Category Archives: Food

Paprika Stinkhorn Egg with Nori Flakes.

June 19, 2015 Munchkin

Hello Everyone, you are getting two posts almost back to back because our Internet was down for most of the day. The day started off with a thunderstorm and stayed stormy for most of the day; there was also a power-cut for most of the morning.

As promised, I have posted up my recipe with the Witches’ Eggs which I foraged yesterday. I seasoned the sliced immature stinkhorn mushrooms with paprika and white pepper.

The dish actually turned out nicely and Gnome commended me for my efforts. Prior to eating, he had been giving me a sideway neophobic ducky look in preparation for the slimy quality of the mushroom. However, when he did eat it, he looked surprised and likened it to oysters; he said that they should be called “vegetarian oysters” or “faux oysters.”

The toasted nori flakes complimented the “seafood” taste of the mushroom very well. For the full recipe, check out Paprika Stinkhorn Egg with Nori Flakes in Belize Wild Recipes.

At this point, I would like to thank our Chinese friend (real Chinese, not like me!) for emailing us to give us some more information on this fungus.

This is what she said (more or less):

This mushroom is called Zhu Sun in Chinese. The Zhu means bamboo (because it grows on bamboo litter) and it also has the same sound as congratulations. The Sun means smooth and successful. Zhu Sun also means longevity. This mushroom is usually eaten during Chinese New Year but can also be eaten all year round. The Chinese eat the mature mushroom and the recipes are usually found under “bamboo pith” on the Internet.

This information was a great help and we will be collecting some fresh mature specimens to eat. I can’t wait!

Yes, she is right, they do grow on bamboo litter as you can see:

May we all have the pleasure of eating such an auspicious mushroom!

Belize, Food, Medical Related, Mushrooms

Witches’ Eggs.

June 18, 2015 Munchkin

Hello Everyone. It has been pouring down all day and we are surrounded by big puddles of water. It is dull, miserable and grey and so I naturally gravitated to the kitchen to make some comfort food. I made mochi balls with lotus paste. They definitely hit the spot…at least for the 15 minutes in which we were devouring them. Anyway, these are not the “Witches’ Eggs.”

These are the Witches’ Eggs:

These are the stinkhorn mushrooms in their immature form. If you want to harvest these, you need to go to a spot where you have seen this type of mushroom, get down on your hands and knees and look and feel for these round protrusions above the soil. I found eight of them today and this is a picture of a the mushroom cut in half:

These Witches’ Eggs are edible although I can’t find any recipe on the internet. A lot of information comes from other blogs where people have voiced their disgust over the gelatinous quality of this mushroom. Apparently, this fungus is cultivated by the Chinese and I was surprised to read that it is actually the mature form which they eat. They are dried and then re-hydrated for soups. Apparently, it is a highly esteemed ingredient in Chinese cooking and considered a delicacy. With the promise of delectability, I am definitely getting out there in my rubber boots to collect this for my soup.

I have known about the edibility of the witches’ eggs for a long time since we used to collect them in Scotland. At that time, we were really spoiled for choice with chanterelles, boletes and all manner of freshly foraged mushrooms that I didn’t really make much of an attempt to cook these ones up. Since I am now in Belize and mushroom foraging is less diverse, I have decided to give this mushroom another chance. I will be cooking it tonight so will post up my recipe tomorrow.

The protein content of these mushrooms in the egg form is comparable to that found in meat. Mmmm…something for the vegetarians to consider.

Also, this mushroom contains anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial properties.

Oh, and this one is very interesting…according to a 2001 publication in the International Journal of Medicinal Mushrooms, the smell of the fresh fungus can trigger spontaneous orgasms in human females. Definitely another reason to get the rubber boots out and go mushroom foraging?!

Belize, Farming, Food

Baked Wax Apples Stuffed with Chilli Beef.

June 16, 2015 Munchkin 2 Comments

We have so many wax apples on our farm this year…we have even been giving them away to our piggies.

We have been eating a lot of them raw. Because they have the crispy texture of an apple, I thought that they would do well baked. And, then I thought of chilli beef and hey presto, I came up with this recipe: Wax Apples Stuffed with Chilli Beef.

To stuff the wax apples, you just need to cut a wedge into the bottom. Like so:

Stuffed wax apples:

I slow-baked the stuffed wax apples with onions so that the onions could form a nice gravy.

We ate it with a side of green vegetables:

We really enjoyed this dish and this is also a great way of cooking other fruits in the Syzygium family, notably the Malay (Molly) Apple.

Enjoy your evening!! It has been raining all day.

Belize, Food, Plants

Glazed Cashew Fruit and Ham with Basmati Rice.

