Tag Archives: Bread

Belize, Farming, Food

Back To Cast Iron Baking.

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We are going back full circle again.  When we first came to Belize, I didn’t have an oven so I used to bake in a cast iron pot on the stove top.  Anyway, the cooker (the oven and the knobs dropped off one by one until there were none) carked it a couple of months ago.  So, I have gone back to cast iron baking again.  It’s not actually difficult at all and it takes less gas (butane) and time.  You don’t spend a whole 30 to 60 minutes (with a Mabe oven) waiting for it to heat up to the correct temperature.  It just takes five minutes to heat up the cast iron pot and lid.

Just use your favourite bread recipe (of course Munchkin doesn’t have a recipe…she just chucks flour, water, yeast, sugar, salt and whatever exciting things she can find (miso, grains, anything really….oh…great tip…old condiments or end bits of jam in jars are great to chuck into bread).  Mix it all up, knead into dough and that’s Munchkin’s Chaos Bread.

Using up old jars.

Please remember that my “chaos cooking” started off with following  recipes and doing it over and over again.  In order to get to improvising and creating, you need to put in the “10000 hours” of cooking.  BTW, I may not have mentioned that I worked as a cook whilst I was in medical school so have been cooking for a very long time.

If you require a bit more structure to your cooking methods, here is a standard bread recipe courtesy of Fannie Farmer Cookbook:

  1. Take a large mixing bowl and add 1/2 cup of lukewarm water and 1 package of yeast.
  2. Let stand 5 minutes then stir to dissolve the yeast.
  3. Put in another bowl: 1 cup milk, 1 cup boiling water, 2 tbsp butter, 2 tbsp sugar and 1 tbsp salt.  Stir until lukewarm and then combine with yeast mixture.
  4.  Add 3 cups of all-purpose flour.  Stir and add more flour if needed to make the dough.
  5. Knead, let rise, shape and bake (see below).
  6. This recipe makes about 8 to 10 rolls.

Okay, so this is what you need to do:

  1. Heat up cast iron (12 inch diameter will do) pot (grease bottom well) with lid for 5 minutes on medium-high heat.
  2. Take bread, shaped into rolls, and place in cast iron pot.
  3. Turn heat down to lowest and bake for 8 to 10 minutes with lid on.
  4. Take lid off and flip bread over with a metal spatula. Bake for another ten minutes.

Et viola:

Cool on wire racks as you do with any old sort of bread.

Enjoy:

Cast Iron Bread.
Belize, Food

Fried Bread Sticks.

Munchkin.Eating.Bun.Smile

This is an easy snack made from very simple ingredients.  Use your favourite bread recipe to make about 1 to 2 cups of dough (depending on how much fried yum yums you desire) and roll it out on a flat surface.

Mixing Dough.
Mixing Dough.

Cut the dough into strips and then leave uncovered for about 2 hours if you are in the tropics.  If you are in a temperate country, leave it out for about 4 to 6 hours.

When you are ready to fry, brush the surface of the strips with egg.  Now, this is the inventive and exciting part and it is up to you how you flavour your breadsticks!  You could try sesame seeds, anise, basil, garlic powder, Italian herbs, etc, etc.  Just use your imagination!

This is what I did:

I separated the dough strips into three batches and with batch 1, I sprinkled rosemary and salt.  Batch 2 had sprinkled paprika and salt and Batch 3 had brushed egg only; once fried and drained, sifted icing sugar was added.

Heat the vegetable oil to about 400F.  Fry the bread sticks in the three batches.  They should puff up nicely and cook within about 2 to 3 minutes.  Drain well.

Fried Bread Sticks.
Fried Bread Sticks.

These are great as a snack or as an accompaniment to a meal.  Our favourite was the batch sprinkled with icing sugar…savoury sweet!

Fried Bread Sticks With Icing Sugar.
Fried Bread Sticks With Icing Sugar.
Belize, Food

Cassava Bread Hors D’oeuvres.

This article is mainly aimed for the reader in Belize who thinks that it is so difficult to find something yummy and convenient to make. Here in Belize (at least in the Southern Region), the Garifuna people make cassava bread which is a flattened, unleavened bread which they traditionally eat with fish.  It is not even something that is found on eating out and in fact, to get your paws on traditionally made cassava bread, you really have to befriend a Garifuna, stay in their village, and then you may be fortunate enough to have some of this cuisine.  Traditionally, cassava bread in Belize, is made manually and this involves a long, intensive process of grating cassava by hand (lots and lots of it…sacks and sacks), a system of poles and tree limbs (even with women standing on poles) and the eventual flattening and cooking of the bread on comals.  This is a project which my partner and I have long held off since it is a lot of work and you need people power.

Shop-bought Cassava Bread in Punta Gorda.
Shop-bought Cassava Bread in Punta Gorda.

So, you will realise my glee and absolute wonder to discover shop-bought Cassava Bread here in Punta Gorda, Toledo, Belize!  It is found in all the Chinese Supermarkets sold at approximately $6.75 Bz for just under a pound.  If you understand the effort and sheer man-power required in this bread, it is a snap at this price.  A quick look at Amazon.com shows that our international readers can buy cassava bread on-line (mostly imported from French Caribbean countries) if they are interested in trying out my suggestions.

Cassava Bread is sold in square packets and when you open up the pack, you will notice that they are scored into smaller squares. Ideally, you should be able to snap off these portions but I have found that, with its bendy-like consistency, it is actually easier to cut the squares out with scissors.

Here are some pictures of serving suggestions for shop-bought cassava bread.  You can basically use it as a base for hors d’oeuvres…with a difference since it is cassava bread.  Think of some important people paying you an impromptu visit in Belize and you whip this up in 5 minutes for them!  Its not your ubiquitous cracker…it is cassava bread, indigenous to Belize and it is also gluten-free.  I have used it also as a pizza base and as a quick snack.  The possibilities are endless.

Cassava.Bread.Snacks1
Cassava Bread Hors D’oeuvre with Tuna, Tomato, Olives and Basil.

 

Cassava Bread Snack with Mozzarella and Onions.
Cassava Bread Snack with Mozzarella and Onions.

The cassava bread can be eaten straight out of the packet or if you want to crisp it up a bit, it can placed in the oven for about 5 minutes.  This bread is a great discovery for me because it is only made with raw materials and no additives.  Since its original use was as a preservation method for cassava, you can stash lots of this at home as emergency food or for the impromptu visitor.

 

Belize, Food, Mushrooms, Plants

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:

From Munchkin:

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.