dairy-ing

Our goats are producing a ton of milk this year.  Last year we had enough to drink and for the Babe's bottle, but this year we are getting 2 1/2 liters a day.  Thats a lot of milk. It's a rather fantastic problem to have.

  I finally  made some good batches of chevre, which I had tried multiple times in the past with no luck.  This year, I watched a very zen cheese-making video on youtube, and then made my first batch.  It was SO easy once I learned the proper technique.  I find myself saying that a lot about making things from scratch.

This is how you make cheese:  warm milk, add culture and rennet, let sit for 12 hours.  Drain whey, let drip in cheesecloth for 8 hours.  Done.  Told you it was easy.

This house is stuffed full of baby things.  I needed a way to hang the cheese to drip, and this mobile was handy, so....

I'm also making 2 or more batches of yogurt a week, and I still have extra milk.  So I'll be branching out to frozen yogurt, custard, yogurt muffins...  anything I can think of. 

fresh yogurt.  We add  jam for flavor

chevre

I'm kinda surprised at how much I like cheese-making, I guess it was always  a mystery, and figuring it out has been quite satisfying.  Eating the cheese is even more satisfying :)

This one has developed a deep love for yogurt.  Besides the eating part, she also likes to use it as a belly rub and hair conditioner.  Yum.

Belizean style chicken tacos

There are many, many variations of chicken tacos here in Belize.  This recipe is one I developed, combining a recipe given to me by a Belizean friend and some other elements of chicken tacos I have eaten here.  It uses ingredients that are really common and used in many dishes in Belize.  I think the elements that make a taco "Belizean style" are a soft (rather than crunchy) tortilla, not too spicy, and not too many toppings.  Hope you enjoy!

Ingredients:

for the chicken

2 large chicken breasts, cooked and shredded
2 cups chicken broth (mine was homemade, if you use store bought cut back on the additional salt)
1 tsp red recado powder
1 tsp allspice berries
2 tsp soy sauce
2 tsp worcestershire sauce
dash of powdered jalepeno
salt to taste

for the onion topping
1 1/2 cups slice onions
1 tbs olive oil

for the tomato sauce
1 1/2 cups stewed tomatos (again, used homemade here- cut back on the salt if you used canned)
1/3 cup sliced onions (cooked)
1/8 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp salt

for serving
fresh corn tortillas

Start with the chicken.  Combine the chicken, broth, and seasonings in a large pan, and cover and simmer for 20 minutes or so.  Then remove the lid and allow the liquid to boil off.  Your goal is to get rid of all the extra liquid, leaving chicken that is moist but with slightly crispy edges.

Do all the onion cooking at once.  Fry the onions in the oil, and then turn down the heat, letting the onions soften and caramelize a bit.

Next is the tomato sauce.  Take 1/3 cup of your cooked onion, and blend it in a blender with the stewed tomatoes, cumin and salt.  Then simmer the mixture on the stove, low heat, for about 10 minutes to thicken the sauce a bit.

Warm the corn tortillas to serve, adding the fried onions and tomato sauce on the chicken.

the best dairy-free chocolate banana shake

It is quite an irony that I live on a dairy farm, with milk and fresh cheese available whenever I want, and I happen to be lactose intolerant.  When our goats are milking I am able to drink that milk (something about a broken-down form of lactose makes that possible) but we only milk them for 5 or so months at a time.  In between, I search for substitutes.  Soy milk is not a big thing here (and quite expensive when it can be found) and other products like almond milk have yet to be introduced.

 I was really excited when an experiment with coconut powder gave me the perfect milk substitute for smoothies and shakes.  The powder adds that creaminess which I love, but surprisingly there is not any coconut flavor.  The powder is also quite cheap; a pack costs about 80 cents and lasts several weeks.  The following recipe is the result of several weeks of experimenting to get the best texture and taste :)

dairy free chocolate banana shake (makes 1 shake)

1 ripe non-frozen banana
1 ripe frozen banana
2 tablespoons coconut powder
2 tablespoons chocolate drink powder (milo or nestle or whatever)
1/2 cup water

mix and blend!

from scratch

THIS is home-made marshmallow fluff.   Why?  Because you can't buy it here in the store, and sometimes life necessitates marshmallow fluff.  Namely to add butter and sugar to and make into frosting.  Surprisingly, this was super, super easy to make-- corn syrup, boiled, added to egg whites whipped with a bit of cream of tartar.  Who knew?  

