As a continuation of the Corn Cous Cous theme, which I wrote about 2 days ago, here is another recipe.
Sausage Corn Cous Cous.
This is a variation of the original recipe; this one contains Chinese Sausage and Chinese Cabbage. I suppose you could call this one “Corn Cous Cous – Chinese Style”.
If you are in Belize, you need to befriend a Chinese person to find Chinese sausage. I have no idea where they get it from but this is a favourite one for a local chinese person to stash in their personal pantry. For everybody else, you can probably get it at your Chinese Grocery.
Today, I want to talk about how to cook Corn Grits in a different way. This involves grinding whole corn and steaming it with a minimal amount of water which results in a cooked, gritty meal which behaves just like ordinary wheat cous cous. This is great because it is gluten-free and you are not eating the usual gloopy consistency associated with cooked corn (hominy/polenta).
For those interested, corn is one of the cheapest carbohydrates which you can buy in Belize. A 100lb bag of Mayan Corn (GMO-free, I might add) costs only $35 Belize Dollars (USD 17.50).
Corn Cous Cous.
The trick is to thoroughly wash the starch out of coarsely ground corn. If you want to know how to prepare this click on Corn Cous Cous.
Hello Everyone! Hope you are all having a relaxing Sunday. I am sure by now whenever you see my bun-eating avatar, it means that the post is food related! As promised, I have posted up my recipe for Beef Jerky and Wild Mushroom Soup after yesterday’s fungi foraging. This is a warm, hearty meal for winter because it also contains red kidney beans, pasta shells, onions, ginger and leafy greens. If you haven’t been out mushroom foraging, the recipe can still be used with shop bought items (either Wood ear bought from Asian Supermarkets or Button Mushrooms bought from almost anywhere except for Belize).
Anyway, here is a picture of the dish with fried Mayan mushroom used as a garnish.
Beek Jerky and Wild Mushroom Soup Garnished with Fried Mayan Mushrooms.
And, this is a picture of the Wood ear mushroom , sliced before cooking.
It has been pouring down in Toledo so this is the best time to go foraging for mushrooms! Take a look at what we found today…a bountiful treasure for Munchkin and Gnome!
We found oyster mushrooms growing on some peach palms. We identified them as Pleurotus ostreatus which is a smaller type of edible oyster; they are fleshy and full of texture.
Oyster Mushrooms Growing on Palm.
Yay! There are more Oysters coming up!
Lots of Baby Oyster Mushrooms!!
We also found more Wood ear mushrooms which are edible. These mushrooms are well-liked by the Asian population and are usually cooked in soups and stews. Of course, we like them too! Moreover, this little number also has medicinal properties which include anti-cancer, hypoglycaemic, anti-coagulant and cholesterol lowering activities. What a wonderful mushroom!
Wood Ear Mushroom with Two Romantic Snails.
Fungi foraging also revealed more of the Mayan mushroom known as Schizophylum commune. These are rubbery in texture but are edible nonetheless.
Mayan Mushroom on Log.
There was a plethora of Turkey Tail Polypores which came in a spectacular array of different colours. Not only are they nice to look at but they can be made into a medicinal tea. This type of fungus is known to have anti-cancer properties and so a cup of tea now and then won’t do you any harm.
Trametes versicolor on Log.Big Trametes.
You may have gathered that we are really Big on Mushrooms. Gnome has written many essays on this subject. Check out these links:
Hello Everyone. This is a fantastic recipe to start the New Year. This is Guinea Pigs stuffed with Pork and Passion Fruit and cooked in Mead. The Mead is wine made from honey and is of course home-made by Gnome. The passion-fruit adds a tropical twist and the passion-fruit seeds lends a nutty crunch to the entire gastronomic experience.
In keeping with the self-sustainable philosophy on our farm, we do have to face the practical reality of eating the animals which we look after. The best way to show our appreciation for the food on our plates and honouring our piggies is by cooking a scrumptious meal with them!
Here are some pictures:
Three Stuffed Piggies. Raw.Three Piggies Cooking in Mead.Stuffed Guinea Pig Parcel with Passion Fruit.
For a detailed recipe with more pictures, check out the link on Piggies Cooked in Mead. If you don’t have Guinea Pigs, try Goose Neck instead. And if you don’t have Mead, I guess White Wine will do. Guinea Pigs taste like miniature suckling pig and duck rolled into one…wonderful!
Every year, Sorrel flowers and fruits in the months of December and January. That is why I call it the Christmas Plant of Belize. It is also green and red so it fits in with the whole theme.
Sorrel Plant with Flowers.
