Hello Everyone!! I have been experimenting with peach palm a lot since each bunch weighs about 10kg (22lbs). Peach palm or pejibaye (Bactris gasipaes) is a palm which is indigenous to Central America. These trees produce bunches of orange-coloured fruit which can be eaten as a carbohydrate.
Fresh Peach Palm Bunch
Once cooked, they have the texture of a sweet potato and they taste almost fruity. In this recipe, I cooked up some of this carbohydrate, mashed it up and flavoured it with rosemary which really helps to bring out the peach-like flavour. This recipe is gluten-free and would also be a great base for a vegetarian burger.
Peach Palm Patties.
We had our Peach Palm Patties with a generous dollop of chilli sauce! If you would prefer this as a sweet, you can omit the rosemary and serve these patties with honey and ice-cream…yum…now that’s a real treat!
Yay!! We made Moon Cake!! Look at the picture: we are soooo pleased that we can make such an auspicious cake.
Home Made Moon Cake.
Moon Cakes are enjoyed during the Mid Autumn Festival by the Chinese. The night of the 15th day of the 8th lunar moon is called “Night of the Moon” and the 25th day of the 8th lunar month is called “Mid-Autumn.”
As a child, I remember eating Moon Cake with my family at this time of the year. The ones with lotus paste and duck eggs were always our favourite. Traditionally, they can also be made from red bean paste. More contemporary fillings contain durian, jackfruit, taro, chocolate and even ice cream. I can already see the creative possibilities…how exciting!
We baked traditional lotus paste Moon Cake this year.
Moon Cakes in the Oven.
I made the pastry and wrapped it around the lotus paste.
Making Moon Cake.
Gnome did his bit which involved the moulding of the cakes. This part is not that easy because you need to tap the moulds on a hard surface in order to get the cakes out perfectly. This is the Gnome Magic, of course.
Gnome Magic in the Kitchen.Moon Cake Moulding.Moon Cake De-moulded. Perfect!!
We had such a lovely time in the kitchen making them and then we had an even nicer time eating them! We enjoyed it so much that we have decided to do this every year to celebrate the Mid Autumn Festival. We would like to thank our Singapore connection for the thoughtful gifts of lotus paste and Moon Cake moulds.
Yum!!! Another dessert from the Munchkin kitchen: Coconut Squares with Chocolate Drizzle. This dessert is soft and richly textured and it is so easy to make. The chocolate sauce is made from coconut cream too!
Coconut Square with Chocolate Drizzle.
Yes, you may have guessed it…torrential rain every night so that the farm is covered in puddles (getting to pools actually). So, what else can I do but sequester myself in the kitchen and cook up yummy stuff with our lovely coconuts!
Our Lovely Coconuts.Freshly Grated Coconuts.
The chocolate sauce complements the sweet very well; it is made from Cotton Tree Chocolate:
Yesterday (21st September) Belize celebrated its 34th year of Independence. We celebrated with a Kue Lapiz in the Colours of Belize.
Kue Lapiz, Belize Colours.
Kue Lapiz in Belize? A bit of an oxymoron…I know…but you know that we like to mix things up a bit. Kue Lapiz is a steamed multi-layed dessert, made typically from glutinous rice flour and tapioca flour, traditionally made in Indonesia (South East Asia). It is usually made of bright vibrant colours so that is why I thought of colouring it with the Belize colours: red. white and blue.
Belize Flag.
Hmmm maybe there are Indonesians (or Dutch) in Belize or Belizeans in Indonesia (or The Netherlands) who would appreciate this gesture!! Nevertheless, Happy Independence Day to Belize!!
Note: I did not post this up yesterday on the actual Independence day because I did not want to steal the Thunder from the Paradise Piggies Mayoral Election. I know that y’all out there were on the edge of your seats waiting for the results. Congrats to Mayor Gnome on his re-election. Now, life can go back to normal on the farm.
Just the other day, Gnome was asking me if I could make some sort of dessert which wasn’t heavy like cake but something light and sweet.
We have been processing a lot of coconuts lately so I tried to think up of something with this ingredient.
