We always have something new on our farm to eat. This week it is the “flying potato.”
Flying Potato.
The latin name for this type of yam is Dioscorea bulbifera. This grows as a large vine and produces a generous crop within four to five months of planting. The yam can be picked and stored in a cool, dry place for a good couple of months without spoiling. And the best thing about them is that you don’t need to go digging about in the dirt for them…you just pluck them off the vine…providing that you are tall enough to do so! This is definitely a great food source for the Tropics.
Three Air Potatoes.Sliced Air Potato.
To eat, simply peel and wash. Then cook it like a potato: boiled, mashed, baked. roasted or what-ever takes your fancy.
We spent the day processing cassava since we had received a big burlap sack of this “ground food” as a gift. We also added our own cassava to this…our type is the esteemed yellow variety which has the hearty taste of wholesome potatoes. Altogether we probably had about 10kgs (22lbs) of fresh vegetable.
Cassava Roots.
As soon as you harvest cassava, it should really be eaten or processed within 24 hours. Otherwise, they start going bad quickly and become discoloured. When freshly dug up from the ground, the outer part peels off easily.
Peeled Cassava.
After peeling and washing, we cut the root into inch size pieces and steamed them in bamboo steamers placed in our mega-sized pressure cooker.
Steaming Cassava.
Next, we put these cooked cassava pieces through the meat grinder to get them into a soft pellet-like consistency. We put this out to sun-dry this afternoon and will probably continue this for about three days until they get bone dry. We will end up with about 1kg (2lbs) of dried material. After that, we are going to experiment with the dried ingredient. We are hoping that the dried cassava can be re-hydrated instantly with hot water to give an instant “cuppa cassava” meal (like instant ramen noodles)! Great for packed lunches and On-The-Go!! Wow…it takes three days to make an instant meal…too funny!!
We have just received a gift package from Singapore crammed with wonderful goodies. Gnome and I don’t miss much of our old life but we do miss real Chinese food and snacks. So this is really special and in actual fact, Gnome was one who introduced me to Straits Chinese food (He is after all a Straits Chinese Gnome and I am a Scottish Munchkin).
Confusing or What?
Scottish Munchkin.Chinese Gnome.
This Asian region extends from Penang through the Straits of Malacca to Java and Singapore is located in the middle of this area. Because of the diversity of culture, there are influences from Chinese, Malay and Thai cuisine which makes the food very interesting, spicy and delicious.
Here are some pictures of our yummies:
When you bite into one of these wasabi green peas, there is a wasabi explosion inside your nose which is kinda exhilirating.
Freshly Roasted Wasabi Green Peas.Green Pea Cookies.
The Belizean Post Office guy opened this box up for inspection thinking that it would have something very expensive in it. He was rather shocked to see that this plush looking box had cakes in it!
Singapore Mooncakes.Fried Spicy Fava Beans.
This one is actually called Yamaguchi Peanut Snack…the caption below is just our own generic term.
Puffy Peanut Yum Yums.
This is creamy, foamy tea which is famous in Singapore. This one is our all time favourite tea:
Teh Tarik.
And last but not least. 5kgs (10lbs) of lotus seed paste to make our own mooncakes for the rest of the year. We love big catering packs!!
Lotus Seed Paste.
A Big Thankyou to our Singapore connection!! We are really delighted with the generous gift of yummies!!
Straight after the SHI Fair, we had to run up to Independence and did not get home until late. I was hoping to get these pictures up earlier but such is life!
Our table: pretty messy after rummaging through bargain boxes! Copal Medicinal Soaps in the middle and bargain tooth-powder to the left.
Vendor selling Plantains, Cho Cho and the roots, in the middle are Cocoyam.
Jars of yellow ginger (tumeric):
Toledo based business marketing and promoting a new BBQ sauce. Good Luck to them:
Overall, there was a moderate turn out and we received a lot of good responses to our products. This year, there were not so many visitors from other districts of Belize.
Hello Everyone!! Sustainable Harvest International (SHI) will be holding their annual organic fair at PG park today (31st October 2015). We will be there armed with our Casa Mascia Goodies.
This one is always a favourite at fairs: Cheap Sale (or Runaway Sale or Explosive-One-Time-Only Sale or Everything-Must-Go-Sale!!
Casa Mascia Cheap Sale.
Come and rummage through our bargain box: there will be all sorts of exciting things (exclusive once off) like Cacao and Lemongrass Insect Repellent, Lavender balm, Grapefruit Balm, Tooth-powder or Tooth-whitener with lovely essential oils and lots more. You can’t beat a bargain!
We will also be selling fresh Balam (Mayan White Cacao) fruit for all you organic gardeners out there.
Balam Fruit.
We will have our usual favourite stuff including Copal Soap, Medicinal Oils and Ointments. Oh, and two buckets of Chocolate Artisan Soap going at a Run-away Price of $5.00 (Best Price, as they say here in Belize)!!
Copal Medicinal Oil Vial.Chocolate Soap Galore!!
Hope to see y’all there. Otherwise, if you are not in Belize, we’ll have lots of fun photos for laterz.
This is an MGNews update on the Paradise Piggies. Mayor Gnome has just declared budget cuts for Paradise Pastures which means that the piggies will no longer be receiving their daily ration of cachorros (bite-size puppy food). In an effort to quell any possible riots or uprising, Mayor Gnome has adopted the aristocratic attitude of,
“Let them eat cake!”
Let Them Eat Cake!!
What does this mean. Pray tell us, Mayor Gnome…what are you up to?
Mayor Gnome has recruited the expertise of Chef Munchkin to bake a high protein, delicious cake for the Piggies.
Chef Munchkin has come up with a modification of her famous coconut squares and re-formularised them with less sugar, more fibre and high protein.
And what did the Piggies think of this change in diet? One large coconut square was placed in the middle of Paradise Pastures and the result was total and utter mayhem with three piggie pile-ups and gurgles-a-plenty. The cake was finished in 15.2 seconds flat.
Piggie Pile Up.
Paradise Piggies gave a resounding Thumbs Up to Yummy freshly baked Coconut Squares everyday!! What Paradise…Weeeeeeee!!!
Due to popular demand and persistent insistence from everybody, we have bitten the bullet and joined the Facebook bandwagon. Gnome shivers at the thought and has left Munchkin to shoulder the responsibility for this frivolous enterprise.
This recipe is a variation of the coconut squares which I posted a couple of weeks ago…yes the yummy one with the chocolate drizzle! This one incorporates freshly chopped up eggfruit (canistel) with grated coconut.
Ripe Canistel.Grated Coconut.
The ripe canistel tastes like cooked sweet potato and compliments the coconut very well. This is a treat that is hard to beat!
The Mayan Cacao Fruit Balam is now in season. We have a few trees on the farm and this year they have been very generous.
Balam Fruit.
This is Theobroma bicolor which is different from the Theobroma cacao in appearance and taste.
Theobroma cacao.
The Mayan cacao is also called “Balam” and it produces white beans as opposed to black/purplish beans of the normal variety of cacao. The pulp around the beans taste of sweet musk melon.
Opened Balam Fruit.
We have had such an abundant crop that we have been eating the fruit everyday; it is really nice chilled in the refrigerator for a couple of hours…it really brings out the strong fruity flavour.
Balam Fruit.
We also make a Balam Elixir with the pulp of this fruit. The maturation process brings out the muskiness of the fruit and the end product tastes like a fragrant whisky.
We always have something new on our farm to eat. This week it is the “flying potato.”
