Category Archives: Food

It’s Curry Night!!

March 15, 2016 Munchkin

Munchkin.Another.Eating.Shot Tonight we have a Bengali style curry. Thank-you Rumpa for the priceless cooking lessons back in the good old days in Glasgow. This curry has our own coconut cream (which you can purchase at Green Supaul’s in Punta Gorda).

I love cooking up curries because the wonderful aromatic herbs pervade through the house. This is when the dogs and the cat start sniffing around because it smells so delicious! Even the cat gets curry sauce on his gizzard!

Herbs and Spices used; cardamom, star anise, cumin seeds, mustard seeds and bay leaves.

Plate.of.Spices

Powdered spices used; curry powder, yellow ginger (tumeric), green chili (home-made), cinnamon and clove.

Ooooh…look at this. A “quick” curry in 2 hours (most other curries take about 12 hours!) with fresh coconut cream!

Check out the recipe for Coconut Cream Chicken Curry in Belize Wild Recipes. Mmmmm…yum!!

Belize, Farming, Food

Look What The Wee Wee Ants Are Doing!

March 10, 2016 Munchkin

Munchkin.Bossie Can you believe what the wee wee ants are doing on our farm? We have one soursop tree here and the ants are systematically peeling the skins off the fruit. They leave the fruit whole and intact like this…you have to catch them before they go splattt!!

Here are some that I have rescued with a few holes on them. Look closely and you will see the ants crawling all over them.

I have written about these ants before but just in case you missed it here is a brief recap:

These leaf cutter ants (wee wee ants) usually form mounds above ground which lead down to their underground cities. I call them “cities” because these nests can grow to 100 ft (30m) across with smaller radiating mounds growing to about 260ft (80m) and can house eight million ants. Amazing!!

They cultivate a fungus by feeding it with fresh cut plant material (ie. all our lovely plants and trees). Furthermore, these ants carry a bacterium which protects the fungi from pests and molds. This is a really nice symbiotic relationship…sometimes you wish that us humans could form a better mutualistic relatiionship with the planet in the same way as these ants! The fungus is used to feed the ant larvae.

We have tried all sorts of ways to get rid of them and alas, have even resorted to ritualistic practice, dancing, singing and talking (nicely) to them. None of it works!! What to do…

Belize, Farming, Food, Our Products

Coconut Cream For Sale!

March 9, 2016 Munchkin 2 Comments

Munchkin.Shouting Hello Everyone!! We went into Punta Gorda today to deliver a fresh batch of coconut cream to Green Supaul’s. Just in case you are wondering, we make it by grating the coconut:

Next, we add some hot water to the grated coconut and squeeze the liquid out. The liquid is then left to sit for some time to allow the cream to separate and come up to the top (the coconut milk is at the bottom). The cream is skimmed off and sold in these bags. One coconut cream bag (about 4oz) is equivalent to one coconut.

This is fresh, organic, vegetarian, gluten-free, locally produced and politically correct in every way! 😉

!Sabor Natural! Ja-Ja!! 😉

Belize, Farming, Food, Plants

Everything Is Blooming!

March 8, 2016 Munchkin 2 Comments

New.Munchkin.Gnome.Yellow.Boots Hello There!! More farm pictures for you all to see and the promise of wonderful exotic fruit in the next few months. The mango trees are blooming all over Toledo so it looks like it will be another wonderful “stuff-your-face-with-mango-season” this year. Our running joke on the farm is that we never started planting mango until a few years ago…which was pretty silly of us since it is our favourite fruit! Anyway, we have our first blooming mango tree!!

We have three jackfruit trees flowering this year…they should grow into giant sized monsters and we will have a bumper crop in July.

The cashews are starting too. By the way, we noticed that we have mountains to the south side which block a few hours of morning sunlight and so our trees flower about a month later than others in Toledo.

These are our cinnamon trees looking very formidable at one year. Also there is a tall ylang-ylang tree in the middle with a lemon tree to the right. I wanted to sneak this picture in to show you how good we have been at keeping the grass down this year! Ooooh…look at that!

Amusing, Belize, Food, Our Products, Plants, Soap

What’s Happening?

March 6, 2016 Munchkin

Munchkin.Sitting.Down Hello Everyone!! I have not been so regular with writing the Blog lately due to…the weather of all things! It has been dull with thick grey clouds which block the sunlight. When it gets like that I just feel, “Ugh!” and Gnome reacts with, “Oh, dear!!” and then we start a fine merry-go-round of ranting and complaining!

Munchkin.Another.Funny.Shot

Thank goodness the sun is out today and the mood has lifted. I feel more inspired to write about our usual Munchkin and Gnome activities.

We have been making a marathon run of soap. This takes the whole day with mixing and pouring in the morning and cutting (Gnome) and polishing (Munchkin) in the evening. It is a good activity to do when you want to stay out of trouble!

Gnome started a mini project to grow watercress:

And I made lotus paste mochi balls today!