I have been a busy little bee collecting sorrel over the holidays. It is quite intensive work so you really have to like the plant to do all this. After harvesting, the fruit needs to be removed from the seed pod and this involves scoring around the base of the fruit to pop out the pod. This gets quite repetitive especially after the hundredth one!
Seed Pods Separated From the Sorrel Fruit.
I had quite a bit of sorrel so I sun-dried the fruit to store in jars.
Fresh Sorrel For Sun-drying.Jar of Sun-dried Sorrel.
The fruit of the plant can be used to make a tea or a cool drink and it has a lovely, berry-like tart flavour. To make a tea simply use between 10 to 20 calyces per cup and boil for about 5 minutes until it is a deep red colour. This hibiscus has many medicinal properties including lowering your blood pressure so it is well worth the effort. It you would like to know more about the useful properties of Hibiscus sabdariffa, check out my link in the library.
Here’s one for the Festive Season. I have taken a Tropical Fruit called “Sour Peach” and made a Christmas Fruit Leather with raisins, cinnamon and cloves. Here in Belize, the days are hot and dry so it is the perfect time for sun-drying food outside.
Christmas Fruit Leather.
Sour Peach imparts a tanginess to the taste of the leather which gives a “sweet and sour” taste. It takes about 2 to 3 days for it to completely dry. After this, it is dusted with cornstarch, cut into lengths and then rolled into Yule Logs.
Fruit Leather Yule Logs.
These Yule Logs are very versatile and make a great garnish for desserts and puddings. The rolls can be sliced and used as a topping:
Fruit Leather Garnish.
They can also be served whole with turkey or ham as an interesting, tropical accompaniment to traditional Christmas fair.
This year, our black pepper plants started bearing well. The last few years, we have just had a few minor fruits but not much to speak of.
Harvested Green Peppercorn.
The picture above shows picked peppercorns from two plants only. The green drupes started in September and I had actually been watching them all this time waiting for them to mature to red peppercorns. At that stage, white pepper can be made through a process of retting and fermentation. But, alas I have grown impatient and decided to have black peppercorns this year. So, for the last few days, the pepper has been spread out to dry in the sun. It took 3 days for the pepper to dry completely to its black state. I managed to get two quart jars of dried black peppercorns…not bad from just two plants.
Dried Black Pepper in Jar.
Just out of interest, to keep the green colour of the pepper they have to go through a preservation process (using sulphur dioxide like in dried fruit) before drying. Similarly, to get red peppercorns, preservation of colour with a chemical is used before drying.
Our black pepper plants were grown from cuttings about 2 to 3 years ago. This perennial woody vine prefers shade and so we planted ours next to coconut trees so that the vine would grow up the trunks. This was a great combination because the fallen coconut leaves produced humus and leaf litter which set up perfect growing conditions for the pepper. Piper nigrum are known to produce fruit for up to 7 years after the first flowering. I found some pepper seedlings in the leaf litter and I have potted these so that we never have to buy black pepper again!
How’s this for a cool picture! A calaloo plant (edible Amaranth sp.) growing out of a coconut and feeding off the balanced nutients and electrolytes in the coconut water. A great example of natural hydroponics in the working.
Coconut Hydroponics.
This could be a Revolution: Start growing your veggies in coconuts!
Today I harvested 4kg (8lbs) of a little known ground root in Belize called Koorka. They are little tubers about 2.5cm (1 inch) in size. You eat them like you would potatoes.
Bumper Crop of Koorka: Spicy Tiny Potatoes.
This year we did an experiment to figure out how best to grow them. We started the vegetable from cuttings and put some in clay, furrowed earth and 2 foot high beds filled with decomposed rice hulls. We got the best crop from the beds and the largest size of tuber. The ones in clay were tiny and took the longest to harvest; it was back-breaking!
Koorka in the Ground.
This plant is actually from the Mint Family (the leaves resemble mint a lot) and it grows prolifically.
Piectranthus rotundifolius.
It is an easy crop which requires very little maintenance. It is usually planted as soon as the first rains start (May) and then harvested when the plant dies back (usually December to February). They have the same consistency as potatoes and when cooked, emit a slightly spicy aroma. They are high in Vitamin A and Calcium. Another great thing about these little ‘potatoes’ are that they can contain twice ( 5-13%) the amount of protein compared to a normal potato.
Every-one in Belize should have some of this in their own back yard.
All the animals on the farm love to eat the tuber raw. We give the little bite size ones to the piggies and they gurgle with delight when-ever they spot one of these tasty treats. And goosie…he was in top form today…circling around me menacingly hoping to steal my koorka from my bucket. He was really mean and bossy!
As a continuation of the Corn Cous Cous theme, which I wrote about 2 days ago, here is another recipe.