Our Lovely Coconuts.
Then I suddenly remembered that a long time ago (10 years to be exact) when we first came to Belize, a Hawaiin- Filipino couple had invited us to their farm and served us this delicious dessert made from coconut milk. I had forgotten about it until now and so I rummaged through my personal recipe books and found that I had written it down. I recall that my friends had mentioned that there are variations of this dessert Haupia and that some people like to add fresh fruit to it. I have opted for simple and pure coconut milk squares. They are soft, silky and melt in your mouth.
Haupia: Easy Coconut Dessert.
Gnome was very pleased with the dessert and scoffed off the whole lot in one sitting. This is very unusual for him because he does not have a sweet tooth.
Yum Yum!!
Check out the full recipe for Haupia: Coconut Dessert in Belize Wild Recipes. It is soooo easy to make and it is made from simple ingredients including cornstarch and sugar. If you live in Toledo, you can purchase our coconut cream from Green Supauls (Punta Gorda) to use for this recipe. Otherwise, use fresh or canned coconut milk.
Coconut Cream For Sale At Green Supauls.
You only need to use a 1/4 of this bag, diluted with water to make up the coconut milk component of the recipe.
Enjoy!!
If you haven’t already…Get Your Vote In!! C’mon guys!! We need your votes for the favourite candidate for Paradise Piggies!!
Hello Everyone!! We are getting such wonderful harvests on our farm, we feel blessed everyday. We are still chomping through the jackfruit and we now it is bamboo shoot season, so I have made a dish with all these goodies.
Sausage with Exotic Fruits and Fresh Bamboo Shoots.
This recipe incorporates pork sausage, fresh pineapple, ripe jackfruit and fresh bamboo shoots.
I originally made this meal at the beginning of the week and was all ready to post up the recipe until I discovered that Gnome had unwittingly erased my photograph.
Double Miso Pan-Fried Chicken. Second Picture.
When I told him that I would have to re-create this dish today, to get a picture, he said rather half heartedly, “Oh dear. That is a shame.”
That is a Shame!
This recipe is so-called because the chicken is marinated in miso before being pan-fried and it is served with miso ketchup. If you follow our blog, you will know that we make buckets and buckets of home-made miso. Because I have so much of it, I am fortunate enough to have the opportunity to experiment with this wonderful live food in more creative and innovative ways. In fact, I use miso in all our cooking now instead of salt and soya sauce. The miso adds a distictive umami flavour which adds a whole new dimension to a meal. In this recipe, I used our shiro miso which is made mostly of white rice which has a sweet and mild taste. No flour is used in making our miso so it is also gluten-free.
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.
I used the local spices Tumeric and Chilli Powder (bought from Punta Gorda market, Toledo) to flavour the dish.
Tumeric and Chilli Powder.
We had a yummy Sunday Brunch with these bananas:
Tuna and Avocado with Pan-Fried Green Banana.
This is a great way to eat unripe bananas; they make a hearty and satisfying food. Definitely a tasty way to chomp your way through bananas especially when you have 172 of them!!
Remember a couple of weeks ago we had the big baby?
Jackfruit Baby.
And I had explicitly mentioned that all parts could be eaten…even the unformed arils:
Jackfruit Shavings.
Well, here is a recipe for this part of the jackfruit, which is usually discarded. I recommend that you do not eat this part raw because it still has some sticky latex attached to it. The best thing to do is to cook it and so this is a yummy recipe for Curried Ripe Jackfruit.
Curried Jackfruit with Lentils.
The ripe jackfruit caramelises nicely to compliment the mustard seeds, cumin, tumeric and paprika. Fresh curry leaves are used to enhance the flavour of the whole “sweet and savoury dish.”
We both enjoyed the curried jackfruit with lentils and agreed that NO part of the jackfruit should be thrown away!!
Hello Everyone!! I have been experimenting with peach palm a lot since each bunch weighs about 10kg (22lbs). Peach palm or pejibaye (Bactris gasipaes) is a palm which is indigenous to Central America. These trees produce bunches of orange-coloured fruit which can be eaten as a carbohydrate.