Yum!! These were the mochi balls that I had promised Gnome for Chinese New Year which he didn’t get because I decided, rather inconveniently, to go on a diet plonk in the middle of Chinese celebrations. I am feeling a bit happier about my weight so I made the belated mochi balls to celebrate a good day together!

Belize, Food, Plants

Pacaya Season Ending Soon.

March 1, 2016 Munchkin

Food.Munchkin Hello Everyone!! We’ve really enjoyed them this year. Pacaya Palm are the inflorescences of Chamaedorea tepijilote. Below are my gallery of pictures:

You just need to peel and then boil them for up to 20 minutes:

And this is how we ate them this year.

Mmmm…dipped in egg and deep-fried (Thank-you Isabel for the tip).

Cooked with Chinese Pork Soup:

The extra bits make a great garnish for my baked lentil and shitake mushroom dish:

More Pictures:

Sheer simplicity with a dollop of our own peach palm miso:

Belize, Food

Banana And Coconut Flour Patties.

February 23, 2016 Munchkin 2 Comments

Together.Eating We are making our own banana flour and coconut flour on the farm. Gnome had charged me with the responsibility of making something “yummy” with these ingredients. He actually scolded me and said,

“I know it is actually easier to use wheat flour because you know what to do with it. But you need to get used to using all these other flours that we make on the farm.”

Gnome.Glasses.Shot.Another

I replied with a sheepish smile,

“I suppose you’re right.”

Munchkin.Upset

And so I sequestered myself into the kitchen and got busy with the Gnome challenge. I came up with Banana and Coconut Flour Patties:

This recipe is gluten free as I used eggs and cornflour as the binding agents. These spicy patties contain tumeric (yellow ginger), chilli powder and white pepper which add a nice “kick” to the taste experience. I think they turned out rather nicely! This isn’t the end of the challenge though…I still need to come up with more recipes!!

Belize, Farming, Fermentation, Food, Our Products

Just A Thank-You.

February 21, 2016 Munchkin

Munchkin.More.Eating If you follow our posts, you may have realised by now that we enjoy the creativity and inventiveness of harvesting and processing our own food. Peach Palm Miso was borne out of a fusion of an Asian preservation technique with a farm grown ingredient. I would like to give a special Thank-you to Julian Obererlacher of Itz’ana, Placencia for his resourcefulness in using our Peach Palm Miso as an ingredient in his menu.

Another Thanks to Enrico Cordenons for providing us with the Itz’ana Menu as follows:

WEDNESDAY 17 FEBRUARY, 2016

Sweet/spicy soup of Belizean vegetables with masa

King Estate Pinot Gris 2013 (USA – Oregon)

Poblano pepper stuffed with arugula, lentils, Caves Branch ricotta and parmesan

Zolo Malbec 2014 (Argentina – Agrelo Valley)

Snook, Casa Mascia Peach palm miso glaze, coco yam puree, grilled zucchini Itz’ana garden chinese greens

Crimson Fetzer Pinot Noir 2012 (USA – Napa Valley)

Banana loaf, chocolate, peanut cream, belizean rum caramel, purple basil

Mayan hot chocolate or Local Rum (Belize Punta Gorda/Placencia)

It is inspiring to see a preference and a confident boldness in using local ingredients.

We have Peach Palm Miso for sale within the country. Please check out The Apothecary for more information.

Belize, Farming, Food

Home-Made Banana Flour.

February 18, 2016 Munchkin 4 Comments

Together.Eating.Fire.Pot

We are making our own banana flour right now. With huge bunches of green bananas, we find that the best way to preserve them is to process them into flour.

This actually involves quite a lengthy process but hey…that’s why we have chosen to live like this. The green bananas are peeled and then grated like so (by Munchkin of course):

The shredded bananas are then dried out in the sun. Once dehydrated, they are crushed by hand into crumbs and then milled (Gnome Job):

And this is what you get:

Eighty green bananas fills roughly half a gallon jar and weighs about 2lbs (1kg). And now Gnome has presented me with a challenge:

“Munchkin, cook something yummy with it!”

By the way, this product is not for sale because it contains too much blood and sweat! 😉

Belize, Food, Our Products

Coconut Cream Brownies.

February 17, 2016 Munchkin

Munchkin.Eating.Bun This recipe is designed to entice our local readers to whet their appetite…and to buy our freshly squeezed coconut cream! For all our readers outside Punta Gorda, you can used canned coconut cream for this recipe…it is still delicious. We are coming up against stiff competition with the packeted dehydrated coconut powder. At this point in time, it looks like convenience is winning through. Arrrrghhh!!! What happened to all you organic farm-fresh lot out there?! 😉

Our coconut cream is manually squeezed by yours truly on our farm. They come in 4oz bags for only a $1 each. We can deliver this fresh to anyone in Punta Gorda every Wednesday of every week.

You definitely have to try this Coconut Cream Brownie Recipe. The coconut adds extra creaminess and decadence to the whole experience! Yum…

Casa Mascia Apothecary