Munchkin has sequestered herself in the kitchen to invent new recipes.
I said to Gnome:
“I’m not budging an inch from the kitchen!!”
He replied with:
“It’s okay my dear. Nobody is moving you out of the kitchen.”
So everything is fine and I can go Munchkin Crazy in the kitchen spilling my creative juices and stuffing my face with fine yum-yums!! Yay!! The Joys of Being a Munchkin!
You’ll get the full recipe in the above link. This is a quick walk through with nice pictures of food.
Ooooh…first of all. Here’s a picture of my soup cauldron. It is one of my most favourite possessions…
Clay Pot.
Chaya is a spinach which grows in Belize. It is sometimes quite tough in texture but loaded with nutrients. Blending chaya is a great way to get the best out of this vegetable:
Chaya.
Blending Chaya:
Blending Chaya.
Making Chaya Onion Soup:
Add Chaya to Onions.
Oh and cassava croutons are amazing. Well, let’s face it…anything fried is rather good!! Cut into crouton like cubes to mimic croutons:
Our Lovely Cassava:
Peeled Cassava.
Cassava Croutons:
Cassava Croutons.
Et Viola…
Chaya Onion Soup with Cassava Croutons:
Chaya Onion Soup with Cassava Croutons.
Lovely in this cooler weather!! Have a Great Sunday!! 🙂
The dry season in Belize is a great time to harvest roots. We have been pulling up cassava from our beds. Each plant has been giving us a generous 10lbs (5kg) of root. Cassava requires immediate processing because it tends to go off after 1 or 2 days. We usually peel a whole load of them in one go, boil them and then store them in the freezer.
Cleaning Cassava.
This is food security:
Peeled Cassava.
This time we had a surprise harvest. Gnome called me out to the veranda and said,
“Surprise!! I found three brains for you!”
He was of course referring to these; elephant foot yam which we have humourously coined “The Brain.”
Mmmmm…deep fried cassava is one of our favourites…it is really hearty and warming for colder days in Belize.
Fried Cassava with Miso Dip.
And since we are moving into winter time in Belize when the temperature can drop down to 18C (64F), this dish is perfect.
To prepare the cassava, peel and wash:
Dug Up Cassava.Peeled Cassava.
Boil the cassava in a stockpot. You will know when they are ready when they start to split length-wise. Drain the roots and once they have cooled down, slice them into 1/2 inch circular pieces. Heat up oil (I use a wok) until smoking. Fry about 10 pieces at a time, until golden brown, and drain on kitchen towel.
To make Peach Palm Miso Dip combine the following :
2 tbsp Soya Sauce
2 tbsp Honey
1 tsp Peach Palm Miso (or Shiro Miso)
Peach Palm Miso Dip.
Enjoy!! We deliver Peach Palm Miso in Punta Gorda on Wednesdays. Contact us by email or Facebook if you are interested and we can drop it off for you.
Peach Palm Miso.
We can also send it to you via Tropic Air within Belize. Check out The Apothecary for prices.
A couple of weeks ago we harvested fresh cassava from the farm to make “Cuppa Cassava” which is our own home-made version of an instant noodle meal. As described in an earlier post, we prepared the root by peeling, cutting into pieces and steaming. After that, we put the cooked vegetable through a meat grinder in order to homogenize it and obtain a “noodle-look.” Then it was placed in the sun to dry for three days.
Instant Cassava Noodles.
We made an “instant” quick meal by adding boiled water (about 1+1/2 cups) to a handful of dehydrated cassava noodles; we covered this and allowed the vegetable to soften and cook for 10 minutes. At 7 minutes, a teaspoon of miso (our famous Peach Palm Miso) and a 1/4 cup of finely chopped green spinach were added to the mixture. And Hey Presto…Cuppa Casava Ramen was ready to eat!
Cuppa Cassava Ramen.
The cassava noodles had a chewy, firm texture with a bite. We both agreed that this was a good preservation method and this was definitely worth having in the pantry as “farm-made fast food.”
Hello Everyone!! I am always so pleased with our harvests on the farm; the farm still keeps producing bountiful crops and there is always something new and exciting to eat. It never ceases to amaze me how generous the land can be if you are willing to put in a bit of time and work.
