Will try a new way of posting today: More of them with fewer categories and tags.
So right now, a new article is available: On Keeping Guinea Pigs, in the modified Plant Descriptions in the Library.
Laters.
All posts by Munchkin
We are Mostly Eating Tangerines.
When you live on a farm, there is a time of the year for different fruits and vegetables and when there is a bountiful crop, it requires inventiveness on my part to think of as many ways to eat the same thing without getting tired of it. It is Tangerine Time right now in Southern Belize and basically we have lots of it. Here in Toledo, anything that is citrus but is not an orange, grapefruit or lime is grouped under the category of “tangerine”. See below the many faces of the Tangerine:
Now, I am sure there are proper names for each of these including mandarin, tangelo and satsuma but for all intents and purposes it really does not matter, because my exploration on this matter is on the eating of it. In this blog, I would like to share with you what we have actually been eating in the last 24 hours which have been tangerine-related. Firstly, I would like to introduce the concept of attempting to use the whole fruit for culinary purposes and in this example, the wonders of the zest. All you need is a sharp knife (we have no zesters in Belize) to get the zest off the citrus. Try to only get the coloured part off without the pith (the white part) which imparts a bitter taste to the palate. The zest gives a wonderful, fresh citrus flavour to food.
Last night, we had a meal of venison marinated in tangerine zest (and other things) with sliced tangerine. Frankly, I don’t have a problem mixing fruit with the main meal because it is a great substitute for carbohydrate. Plus, you spice up a fruit by adding a bit of black pepper to it.
As an aside regarding venison…I am not trying to be posh about eating, I just happen to have some in the freezer. The Mayans in the surrounding villages like to hunt game in the dense bush around here and occasionally, they turn up at our front gate with very fresh wild game. I have no hesitation in snapping up a hind leg whenever I can get my paws on it.
Today, continuing with the same theme, I baked bread with tangerine zest. I love the smell of home-baked bread and this one had high notes of tangerine citrus…very aromatic!
For lunch, we had thickly sliced bread with tuna and grated mozzarella. We also had lots of tangerine to eat with it!
Tonight, we have another tangerine meal in the making! I am presently marinating minced pork in tangerine juice and zest (with other things) to make burgers. And of course, we will be eating more of the tangerine zest bread with it. I am thinking about pan frying some citrus in brown sugar as a side dish. You will probably get the picture tomorrow. Incidentally, I also made a tangerine zest Mojito for tonight which I am sipping in between writing this blog.
So far, so good. We are still enjoying the tangerines!!!
Uploading Old Articles and the like.
Gnome:
Weather not as labile as yesterday.
General Ambient Mood (GAM): Lunacy at full power, chaos reigns supreme. It is a good day for soap, fermenting, doing repetitive things, mushrooms, plants and essentially staying away from trouble.
Today is good if you like reading about mushrooms and plants, uploaded many of our old published articles…enjoy if you have the time:
From me:
- The Paddy Straw Mushroom in the Library, new Section: Mushrooms.
- Corn Smut in the Library.
- Schizophylum comune or Split Gill in the Library.
- Observations of the Wild Edible Mushrooms of Stann Creek and Toledo District in the Library.
- The Oyster Mushrooms in the Library.
- The Stinkhorn Mushroom in the Library.
From Munchkin:
- The Belize “Green Pea,” in the Library.
- Grow Your Own Heirloom Seeds in the Library, new Section: Plant Descriptions and Plant Related.
- Tobacco, in the Library.
- Five Acres of Coconuts and Security in the Library.
- Observations of Sour Peach in the Library.
- Venison and Tangerine with Peach Palm Flowers served with Sweet Potato Greens in Belize Wild Recipes.
- Tangerine Zest Bread in Belize Wild Recipes.
- Ramen Noodles with Meat and Greens in Belize Wild Recipes.
The amount of energy it takes is amazing to move this much information. Did not have time to finish How to Die in Belize.
G’day.
Today’s Work So Far.
Gnome: Today: It’s Guy Fawkes today. Don’t have fireworks and can’t burn the mattress yet. Watch V instead, for consolation.
- Deliveries and town, great fun.
- More media up-loaded.
- More general, obsessive, messing around…
- Wrote Fuel Additives in the Library.
- Added to Acknowledgements.
- Started on How To Die in Belize in the Library.
- Weather is labile.
- General Ambient Mood (GAM): Mildly Lunatic but still efficient.
On Ramen Noodles
Munchkin:
I want to talk abour Ramen Noodles and give it the appreciation that it deserves. Firstly, I would like to share a chidhood memory; I grew up in a Chinese family and in those days, we called them “dolly hair noodles” in Chinese. I do not actually know when the “ramen” word became popularised by marketing but I was not aware of that name in Chinese. I am sure some very bored people can filter through the Internet to find out the origin of this name. I remember, in my primary school days, walking home for lunch and feeling hungry. Lunch-time was an hour, it took about 10 minutes to walk to the house so there was not much time to fit in the cooking and eating time. My mum would usually quickly rustle up a bowl of dolly hair noodles with boiled chinese greens. There would be some kind of meat, fish or even egg floating about in the soup. It took her only about five minutes to make and I had enough time to enjoy the meal slowly. At the time, I appreciated it as a cooked meal as opposed to all my friends eating cold ham sandwiches for packed lunch. Now, I appreciate it because it is such a quick, easy meal to make when you have no time or when you are in a rush or you are too tired to cook a proper meal.
