The best and easiest from-scratch staple recipes

Daniel and I will be married 7 years this August, which means I've been cooking daily meals (and most everything else we eat) almost completely from scratch for that long.  And I still don't like to cook.  My goal in cooking always is to get the absolute best results with the least amount of effort. Over the years I've narrowed down my recipes to a few staples that I make over and over again.  Most of these staples  I make at least once a week, and all of them are made completely from scratch with easy-to-get ingredients.  Here is a list of my favorites:

White Sandwich Bread:  I messed about with Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day for a while, and though the bread tasted nice and came together quickly, I could never produce consistent results.  All I want is a nice sandwich bread, nothing fancy.  This recipe makes 2 loaves of bread; I make it once a week and done. The bread is soft but not crumbly, perfect for sandwiches.  I use margarine instead of butter-- the bread stays fresh a bit longer that way.

Flour Tortillas: I like this recipe because it uses milk instead of large amounts of oil or shortening (most flour tortillas in Belize are made with lard, shortening or oil), and the tortillas have a really nice flavor.  I usually double it, this recipe as is only makes 8 very small tortillas.

Chocolate Chip Cookies:  Yes, this is a STAPLE.  This recipe was posted 1 month ago and I have already made it 3 times (double batches :)  These are the perfect chocolate chip cookies.  Every recipe I have tried from her blog (Smitten Kitchen) has come out great, I'm a big fan.

Pickled Cabbage Salad: This has been a great way to get more vegetables in our diet.  I make up a big bowl on Saturday after grabbing the ingredients at the market, and stick it in the fridge.  It just gets better the longer it stays in the fridge... we usually eat it all before then but I have had batches still fresh after 2 weeks.  The girls love to crunch on cabbage pieces. I modified it a bit-- I use half apple cider vinegar and half white vinegar, and I usually only add onions and peppers with the cabbage to make things a bit easier.

Greek Fake Lentil Soup: This soup is simple to make, I always have the ingredients on hand, and it tastes really good and is filling.

Beans: There is a batch in the crock pot right now.


And bonus-- my favorite pizza dough recipe, given to me by a friend:

Add 1 cup warm water to 1 tablespoon yeast, let proof.  Mix in 1 teaspoon salt and 1 teaspoon sugar.  Start with 2 cups flour, add up to 1/2 cup more flour as needed (you can also add more water if needed) and 1 tablespoon garlic powder.  Mix till it makes a ball, no need to knead.   You can use this right away but it tastes better if you let it rise a few hours.  Makes 1 pizza.

Belizean cheese dip

Guys, I am so conflicted about posting this recipe.  On the one hand, it is a food that is present at 99% of social functions in Belize.  Weddings, wakes, birthday parties, Quince Anos.... chances are good that if you've been to any sort of gathering here you have been served cheese dip along side your rice and beans. And probably scarfed it down as it is universally good, and perhaps want to recreate the goodness at home.  On the other hand, it is made from cheese so processed that it actually doesn't melt and has to be blended.  Although I have eaten this countless times, I have actually only made it twice because seriously? I don't want to think about the ingredients. I just want to enjoy.

 If you want to experience the non-gourmet but quite enjoyable cheese dip, here is the recipe.

1 small (220g) can of salsa.  La Costena is a Mexican brand and quite possibly the best salsa in existence
1 small can of condensed milk (unsweetened)
1/4 lb block of Happy Cow Cheese.  This is processed, shelf stable cheese that is available here in Belize, but I'm sure you can find an equivalent.  Look for a solid, processed cheese that doesn't need refrigeration.  Or use a block of American cheese.

Now prepare yourself for the complicated instructions.
Cut the cheese into small squares, and add to the blender.  Pour in the salsa, and about 2/3 of the can of condensed milk.

Blend until completely smooth.

Pour on tortilla chips, eat.
If you need it a bit more spicy, add a few drops of your favorite hot sauce.
Enjoy!

Dona Betty's Belizean Stewed Chicken, Rice and Beans

The cook at the Rectory, Dona Betty, makes hands-down the best stewed chicken I have ever had.  And believe me, living in Belize means you eat a lot of stewed chicken. It's one of 3 things you are likely to get anywhere you might be given food (the other things being cheese dip and tiny sandwiches with a spicy mystery spread).  People have requested this recipe for years (this is for you, Jena!) but a) I eat it so often I had no desire to make it at home and b) Dona Betty doesn't speak English and maybe I still don't speak much Spanish.  Ahem.  Anyways, Daniel translated for me one day, then I tried it at home... soooo good. 

Caveat:  Dona Betty just listed the ingredients for me.  I don't think her amounts  matter much anyways, as she is normally cooking for 30 people so the amounts would be really different.  I will tell what things I measured, but this recipe is pretty flexible.   Also, Dona Betty uses a Belizean season all spice mixture that is ubiquitous here, but has no ingredients listed.  As far as I can tell, it contains salt, recado, oregano, lime, garlic and onion powder- all of which are in the dish, so I don't think it will matter much not to add it.

The spice recado is essential to this dish, it gives it the flavour and color.  I have seen it in Mexican groceries in the States. It is also called achiote.  It mostly come in a clay-like block, but see if you can find the powder, it is much easier to work with.  If not, just make the recado into a paste by adding some water.

