Well, the first thing we have to get straight is how to pronounce the word and what this seafood really is:  simply stated it's "conk,” with a hard “k’ sound,  not “contsh.”  No person who eats from the ocean ever called this shell creature anything else than a “conk.” Now, if you go to one of the Ocean Nature centers you will probably see that they are labeled as "welk.” “Welk?” what kind of word is that? I have no idea where that term came from.  I never heard that term until the advent of nature preserve centers.  While the work that nature centers do is immeasurable, I doubt that very many of the folks who work there came from seashore towns. And I would also wonder how many of them ever ate conch.

image from: http://www.frf.usace.army.mil/faqs/turtle2.shtml

Conch is another one of those great foods rooted in childhood memories. Conch were free for the taking at any time right from the beach.  The best place to find them was around the pilings of the fishing pier in front of our house.  Conch seemed to like to burrow up close against them.  To find the conch, you would grasp the mussel encrusted piling of the pier to keep your balance and then wiggle your foot into the sand.  Then, still holding the piling, wiggle and wiggle until you hit a hard surface. That was the conch.  Now, you bent over and plunged your hand into the spot where your foot hit the shell.  With a great tug and a great suction burp of sand and water, you pulled up the conch.  Often the pinky white of the foot heeled by its gray base protruded from the shell.  Quickly it would pull itself into its home.Then came the fun. If you poked the gray

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base of the foot with your finger and aimed the tail of the conch at your sister, the conch sent out a long stream of water: a natural, oceanic water pistol.The conch went into your beech bucket that you had filled with ocean water.
Then the conch then came into the kitchen. On the stove was a very large and dented aluminum pot of boiling water and in went the conch.The conch boils until it shrinks and begins to emerge from the shell.In the meantime, the kitchen doesn't smell so good. Boiling conch has a quite distinctive aroma. The conch then comes out of the boil and cools so that you can handle the meat. The side product of the conch as food was the wonderful shell.  Once boiled the inner shell maintained its glowing pearly pink.  The outer part of the shell bleached to a chalky white and became a canvas to our water paints to decorate as we chose.  Conch in those days were so plentiful that no small number of folks used them to outline the boarders of their flower gardens. These days, conch on the beach are almost nonexistent. I wonder if the folks at the Nature Centers are aware of the current scarcity of conch when compared to how plentiful they once were?

As for the meat, you still may find one or two seafood shacks at the shore where you may find conch.I know of nowhere where you can still find them yourself live in the sand. Away from the shore, the only places I know where you can find conch are in some Asian grocery stores like H-Mart, where the conch are already cooked and removed from the shell, or in old time ethnic markets such as Philadelphia’s 9th Street where you may sometimes find the raw meat also removed from the shell.

While the flavor of conch is exceptional, it is a very tough meat.  The conch meat needs to be either pounded with a mallet or cut up into very small bits. Conch meat, while delicious is not a tender scallop. If you can find the conch, give the chowder a try: a most satisfying dish with many layers of flavor.

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What you need.
 Have all your equipment and ingredients ready before you begin. 

Equipment
Sharp knife.
Vegetable peeler.
Iron kettle or other heavy soup pot.
Wooden spoon.

Ingredients

Conch.The meat from about three conchs.
Olive oil or peanut oil.
Bacon. Two strips of no-nitrite bacon or a cube of fat back or pancetta.
Fish stock or clam juice. About two cups.
Water. One cup.
Onion. One large Vidalia or sweet onion.  A purple onion would also be
interesting.
Garlic. Several cloves.
Celery. About three stalks.
Carrots. Two good sized.
Tomatoes. About five Italian plum tomatoes
Sherry. About 1/2 cup. (You can leave this out.)
Potatoes. Two all purpose.
Chili pepper. (optional)
Cilantro. For final garnish.
Lime. For final garnish.

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Mise en place (meeze an plahce). 
When cooking it's essential to have all your materials peeled, cut and prepared before you begin cooking.
Assemble the following.

The Conch

The conch. 
Depending on what kind of conch you find available, you will have to treat it accordingly.  If you are lucky enough to find your own, you will need to boil it to extract the meat from the shell. Then, you need to peel off the outer skin and cut off the hard foot.  What you then have is the rich meat.  If you can find the meat out of the shell, either fresh, or already boiled, the first step is done for you.  In all cases, you will  need to pound the meat with a mallet, and chop it into small pieces. 
Set the chopped conch aside.

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Pork Fat

Bacon / Fat Back /Pancetta. 
Slice down the bacon (or fat back, or
pancetta).    

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Onion

Dice the onion,

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Trinity

Garlic/ Celery / Carrots. 
Dice the garlic, celery and carrots.

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Chilis
Optional
For a far more energetic conch chowder, slice and seed at least one small Thai or jalapeeno chili pepper.

Potatoes

Peel, slice and cube the potatoes.

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Tomatoes

Peel and rough chop the tomatoes.  If you make this chowder out of summer tomato season, you can use canned peeled tomoatoes.

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Next Step
All your ingredients should now be ready.  You have your mise en place.  One other element that you may add if you like your chowder on on the

The Cooking

Put some oil in the pan and add the bacon.  Let this exude its fats but do not let it brown or crisp.
(I use a wok for this stage of the recipe.)

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Sweating

Add the onion, diced garlic, celery and carrots.  Keep the heat at medium.  Let them sweat until the onions become a bit clear. 
Don't let them brown.

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Tomatoes

Add the tomatoes to the pan.

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Sherry

Let the tomatoes simmer for a minute or so. 
Then add about 1/2 cup of sherry. 
Let the sherry boil of its alcohol: about two minutes.

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Fish Stock

Add the fish stock or clam juice and a cup of water.  
Let this return to a boil.

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Potatoes

When the chowder comes back to a boil add the
potatoes.
 
Let the chowder simmer for about thirty
minutes.

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Plate, Garnish and Serve

Cilantro. 
Chop for garnish.
Lime: quarter for garnish.
 
Ladle into bowls, garnish with cilantro and squeeze lime juice into each serving. 

This is so good!

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