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!!
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!!!
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.
Hello Everyone!! For our dedicated followers out there, you may remember that about a week a ago, Gnome gave me two banana blossoms (flowers) to give to the guinea pigs. I promptly refused because I was determined to make yum-yums out of them.
Banana Blossoms.
Well, I did some research on preparation of the banana blossom for cooking and this is what I did.
I took off the outer petals (bracts) of the banana flower, layer after layer, until I got to the inner piece which looked like a little cabbage.
Outer Parts of Banana Flower.
While taking off each petal, there was a layer of florets in between the bracts, which are pictured below.
Cleaning Banana Flower.
According to my research, you can eat these florets by painstakingly going through each one of these to remove the outer calyx and the pistil. I did one for the picture and then thought to myself that it was extremely tedious and I wasn’t bored and hungry enough to do the rest.
I finally got to the heart of the flower.
Cleaning Banana Flower.
I cut it into pieces, as instructed, and placed them in vinegar water to remove the tannic properties.
Soaking Banana Flower.
After, a couple of hours, the tannin was partially removed to leave edible parts that tasted like cabbage. They didn’t taste that great and I didn’t think that it was worth all the trouble of preparation and soaking time to get something so bland and uninteresting.
I decided to give the rest to the piggies after-all.
Piggies Like Banana Blossom.
In conclusion, I am glad that I tried to prepare the banana blossom so that I could make up my own mind as to whether it was worth it or not. Outside the cultural context of eating banana flowers in India and South East Asia, I can only view this as a poor cabbage substitute. For the amount of energy, time and effort required in preparation, I would rather give these flowers to the piggies to enjoy.
Hello Everyone!! All of a sudden, it is very, very wet. The air feels really damp and muggy. Still no need to complain; we are getting bountiful water to wash clothes to my heart’s content and I can have plentiful hot showers through-out the day!
The farm continues to give generously and there is always stuff to harvest everyday. The carambola (or starfruit) are bearing; I have to pick them partially green before the birds and the bees get to them.
StarFruit.
These are the rogue pumpkins that were missed in “The Hidden Pumpkin Technique” which I described a few weeks ago. The pumpkin patch is still going strong and with these new rains, we are getting a second round of flowering.
Rogue Mature Pumpkins.
In this technique, the pumpkins grow and sink into the tall grass; whilst hidden from the hungry eyes of critters and bugs, they can be left to grow flawlessly without a single burrowed hole or bite-mark.
Pumpkin Patch.
Oh, and last but not least…banana flowers…
Banana Flowers.
This morning, Gnome cut these down and instructed me to give them to the guinea pigs. I gave him a funny look and said,
“I heard that humans can eat them too!”
Gnome said that he had heard about people eating them in India but he wasn’t convinced about the potential tastiness of the banana flower.
Not Convinced!
Well, I looked at them and convinced myself that they looked a bit like artichokes and therefore there could be some potential for yumminess. Well, let’s see…tomorrow, I am going to try cooking them. Watch this space for the results!!
We always have something new on our farm to eat. This week it is the “flying potato.”