Ingredients
4 chicken breasts (I used this because I had it.  Use whatever you like, bone-in is great, just remove the skin)
2 cubes chicken bullion
juice of one lime
1/2 tablespoon soy sauce
1/2 tablespoon Belizean Season all
2 tablespoons recado (the red kind)
3 tsp garlic powder
sprinkling of pepper
1 green pepper, diced
1 medium onion, diced
1 tomato, diced
1 tablespoon sugar
oil

Add chicken bullion cubes (add a little water to make them a paste), soy sauce, lime juice, garlic powder, season all, and 1 tablespoon recado to chicken and let marinate for an hour or two.

Coat a deep pan or dutch oven with oil.  Brown the sugar in the oil until it melts like this:

Brown the chicken in the sugar/oil mixture.

Dump in the leftover marinade mixture, the remaining tablespoon of recado, and the diced vegetables.  Cover, turn to low, and let simmer about 40 minutes or so.

Check that the chicken looks cooked.  Taste the broth, you may need a little more salt or recado powder at this point-- you want a nice orange color.  Now let the chicken simmer without a lid to thicken the sauce.

That's about the right thickness.

Stewed chicken is traditionally served with fried plantain, coleslaw, and rice and beans.  Rice and beans are really easy to make if you have a pot of stewed beans (or I supposed you could use beans from a can, if you are desperate, but you need to salt and season them well).

Rice and Beans
Take the amount of non-instant rice you want, and wash.  Instead of adding water, add the liquid from stewed beans till it covers the rice.  Add enough water so the rice is covered plus about 1 cm.  Add beans (the amount varies with how much rice you are making- I do about 1/2 cup of beans to every cup of rice).  Cover and bring to a rolling boil.  Reduce heat and cook till rice is done. 

Serve the stewed chicken over the rice and beans.

Enjoy!

Edited to add:  So this recipe by far gets the most views on my blog.  Please leave a comment if you have tried it!  Let me know if it turned out well, or if I should redo the recipe with more exact measurements.  Thanks!

how to make Belizean stewed beans

Two staples of Belizean diet are rice and beans and beans and rice.  The difference between the two is the essay question on the Belize nationality test. 

Just kidding.

Anyways, beans are a big part of our diet here.  They are one of the first things I learned to cook here, and we go through about a pound of beans a week.  They’re cheap, easy, and taste really good.  You should make some.

ingredients:  dried beans, onion, garlic powder, vegetable oil, salt

1. sort the beans

            this is very important.  The one time I made a bad pot of beans was when I was in a hurry and thought the beans looked fine without sorting.  Take out anything that looks funny: mold, discolorations, broken, anything. It really does affect the taste of the beans.

(some bad beans)

2.  Rinse the beans a few times under running water.

            I don’t presoak the beans.  I tried that once and ended up with a pot of bubbly fermented beans.  But it might work if you live in a colder climate.

3.  You can cook in a pot on the stove (faster) or a crock pot (which I like to use but is slower).  The cooking time will vary depending on the type of bean.  Smaller beans tend to need longer cook times- once I bought some small red beans that needed 9 hours in the crock pot on high.  I know better now and like larger red beans, which take about 4 hours in the crock pot and 3 on the stove. They make a better sauce too.

4.  Cover the beans with drinking water.  For about a pound of beans in a crock pot, add water until it is about ½ way up the pot.  On the stovetop, you are going to have to keep adding water in as they cook so just put as much as possible in to begin with.

5. Add about a handful of chopped onions, a couple of tablespoons of garlic powder, and about 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil. 

This is also where you could get creative.  Coconut oil or coconut powder added here gives a distinctive flavor.  My father in law prefers that the onions and garlic be sautéed before they are added to the beans  (I don’t notice a difference in taste but he is quite adamant about it  :)

 

6.  Monitor the water level as the beans cook.  I usually never add water to the crock pot, but you have to be careful not to let the beans dry out and burn on the stove.

7. When the beans are very soft (almost mushy) they are done.  You should be able to smoosh a bean easily with a fork.  This is when you add salt- and you need a lot of salt.  Start out with a teaspoon and keep adding until they are no longer bland.  Stir and let cook a little longer to blend the salt.  I find if you add salt earlier it adds to the cooking time

Done! Here are some ways we like beans: with scrambled eggs, on quesadillas, with toasted cheese sandwiches, on burritos, in chili, in soup, in rice and beans (cook rice with the already cooked beans, using the bean sauce instead of water), refried, or just as a side dish to any meal. 

my favorite belizean drink

I drink massive quantities of lime juice.  We have a few lime trees on the farm, so whenever we run low on our stash of limes I just send Daniel out for a walk.  I think lime juice has a mellower taste then lemonade (I like lime juice a lot better).  Plus, it's just more belizean.

Lime Juice (one perfect glass)

1 golf- ball size lime

3 heaping spoonfuls of sugar

water

ice

tiny tiny dash of salt

Filter the seeds out with your fingers as you squeeze the lime.... This takes a LOT of sugar, so don't be afraid to pile it on.  You can always dilute it later or add more lime juice.

Enjoy!