Living here + liking food means that I had to learn to cook totally from scratch.  This has been a long, painful process, because I don't like to cook.  I like to EAT.  So basically desperation has fueled my education.  I realized the other day that I have made a ton of things from scratch since moving here, many of which I honestly did not realize could be made in my own kitchen.  Like marshmallow fluff.  Other things:  ginger ale, bagels, chocolate truffles, oreo cookies, those amazing chocolate lava cake things,  pancakes (I thought using Bisquick was making it from scratch), pasta, granola, not-from-a-box cake AND brownies, and more things I can't remember now.

The take away message here is:  I live in the tropics.  We have a hammock on our back porch.  I cook good food.  Come visit me.

snapshots

A few days ago I felt the first trace of briskness in the air.  For a few minutes I was able to pretend that fall was coming, and that I can go apple picking and wear cardigans and long jeans.  Maybe this weekend I will get my jeans out of storage-- I haven't worn long jeans since last February, I think.  We probably have another month of heat before we get into delicious 70-degree-and-perfect days, though.

custard and funfetti cake: 5 eggs used

I have this wonderful Gourmet Cookbook from the 1960's where I get all my egg-heavy recipes (sponge cake requiring 9 eggs,  check).  I love it so much because 95% of the recipes call for alcohol of some sort.  I was testing this theory the other day and tried the vegetable section.  Cooked carrots with vodka, anyone? Other most frequently used ingredients: eggs, butter, and cream.  And aspic. (no carrots? How about beef tongue in aspic?)

There has been a profusion of babies locally, and I have sneakily integrated my unending craving for cupcakes into the celebrations.  Hey, want some christening cupcakes? Oh, I'll make some coming-home-from-the -hospital cupcakes.  Wow, it's amazing that I have all these cupcakes left over, guess I need to eat them...  This has also been helped along by the fact that I found a recipe for frosting that DOES NOT MELT in Belize weather.  This has revolutionized my cupcakes.

Continuing on my challenges challenge, I took a trip across the border to Melchor, Guatemala.  For various reasons (mostly that I am cheap and used to have to pay to cross before) I haven't spent any time there, even though it is about 7 minutes from my house.  Anyways, there is a thrift store.  What does it say about me that a Guatemalan thrift store makes me so excited?  I got a lot of funny looks, but there are lamps! And clothes for 50 cents! And hundreds of belts!  All items that are mysteriously absent or ridiculously expensive in Belize.

Not a thrift store purchase, I made this. 1/3 of the way through I discovered I hate embroidery.

We have a three day weekend.  Like the last three day weekend, I will spend it trying to bat-proof my house.  Google says that bats can get in spaces the size of matchbook, so I'm thinking of just shrink-wrapping my whole house.  We have some bat problems here.  Locals (including Daniel) suggest garlic for bat-repulsion, but I think this is coming from a misunderstanding of vampire bats/ actual vampires.  Any tips?

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!

chewy granola bars

Decent snacks are hard to find here.  Either they are really bad for you or really expensive.  When I tried this recipe out I couldn’t believe how easy and good these things are.  Definitely better then Quaker chewy granola bars and way cheaper.

Ingredients:

Quick-cook oatmeal

1 small can sweetened condensed milk (the sweeter and thicker the better- it varies by brand)

grated dried coconut (if the flakes are large, run them through a food processor)

chocolate chips

margarine or butter

Stir together the oatmeal, condensed milk and dried coconut. I find about 3 cups of oatmeal fits well in a 9X13 pan.  Use enough of the condensed milk to moisten all the oatmeal. You probably will not need the whole can.  Add coconut to taste- I use about a cup.  I find it absorbs moisture and helps bind the oatmeal and keep the bars soft.  Let sit for about 10 minutes for the oatmeal and coconut to soften.  Add as much chocolate chips as you want.  Spread in a pan, and bake for about 30 minutes (watch closely the first time- I’ve found different brands of condensed milk require different cook times.  You want the edges to brown but not burn).

That’s it!  These keep for about a week, maybe a bit longer if refrigerated.  If they turn out too crispy, just cover with some aluminum foil and let sit a while, and they will soften nicely.

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.