June 13, 2015 Munchkin

We have discovered the wonders of cooked cashew fruit because they absorb flavours really well and they have the texture of chicken breast. Cashew fruit can be eaten raw but tends to have tannins in them which stops you from eating too much of them. Cooking this fruit in sugar helps to off-set the tannin taste.

We had some left over roast ham so I came up with this recipe: Glazed Cashew Fruit and Ham with Basmati Rice.

After eating this, we both agreed that the cashew fruit was worth eating. In previous years, we have just let this fruit drop to the ground and rot…what a waste! The only problem is that there seems to be a health community of pacas (gibnuts) feasting on the fruit as soon as they drop to the ground. This means that we have to get up at the crack of dawn to collect the fruit before all the critters (including doggie) get them!!

Belize, Food, Plants

Whirlwind Belcampo Foraging Tour.

June 12, 2015 Munchkin

A couple of weeks ago we were asked by Belcampo Lodge (an eco-lodge in Toledo) to assess their foraging tour. We were accompanied by their guide, Jose Vellos and we went on a two hour trek around Belcampo grounds. We would like to share with you some of the plants and trees that we came across…we probably saw up to about sixty plants mostly noted for their edibility, medicinal or useful purposes. All in all, the tour reinforced the diversity of plants in the rainforest and it was very educational for everyone involved. I will probably write about this tour in wee instalments since I have so many pictures to show you.

This is a picture of a Strangler Fig of the Ficus sp.; the seeds end up dropping in crevices of other trees and as they grow, they form roots which bind around the host tree, eventually killing it.

This one is the Central American Rubber Tree, also known as Castilla elastica and Panama Rubber Tree. Here is a picture; if you look carefully, you can see some latex dripping out from the multiple scores on the bark. During the heyday of the rubber industry in Central America, these trees were tapped for their valuable latex. As an historical aside, the rubber from this tree was used to make the ball used for the famous Mesoamerican ballgame Ollamaliztli.

Close-up picture of the foliage:

These are the fruit of the rubber tree; Gnome took some home to start a rubber plantation…he wants to make his own thigh high rubber boots one day (for walking about the farm in the wet season). NOT a cosplay fetish!

This one has many names…we have heard of the following: Bull’s Eye, Deer’s Eye and Horse’s Eye. Gnome suggested re-naming it ” Some Sort of Ruminant’s Eye” as a catch-all term. I don’t know…mmmm…not a very catchy name?!

Picture of the seed with the dried pod:

Deer's Eye/ Bull's Eye/ Horse's Eye. — Deer’s Eye/ Bull’s Eye/ Horse’s Eye.

The locals tell us that this seed is used in childrens’ games where it is rubbed very quickly against the pod and then transferred onto somebody else’s skin to cause a scalding effect. This is done for fun and laughs in the bush! It happens less now that everyone has Galaxy phones 😉

Belize, Food, Mushrooms

Another Mushroom in Belize!!

June 9, 2015 Munchkin

Oh, I can not believe that I forgot to mention that we had found a puffball mushroom whilst on our travels the last few days. We had just driven up to the Taiwanese shop and the next thing I knew, Gnome had scrambled out quickly and was on his hands and knees in the grassy field beside the car-park.

He was so excited because he had spotted a puff-ball mushroom. These are edible and some of them can get to the size of footballs. We have never had the pleasure of eating one but apparently you can slice them and cook them like steaks.

We took this specimen back to the farm and Gnome stomped all over it on the grass to disperse the spores. Hope to have puffball steak sometime soon!!

Amusing, Belize, Food, Medical Related, Mushrooms

Adventures in Belize.

June 8, 2015 Munchkin

Hi there!! Here are some more pictures from our adventures through Belize. As promised, here are some pictures from the Anime convention held by the Japanese Embassy in Belize.

Cosplay Contest:

The Japanese Embassy entertained with music, songs and dancing on the stage. And of course interspersed with Anime: Negadon: The Monster From Mars, SOS! Tokyo Metro Explorers and Komaneko- The Curious Cat. They also had various booths to display information on Japanese culture. Here is the calligraphy booth:

We stayed at the Best Western Biltmore Plaza for the night. We were pleasantly surprised and found that it had a colonial, Caribbean feel to the place despite being located in the middle of a busy city.

Back in the hotel room, after a 3 hour drive to Belize City and attendance at the Anime convention for about 4 hours, Gnome took his boots off finally. Out of one boot, a frog popped out!

Gnome certainly insisted on taking part of the farm with him! He said that he thought that he felt something wet in his shoe…he did not realise that he was accommodating a frog and so was somewhat relieved to find a benign cause for his slimey foot.

The frog stayed in the room with us and in the middle of the night jumped onto Gnome’s face. It jumped and boinged quite happily in the dark attending to mosquito control. In the morning, we found him asleep in the toilet.

