Conches- Birgo ek Sikore

 There was a time when the conches, Birgo or giant turban snail, turbo sarmatius! , Sikore or queen conch were plentiful on the flats inside the reefs and on the reefs of most of the islands. And it was a past time for us on Sunday afternoons to do some reef gleaning at low tide or snorkeling at high tide to collect these sea snails. We carried a kapatya, a local basket made from coconut leaves, or a sak gouni or  hessian bag into which we would put our harvest. Unfortunately, as a result of uncontrolled harvesting, mainly for bait and their mother of pearl shells for souvenirs, these shells are getting rarer and rarer.

The locals would not cook these conches if they could avoid it. In fact, very few people cook conches now. But up until around 1970 during the SE monsoon when the weather was too rough, and the fishermen could not go out to fish, other sources of protein were required in the absence of fish and you would see the children as well as the women out on the flats collecting the conches to be cooked for dinner.

Giant Turban snail or Birgo

This conch is one of the heaviest shells found in the Seychelles waters. The name birgo may have derived from the French word turbo the generic name for the Turban Shell, the family to which the conch belongs. The outer lip or operculum is flat on the side that is attached to the animal and spherical on the exterior side and is usually used as paper weight by the islanders. The snail that lives inside the shell has a “foot”, a muscle that closes the opening of the shell and also acts as a means of moving along the bottom in shallow waters. It is this muscle that is cooked. The shell, when polished has a nacreous finish, is sold as souvenirs. The flesh has a surprisingly sweet and seductive flavour, a great delicacy. But they can also be very tough, like gristle, unless properly prepared. When properly cooked, you won’t find anything rubbery or snail-like about the conch. It is very tasty with a sweetish flavour.

Removing the flesh from the Birgo is not easy especially since the shell has some value when kept intact. One way this is done is to leave the conch in the sun for a short while until the operculum opens and exposes the flesh. Use a sharp hook to hook the flesh and hang the conch from an overhead tree branch in the shade and after a while the weight of the shell will detach the flesh from the shell which will drop. This will leave your shell intact and can be polished if required to expose its nacre. A quicker way to extract the flesh is to destroy the shell with a hammer!

The conch can now be purchased in some Asian specialty shops in tins already prepared and ready to cook. If you are buying freshly cleaned conch flesh they should be white with pink and orange. Do not buy conches that appear gray or giving off a fishy smell.

Queen conch or Sikore

Sikore is a local generic name that applies to a number of other conches but mainly applies to the queen conch. If you have collected the queen conches yourself, you will need to remove the meat from the shell. This is not an easy process. The easiest way to remove the flesh is to use a heavy duty knife, a machete or a cleaver and make a slit at the point or top of the shell. Insert a small knife in the slit and cut flesh that attaches the animal to the tip of the shell. It should now be fairly easy to pull the conch out of the main opening of the shell.

If you want to keep the shell for decoration you don’t want to make too big of a slit. All you need is a slit large enough to insert the tip of a sharp knife into the shell and cut / pry the foot loose.

Preparing Conch

Only the muscle of the conches, the white meat, is used for food. The rest including the digestive gland and the operculum must be removed for the meat to be safe.
Rinse the conch meat thoroughly under cold water to remove any particles of sand or stray organ remnants
Tenderize the conches by pounding it with a mallet until it is smooth and to the thickness you want. This may not be necessary if you choose a longer moist cooking method for your conches or use a pressure cooker

Nerites or Bigorno

The bigorno are nerites that live on rocks, in mangroves and in seaweed around intertidal areas. They are small shells that resemble mini birgo and are mainly used in soups and curried with coconut milk.

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