Plenty of Cassava to harvest right now.
Cassava.
A whole bed of sweet potatoes and it gets better…you can even eat the greens like a spinach.
Sweet Potatoes and Greens.
Voluntary wild papayas dotted all around the farm. Get them before the birds feast on them.
Wild Papaya.
This is malabar spinach. Simply stir-fry, steam or boil; also makes a great salad green. It can be started from cutting and grows well in boggy areas. This is such an easy green to grow that I think everyone should have a patch of this in their garden.
Malabar Spinach.
This is a cultivated variety of purslane; it makes a lovely salad green and the edible flowers add colour to a dish.
Cultivated Purslane.
We have been harvesting these for about 3 months solid from one tree…and it has started flowering again! These have a crunch just like apples.
Chinese Jujube.
It is absolutely wonderful growing our own vegetables and fruit to eat. I would not have it any other way!
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!!
Cassava cake is a local sweet made in Belize which is made from grated cassava, sugar and spices which may include cinnamon and nutmeg. It is mostly made in the Garifuna households in Belize and everyone has their own special recipe. Fortunately for people like me, who don’t have a secret recipe, I have found a wonderful shop-bought version of the cassava cake in Belize. This cake is baked at the cassava factory in Dangriga. I don’t tend to buy much shop-bought food but I actually find this cake very palatable and the smooth, non-grainy texture of this cooked root is very pleasant. I can not taste any spices in this cake but nevertheless, I think it is still very tasty.
I always like to convert sweet things into savoury and this recipe is a fine example of this:
These kebabs are made from fried cassava cake pieces, fried pieces of spicy sausage and bits of fresh pineapple. They are so yummy; the sweetness of the cake contrasts with the spicy sausage and compliments the pineapple.
Happy Sunday to you all!! We have some more fruit on our farm; luckily this time, there is an abundance so we can share with the birdies, pacas, dogs and guinea-pigs.
The mulberries are giving plenty of fruit. There is one particular tree which is half hidden in the shade of a huge African oil palm so the birdies have not spotted this one. This year, we will be able to make mulberry Elixir (liqueur).
Mulberries.
This is wax-apple; we are into the second year of fruiting and it is producing so much. They are related to the Molly (Malay) apple but these fruits are crunchy in texture like apples. The guinea-pigs really love these ones!
Wax Apple.
The passionfruit are just starting to bear. I like to combine the pulp of this with the Mayan passionfruit (Kun Batz) to make juice. I find the Mayan variety is sweeter so that it helps to balance the acidity of this type.
Passionfruit.Ripe Kun Batz.
With all the passionfruit juice making, I have ended up with a whole lot of seeds. As an experiment, I tried toasting them on a skillet in a similar manner to pumpkin seeds. They actually turned out to be a very tasty snack/condiment; as you toast them, the residual passionfruit pulp around the seeds caramelises to add a unique sweetness. I used the toasted seeds as a condiment on soup which worked a treat. The crunchy texture gives an extra bite to a meal:
Toasted Passionfruit Seeds with Soup.
Also, we had some as an accompaniment to cassava hash browns and steamed young pumpkin. They added an extra “sweet and sour” flavour to the dish.
Toasted Passiflora Seeds with Cassava Hash Browns.
I would definitely recommend the toasting of passionfruit seeds. It just requires 10 to 15 minutes on medium heat on a skillet. Make sure to stir it around to stop it from initially sticking. You will know when it is done when the pulp caramelises around the seeds. It is so versatile that you can choose to eat it with sweet or savoury foods.
The last few days, early morning rains have wreaked havoc on the plans of mice and men (and Gnome and Munchkin). So, what can mere mortals do under these circumstances when they are thwarted by the elements?
Munchkin rummaged around in the kitchen and came up with something tasty.
Dak “Chopped Ham.” Literally in Greek.
We ate Dak.