So, I would like to give Ramen noodles an appreciative thank-you because too often, I have noticed that foodies or “gourmet wannabees” give me such derogatory side glances when I even mention that I eat Ramen noodles! The reason why it has such a bad reputation is that most people do not know how to eat them properly. I, too cringe at the idea of sticking it in a bowl and microwaving it for 60 seconds! Please, let us be a bit more imaginative and civilised about a bowl of noodles.
Of course, today’s lunch of the day has to be Ramen noodles with veggies. I did not include any meat but I will give you the full version in the recipe page. I was in town all morning with shopping and deliveries and when I finally got home, I was starving! I quickly cooked up noodles with greens and I had my meal ready in five minutes. I am writing this article whilst enjoying my post-prandial digestive phase.
If you are interested, here are a few hints on buying Ramen noodles since I have noticed that there are many brands in the supermarkets. I live near a wee town called Punta Gorda which has a population of between 5000-8000. Here, there are generally two brands to choose from: there is one imported from the States and there is one from Guatemala. I have tried both and I prefer the one from Guatemala because it is closer to “Chinese” noodles rather than “fast-food” noodles.
If you live in a more developed area, you will have your pick of brands of noodles. One suggestion is to surreptitiously find out what Chinese people buy because they always know which one is the best. The following is an example of a premium quality packet of noodles which was sent to us from Singapore. The noodles are actually steamed air-dried which shows the obsessiveness of Asians in knowing their noodle quality.
So, in conclusion, when you have been running around all morning and you are hungry and tired, try not to reach out for the cookies or the snacks. Make a meal in five minutes, sit down and enjoy it, with-out the feeling of just grabbing the first thing you can find to stuff your face.
November 4, 2014.
Gnome:
A day for setting things up. The change-log for the site today would be:
- Wrote up and set up hierarchy for pages.
- Tried to get pictures sorted out…not quite yet.
- Get into the habit of posting things; wrote first post.
- Sorted out domain name.
- Uploaded more pictures for Munchkin.
- Added some of the links.
Not ready yet to include the day…did make a batch of soap, incidentally but will get to such things in the future.
Munchkin:
We made a batch of chocolate artisan soap together; gnome did all the mixing whilst I assisted with the weighing of chocolate powder and cut-up soap pieces. This type of soap is what I call a “Soap Story” which includes odds and ends of old soap, cut up into pieces, which is mixed into a back-ground of opaque (in this case, chocolate) soap. Each soap we make has a “story” or a “description” as you will see later in more detailed blogs and so the visual appearance of these soaps end up as “soaps within soaps” or metaphorically speaking: “stories within stories”.
If my shop were working…this is where I would send you.
I weeded the vegetable beds today and also took the opportunity to gather the greens for eating today. See below, a huge basin of green leaves which are weighed exclusively for this blog: 420g ie. close to a pound in uncooked greens. Earlier, I marinated chicken breast with soya sauce, yellow ginger, cumin and salt in preparation for an “indian-style” fried chicken on a bed of steamed greens. No carbohydrates tonight.
The greens which I picked today is a vegetable known as “Avuvo” in Nigeria. The seeds were given to me a couple of years ago by a lady who wanted to start a pilot project on growing Nigerian vegetables in Belize with a view to an export market in the US. I had been given a plethora of seeds, perhaps about a dozen including vegetable greens, many types of egg plants and hot chillies. Since then, only two plants have survived: one is the Avuvo and the other is a domesticated type of Purslane. I will write more about purslane another time. Avuvo tastes like a spinach and produces a spiked “teasel-like” flower; it grows prolifically like a weed and takes over everything! That’s why I love it so much because it requires very little maintenance and the leaves remain pristine as no bugs seem to eat it. Contrast this with the callaloo here in Belize which is usually riddled with holes.
Below is a picture of our Meal of The Day:
Contrary to popular opinion there is an art to cooking fried chicken even although it is seen as major junk-food in this country. The chicken is removed from the marinade and dusted with white flour. Have a heavy cast iron skillet ready with vegetable oil filled up to 3 millimeters depth; put the flame on a medium to high heat and brown each side of the chicken. Then, turn down to the lowest flame and cook chicken for 10 minutes (may take less or more time depending on thickness of breast). About 2 minutes prior to this, flip the chicken over so that it is evenly browned on both sides. Drain on paper towels before serving. Steam the greens for 1-2 minutes and arrange on plate with the fried chicken. This goes well with a glass of mead (we make this too!!!).
If you wanted the recipe…I would send you here.