When I say Chips, I mean fried potato cut into chunks like what you get in the Fish ‘n Chip shop in Glasgow. Some people call them french fries but that has connotations of skinny fried potatoes. I mean chunks!
I got this idea from watching an anime about a young chef trying to create innovative meals and in one particular episode he was cooking potatoes in a bamboo steamer. The reason behind is that you get perfectly cooked potatoes without the sogginess associated with boiling them. So, I tried this method too but took it a step further to make chips:
Steaming Potatoes.
They just need to be steamed for 15 to 20 minutes until they are tender but still firm. Switch off the heat and allow to cool down. At this point, they are dry and ready to be fried. Simply fry the chips at about 400F (200C) until nicely browned. Double fry if you want it extra crispy…this is another anime tip…just scoop the fried potato and hold it over the oil in a wire basket for 30 seconds (letting the oil drain) and then re-immerse in cooking oil for the second fry.
Ooooh…look at this:
Fried Chips.
Just like Glasgow…but serve with a wedge of lime for some Belizean flair. Otherwise, if you want to be traditional, smothered in tomato ketchup and malted vinegar!
A Big Thank-you to everyone for all the Birthday Greetings!! It is really nice to receive such warm wishes!
And Life Continues so here is the post of the day:
We have got tonnes of Malabar spinach (Basella alba) on the farm and so this means we are eating this mostly everyday! You quickly have to learn different ways of eating it or else it can get very boring.
Malabar Spinach.Malabar Spinach.
Here are a couple of ways in which we have been eating this green with imagination and innovation!
It is great uncooked as a salad accompaniment to home-cooked Pan-Fried Chicken!
Munchkin Fried Chicken With Malabar Spinach.
Easy Fried Rice with Malabar Spinach. Simply fry the rice and towards the end of cooking (last 2 minutes) add shredded malabar spinach and mix well.
Fried Rice With Malabar Spinach.
It is wonderful growing, harvesting and cooking our food here on the farm!! And people ask us why we never go out for dinner…well, it’s because of this.
We have been buying unmarked plastic bags of these things for years from the local Chinese (Chiney) shop. We coined them “Fried Yum Yums” because we had no idea what they were called. Even if you are not familiar with the dried product, you may have seen street vendors selling this fried snack in plastic bags in Punta Gorda.
They look like dried pasta, either brown or white and come in all shapes and sizes including wagon wheels and twists. They are made from wheat flour, cornstarch and baking soda.
Brown Wagon Wheel Duros.
I can not find any documentation on the difference in ingredients between the two different colours. However, I think that the white variety has a “potato taste” compared to the “maize taste” of the brown kind.
White Wagon Wheel Duros.
They are deep-fried in oil and puff up when cooked.
Fried Yum Yum.Fried Yum Yum.
Traditionally, this is actually a Mexican snack food called Duros. Apparently they are sold in plastic bags with salsa/ lime salt or hot sauce. We like to eat ours as an accompaniment to a bean stew and use the wagon wheels to scoop up the beans. Also, they make great mini baskets for hors d’oeuvre…just a little bit of imagination is needed to make a bite-size yum yum!!
A day for setting things up. The change-log for the site today would be:
Wrote up and set up hierarchy for pages.
Tried to get pictures sorted out…not quite yet.
Get into the habit of posting things; wrote first post.
Sorted out domain name.
Uploaded more pictures for Munchkin.
Added some of the links.
Not ready yet to include the day…did make a batch of soap, incidentally but will get to such things in the future.
Munchkin:
We made a batch of chocolate artisan soap together; gnome did all the mixing whilst I assisted with the weighing of chocolate powder and cut-up soap pieces. This type of soap is what I call a “Soap Story” which includes odds and ends of old soap, cut up into pieces, which is mixed into a back-ground of opaque (in this case, chocolate) soap. Each soap we make has a “story” or a “description” as you will see later in more detailed blogs and so the visual appearance of these soaps end up as “soaps within soaps” or metaphorically speaking: “stories within stories”.
The final soap showing the kaleidoscope of soap “stories.”
If my shop were working…this is where I would send you.
I weeded the vegetable beds today and also took the opportunity to gather the greens for eating today. See below, a huge basin of green leaves which are weighed exclusively for this blog: 420g ie. close to a pound in uncooked greens. Earlier, I marinated chicken breast with soya sauce, yellow ginger, cumin and salt in preparation for an “indian-style” fried chicken on a bed of steamed greens. No carbohydrates tonight.
Basin of cut Avuvo.
Avuvo in a raised bed.
The greens which I picked today is a vegetable known as “Avuvo” in Nigeria. The seeds were given to me a couple of years ago by a lady who wanted to start a pilot project on growing Nigerian vegetables in Belize with a view to an export market in the US. I had been given a plethora of seeds, perhaps about a dozen including vegetable greens, many types of egg plants and hot chillies. Since then, only two plants have survived: one is the Avuvo and the other is a domesticated type of Purslane. I will write more about purslane another time. Avuvo tastes like a spinach and produces a spiked “teasel-like” flower; it grows prolifically like a weed and takes over everything! That’s why I love it so much because it requires very little maintenance and the leaves remain pristine as no bugs seem to eat it. Contrast this with the callaloo here in Belize which is usually riddled with holes.
Below is a picture of our Meal of The Day:
Fried Chicken in a bed of Avuvo.
Contrary to popular opinion there is an art to cooking fried chicken even although it is seen as major junk-food in this country. The chicken is removed from the marinade and dusted with white flour. Have a heavy cast iron skillet ready with vegetable oil filled up to 3 millimeters depth; put the flame on a medium to high heat and brown each side of the chicken. Then, turn down to the lowest flame and cook chicken for 10 minutes (may take less or more time depending on thickness of breast). About 2 minutes prior to this, flip the chicken over so that it is evenly browned on both sides. Drain on paper towels before serving. Steam the greens for 1-2 minutes and arrange on plate with the fried chicken. This goes well with a glass of mead (we make this too!!!).