Dak is the Belize version of the familiar tinned chopped ham that you see on all supermarket shelves. I have no social qualms about broadcasting the fact that I eat this preserved flayed pork meat on occasion, as I grew up in a Chinese household where this food was seen as a legitimate food item. We used to steam it with rice and eat it with fresh green vegetables. Gnome, on the other hand, tells me that many other cultures do not deem this as a proper food. It is a food that might lurk in the back of somebody’s cupboard but most certainly, the harbouring of such an item should never be professed. It is eaten alone…in hushed tones with the lights dimmed down. Ooooh…sounds like fun…a secret society of underground Dak eaters!
Nobody is willing to openly admit that they eat Dak but those cases stacked in the back of Chinese supermarkets that we all see must be going into somebody’s belly! There are times of the year when there is not a single tin to be found on the shelf and everyone is hanging out for the Dak shipment.
So, today we ate Dak chopped ham cooked in onions, tomatoes and Italian herbs with cassava hash browns. Munch away quietly with dimmed lights:
Dak, Tomatoes and Cassava Hash-Browns.
We also had a nice dipping sauce which is so easy to make:
Munchkin’s Dango Dip:
2 tbsp honey
1 tsp soya sauce
Mix well and use as a dip.
You may have already surmised from the name “Dak” that this is Danish in origin. There is also a Chinese version available in Belize called Zwan; the label is written only in Chinese and to be honest, I am a bit wary of it! The name Zwan does not somehow hit the spot and cause me to salivate with hunger. This one definitely has to be hidden in the dark depths of the kitchen cupboard away from prying eyes!
A few years back, I tasted some Belizean food which incorporated this chopped ham. I was at a hospital medical meeting and we were given a buffet of sandwiches for lunch. All the sandwiches were one variety…they were white slices of bread with a filling of margarine and a whiff of pig. At the time, I didn’t say anything and just politely ate the food with no questions asked. The Belizeans were chomping happily away while the Nigerian medical staff had very dubious looks on their faces. Sometime afterwards, I enquired into the nature of these sandwiches whilst I was in the company of well-seasoned ex-pats (they had been around for about 20 years) and they explained that these were called “ham sandwiches” or even “Dak sandwiches.” The filling is made by pulverising the piece of chopped ham into a paste. Margarine is then spread on white soft bread and on top of this, a smear of Dak paste. Therefore, one tin of Dak (200g or 1/2lb) can go a long way and can economically feed a whole party of hungry people. Talk about Homeopathic Ham!
So there you go. How do you eat your Dak? Don’t be shy…we can form a secret society for eaters of forbidden Dak!
Today, it has been raining all day non-stop. It is a cool 28 C (or 82 F) so I am still continuing along the theme of hotpots. If you haven’t read the last post, Gnome had asked me to cook a Lancashire Hotpot for him. Those people who are not familiar with this dish, it is a meal made with lamb (sometimes beef), onions and carrots with a layer of sliced potatoes on top. This traditional stew is cooked slowly in the oven at a low heat to make the meat and vegetables tender and succulent.
Well, anyway, the running joke is that I keep on intending to cook a Lancashire Hotpot but instead of using the traditional ingredients, I substitute alternatives so that the resulting dish isn’t really Lancashire.
So, the Pork and Cassava Hotpot was another attempt at being Lancashire…honestly!! This time, there are carrots included and I had to use pork because I could not find beef or lamb! Also, I can’t bring myself to buy potatoes when I have a huge plethora of exotic roots on the farm. The cassava does make a lovely hotpot; it is warming and comforting and is great for these cooler spells in Belize.
Pork and Cassava Hotpot.
I have to admit though, that I am a bit of a rebel cook at heart and I love to tweek and change recipes. Only once in my life, I actually made a serious whole-hearted attempt to follow a recipe to the letter. This was for Duck a l’orange and it took three days to prepare…it was excellent! It was solely tempted to change it to Duck a le pampelmousse but made a deliberate effort to follow instructions!
Have a good day everyone…may we all revel in being rebel cooks!
The dry season in Belize is a great time to harvest roots. We have been pulling up cassava from our beds. Each plant has been giving us a generous 10lbs (5kg) of root. Cassava requires immediate processing because it tends to go off after 1 or 2 days. We usually peel a whole load of them in one go, boil them and then store them in the freezer.