This morning, we went to the Belize City public hospital, KHMH to pay our medical licences. The Medical Board of Belize have implemented a new policy with payment whereby the money has to be paid into their bank account. Then you have to travel all the way to KHMH in Belize City to present your bank deposit slip to them. This year they have also started issuing annual licences to doctors once payment has been fulfilled. Presumably they are for framing in the doctor’s clinic. In our case, they will be hung up in the barn.

After the hospital visit, we stopped by the Taiwanese shop to pick up some Chinese goodies. We had some refreshments…

I can not read Chinese so I don’t actually know what we drank. It tasted like soya milk with hints of strawberry. Check out the picture…it seems to suggest the promise of love? Some feminine love potion drink? I felt a bit giddy with love for my darling Gnome afterwards…so, maybe it worked!!

It was a lovely drive with blue skies:

We even managed to squeeze in a visit to Lost Reef to meet up with friends:

Our Happy Friend...She DOES look like this!! — Our Happy Friend…She DOES look like this!!

Our Friends. They actually look like this!! — Our Friends. And yes, he looks like that too!!

Homeward bound. We took the frog back home with us too!!

Belize, Food

Mamey Sapote Beef Burgers.

June 5, 2015 Munchkin

It is mamey sapote season in Belize.

A ripe mamey sapote is soft to the touch when you press hard with thumb and fore-finger. Cut around the shell lengthwise (like an avocado) to obtain the two halves of the fruit with a central large seed. Remove the seed and spoon out the pulp to eat. The flesh should come off easily in a ripe fruit. You can eat this fruit out of hand or you can transform it into a savoury burger meal:

This is a unique and tasty way of eating this tropical fruit. Mamey sapote has a reddish-brown, smooth and creamy flesh with a sweet flavour reminiscent of caramelised brown sugar. This marries very well with beef giving a caramel velvetiness to the ubiquitous burger.

Check out the recipe for Mamey Sapote Beef Burgers in Belize Wild Recipes!

Belize, Farming, Food

Miso Pumpkin Bake.

June 4, 2015 Munchkin

It has been two months since we made our Good Friday Shiro Miso; so, I reckoned it was time to try it out!

Shiro miso contains a higher white rice to bean ratio, therefore it can ferment faster and be ready to eat in 2 months. Compare this to hatcho miso which is only made of fermented beans which takes at least 12 months to mature.

I also had a huge pumpkin (14lbs/7kg) in weight, just waiting to be eaten:

So, this is what I came up with; Miso, Pumpkin and Onion Bake:

After eating this, we both agreed that the miso was ready to eat…it gave a unique umami savoury taste to the dish. What a treat and the miso and pumpkin are fresh from our farm!

Amusing, Belize, Farming, Food, Mushrooms

Emergency Mushroom Hot-Line.

June 2, 2015 Munchkin

We were quietly having our morning tea with the sound of continuous rain beating down on our roof and the rabble of the early morning birds, when we were suddenly startled by the sound of the phone going off. It was 7am…from past experience, we only received early phone calls for medical call-outs. I picked up the phone and I recognised the voice of a guy that I knew from Punta Gorda. He was obviously very agitated and addressed me formerly as “doctor.” In my mind, I was thinking,” Yup…it’s a medical call.” Then he garbled on about trying frantically to find my phone number on the Internet. I acknowledged his efforts with some sort of noise indicating encouragement as I anticipated an ailment.

And, then out of the blue he blurted out,” I think I found a Stinkhorn Mushroom!”

I blanked out. Blinked twice. Brain activity stopped for a millisecond as I processed this statement.

I glanced up at the clock…it was 7.05am. In my mind I was thinking,” This guy is phoning me at 7 in the morning to tell me that he has spotted a mushroom in town?”

I don’t think that he even realised that I was taken aback by his statement and went into a frenzy with a description about a potrusion and a net-like thing. He enthusiastically asked,”which part can you eat?” and, “how do I cook it?” and, “Oh, do the Chinese like to eat it…yes I ‘ve heard it’s rather gelatinous…”

I quickly recovered from my surprise and politely corroborated with his description of the Stinkhorn, giving him helpful pointers on the harvesting of the edible mushroom. Afterwards, I put the phone down calmly and then guffawed silently at Gnome who had heard the whole conversation.

Gnome shrugged his shoulders and said nonchalantly, “I guess this is the emergency mushroom hot-line.”

Interestingly enough, in the last few days we have had many sightings of the Stinkhorn Mushroom on our farm. Here are some pictures of this unusual looking fungus.

If you would like to read more about this mushroom, Gnome has written an engaging and humourous essay in the library on The Stinkhorn.

Casa Mascia Apothecary