Lambi Creole

Lambi Creole is conch meat simmered in a spiced tomato and onion sauce with scotch bonnet pepper, a seafood main from Saint Lucia. Lambi is the local name for the queen conch, a large sea snail whose meat is firm and chewy, so it needs pounding and a long, slow cook before it turns tender. In Saint Lucia it is cooked in the island's creole style, where the sauce of tomato, onion and garlic carries the dish, and it is often called Lambi Kreyòl.

What it really is

The conch is pounded to soften the muscle, cut into pieces and simmered in a sauce built from onion and garlic softened in oil, with ripe tomato and local spices added. Scotch bonnet pepper gives the heat, so the dish is spicy by design. It cooks until the conch is tender and the sauce has thickened and clings to the meat. The conch is the centre of the dish, and the sauce is what gives it flavour. Recipes vary widely from kitchen to kitchen, especially in how hot the pepper is and how thick the sauce is left.

How it's served

• Hot, in a shallow bowl, with plenty of sauce.
• With rice or another starchy side to soak up the sauce.
• Spicy from the scotch bonnet, so guests should be told the heat level before they order.

How to write it on the menu

• Name the seafood: conch, also called lambi, and say it is queen conch if you want to be specific.
• Flag molluscs. Conch is a mollusc, and that allergen must be declared.
• State the heat in the description, since scotch bonnet is hot, and say whether a milder version is available.
• List the sauce base of tomato, onion and garlic, the side served with it, and whether the conch comes in the sauce or on the side.