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.
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.
These are great as a snack or as an accompaniment to a meal. Our favourite was the batch sprinkled with icing sugar…savoury sweet!
What to do with leftover rice? Instead of the usual fried rice, I came up with this really easy recipe. It is a bit like a rice pizza made with mozzarella and capers as topping. You can use this concept to create a meat free dish if you are vegetarian.
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.
Anyone for Pumpkin Bhaji? Whilst living in Scotland, I used to really enjoy Indian food especially the onion bhaji. Since we are still having a marathon run of pumpkins, I decided to make these Indian-style fritters. Check out my recipe for Pumpkin Bhaji in Belize Wild Recipes.
Pumpkin Bhaji.Pumpkins From the Farm.
In this recipe, I used pumpkin, onions and red jalapeños.
Chopped Vegetables.
The batter is made with rice flour so it is completely gluten-free. And of course, the most important flavouring is turmeric (yellow ginger, as they call it here in Belize).
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!
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!! We are back in action with more interesting things to show you because we have procured a camera. I finally bit the bullet and bought a new android phone…one of those blocky looking things with a camera (of course) and many things that do not concern me like the Android and the numerous applications. Gnome is messing around with it in his Gnomish way and actually having a lot of fun with the gadget!
Anyway, we have been making cheese out of coconut milk. Coconut milk, along with the cream, can be hand-squeezed out of grated coconut.
Grated Coconut.
This liquid eventually separates into the thick, white cream at the top and the coconut milk at the bottom. We sell off our coconut cream to the local market as Belizeans like to cook their rice and beans in this. For the Toledo readers, you can buy this from Green Supaul’s in Punta Gorda.
Coconut Cream For Sale.
We kept the coconut milk until we had acquired a volume of about 2 gallons (8 litres) which was roughly equivalent to about 100 coconuts in total. The coconut milk is high in protein (similar to milk) and so we decided to try to make “cheese” out of it.
Coconut Milk in Pot.
First of all, we placed the coconut milk in a stainless steel pot and boiled the milk until it produced curds which floated up to the surface. This takes about 30 minutes and you have to keep on stirring to prevent the curds from sticking to the bottom of the pot.
Coconut Curds on Surface of Boiled Coconut Milk.
We allowed this to cool down for about two hours and then drained the curds into a cotton towel on a sieve (you can use cheese cloth…we just didn’t have any).
Draining Coconut Curd.
This was left to drain overnight and the liquid part, the whey, was collected in a basin under the dripping curds. At this point, it looks and tastes very similar to ricotta cheese and you can eat it at this point if you prefer. We gave the whey to our animals to drink.
Coconut Ricotta.
The next morning, we wrapped the drained curd in a towel and placed it between two clean blocks of wood and applied a weight on it (5 gallon carboy containing wine). After 24 hours, we removed the weight.
Pressing Coconut Cheese.
To make this into feta-style cheese, we removed the coconut cheese from the cloth and placed it in a clean glass container. Next, we added about 1 cup of salt to dry salt it.
This was done this morning and we will leave it to salt for three days. After that, we will cut the cheese into cubes and store them in brine. We will let you know what it tastes like…so far so good.
Hi Everyone!! We are back. The truck has brand new universal joints so it no longer makes that funny creaking noise at the back. We feel so much better for not hearing the truck groan and complain! We had a much nicer time once we started on the road again, driving down the Southern Highway, away from Belize City.
We stopped at the Taiwanese Store, outside of Belize City. Everytime, I go there, I always point at things in a curious way and ask the owners what they are and how to cook them. This is because a lot of food is not labelled or labelled in Chinese only. This time, the owners were having lunch and offered to share some of it with us.
Our Taiwanese Friends.
We were most honoured by their generosity, and as we ate, the lady pointed to the various food packets and condiments to explain to me the ingredients which she had used. In typical Chinese teaching fashion (this is how I learned to cook from my mum), they told me to taste the dishes so that I could mimic the flavours through memory.
The Taiwanese couple are vegetarian so most of their food is soya-based (bean curd mostly) with plenty of fresh greens and vegetables and rice as the staple, of course. In this instance, they used dehydrated beancurd as a main protein source, in different sizes, to give various textures and consistency. The greens that they were eating were sweet potato greens. They also cooked some of their own fresh bamboo shoots. The food was delicious and had the taste of home-cooked Chinese fare. The couple was also rather impressed by Gnome’s use of chopsticks and general Chinese etiquette (Gnome, the Chinese Wannabee).
Taiwanese Food For Lunch.
Here are the various types of dehydrated tofu. I will write more about these in another post. The different shapes and sizes give the appearances of different cuts of meat. For instance, the small stringy ones mimic the consistency of minced (ground) meat. I never considered being a vegetarian before this but I could definitely handle eating this food everyday.
Different Types of Dried Tofu.
I spotted some dried Lion’s Mane Mushrooms, Hericium erinaceus; also known as Monkey Heads. This one will have a future post, I promise you!
Monkey Head Mushroom.
Anyway, back on the road, there were road works on the Highway from Belize City to Belmopan. There was even road congestion and a small traffic jam in Belmopan (wow…never seen before…the country is developing).
Road Works in Belmopan.
There were numerous police stops presumably because the country is on nationwide alert for the wanted man, El Chapo (the “notorious Kingpin”), who recently escaped from a Mexican prison by digging a one mile tunnel out to escape. Sounds like something out of a movie, doesn’t it?
We used “Rabbit Ears” mostly as our hailing signal on the road. Protection to All!
Rabbit Ears. Hailing In Belize.
Homeward bound, we saw a veritable bounty of white goods on a pick-up truck. One Fridge, One Freezer, 2 Mattresses and an Amoire. What an auspicious find.
Super Bonus Pick-up.
Once we hit the Toledo, the road was definitely quieter with no police stops within the district. Definitely the “Forgotten District.”
Between the two of us, 172 bananas in this huge bunch, is quite a bit to get through.
Bunch of Green Bananas.
This bunch was so heavy that it broke off the tree and we found it on the ground on Saturday morning. If you want to eat green bananas, you have to start eating them quickly, or else they start ripening within 7 days.
Luckily, the weather has been hot and dry this week, so I have been able to process the bananas for sun-drying.
This is what I have been doing the last three days. I have been grating them with this neat grater that I found in the Taiwanese store near Belize City.
Grating Green Banana.
The grated bananas just need a full 8 hours in the sun to dry completely. I have been processing 50 bananas a day which fills up a gallon jar once dried.
Fifty Dried Green Bananas.
So, by the end of today, I will have three gallon jars of dried banana. In my experience, each jar is equivalent to 20 meals and so in total, I have 60 meals in all. That is what I call food security!
Dried banana can be re-hydrated to make porridge, rostis, fritters, fillers for sausages, vegetarian bean burgers and much much more. Furthermore, this dehydrated stuff can be ground into fine flour for making breads, biscuits and pastries. This dry form is so versatile! I will post up recipes as I start cooking with it.
One last thing…this big bunch of bananas would retail at about $20 (USD$10) in this country. $20 gets you two meals of rice and beans with stewed chicken, which is typical Belizean food fare. To me, it really makes a lot more sense to go through the extra labour of processing the food so that I can get 60 meals out of it all. It’s also a labour of love…home-cooked food is always the best!
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!!
