD!!

Crawfish & Cornbread Dressing

For the cornbread:
1 cup cornmeal
1 cup flour
1/4 cup sugar
3 tbsps baking powder
2 tbsps salt
1 egg
1 cup milk
1/4 cup corn oil

Mix together all ingredients. Pour into a greased 9 inch pan, and bake for 20 minutes at 450 degrees.

For the crawfish mixture:
2 large onions, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
1 bellpepper, chopped
1 cloves garlic, minced
butter for cooking vegetables
1 pound peeled crawfish tails
1 can Rotel tomatoes
1 (10 3/4 oz.) can of cream of chicken soup
1 Tbsp. flour
dash of Worcestershire sauce
salt
black pepper
red pepper
parsley
green onion tops

In a heavy pot, saute the onion, celery, bell pepper and garlic until tender. Add crawfish tails, Rotel, soup, and the flour. Stir in the Worcestershire, salt, pepper, and red pepper to taste. Add parsley and onion tops if desired. Simmer for 15 minutes and then remove from heat.

To assemble the dressing:
1 large onion, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
2 tablespoons butter
chicken broth, 1 1/2 tbsps dry mustard
thyme, salt and pepper to taste

Start by sauteing the vegetables in butter, just until softened. In a large bowl, crumble the cornbread, and add the sauted vegetables. Add chicken broth to moisten. Add the spices, to taste...and then add the crawfish mixture. Place in a large baking dish, and bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees.

________________________________________________________