Barracuda.  Deserves a separate page. 

Beans.  (Important Note:  The Belizeans call this Stew Beans.  Click here to find out why.)

Here is Mother Teresa's basic recipe for stewed beans. 

Fresh beans*

Oil -- For best results use Coconut Oil. (Click here to get the best oil.)

1/2 Onion

1/2 Tsp Black Pepper

* If the beans float, they're not totally fresh!

 

Clean the beans (of rocks and dirt) and cover with two inches of water.  Boil an hour.  Add Onion, Pepper, and Oil.  Simmer until tender, adding water as required to keep the beans well covered. 

 

Rix Mods:  

1. Soak the beans over night, or bring water to a boil, turn off the stove and let the beans sit for an hour.  Discard that soaking water and wash beans thoroughly.  Heat pot, coat the bottom of the pan with a little oil, and refill with water.  (The oil helps to prevent sticking. )  

2. In addition to onion, add 1/4 to 1/2 diced small green pepper.  Add 1 TBSP Chili Powder (Gebharts, if possible)  Optionally, add 2 TBSP Tomato Paste.  Add 2 Tsp chicken granules.   (All of this adds lots of flavor and body to the beans.) .  

3. Cook the beans until really soft.  Turn off the fire, cover and let stand for an hour.  In the tropics, the beans will continue to cook!  

4. For Refried Beans:  Coat the inside of an iron skillet or aluminum roaster  with coconut oil.  Add beans and cook until the mix begins to thicken.  Smash up the beans with a potato masher, or a Cuisinart "Quick Prep"  (This is really the only thing the Quick Prep is good for, but boy is it good for this!!)  Add 1 can Salsa Casera, and continue to cook until the beans thicken to the right consistency.  

NEW NOTE:  If you pour off the water on BLACK BEANS (Frijoles Negros) you will pour off most of the colour!!  Don't do that.  Keep the water.  Also, don't put green pepper or tomato paste in black beans!

Beans and Rice (Belizeans call this "Stew Beans and Rice")

Belizean Beans and Rice are simply that.  Beans, served over White Rice.  Here's a foolproof recipe for white rice. 

White Rice

 

1 Cup Rice

1 1/2 Cups Water

 

Add the rice to the water and bring to a hard boil.  Turn down to a gentle boil and PAY ATTENTION.  The water will cook down until it disappears in the holes in the rice.  (The water will be about 1/4" below the surface of the rice.  If it's lower than that, add a little water.)  Turn the flame down as low as possible (I user a comal --a big aluminum disk-- to cut the heat even more) and cover the pot.  Cook, without looking, for 20 minutes.  Turn off the fire.  The rice can stand for up to 15 minutes more before serving.    Serves 3. 

Tip:  As soon as you've served all the rice, run cold water in the pan.  It will lift the stuck rice right off the bottom!

 

Note: Charles Bruce Smith, my room-mate for a while at the University of Arizona, grew up in the Philippines.  He told me that the secret to cooking rice is to cover it with water to "one knuckle's depth."  This seems to work with any amount of rice!.

Belizean Stew Chicken

One chicken, whole or cut up

1 Packet (1 Tbsp) Chicken Granules

2 TBSP chopped Onion OR MORE!!

1 Ball Red Recado

Newer.  If it's cut up, pepper the chicken well and brown it in some oil. Take out the pieces and brown the onion.  Make broth with the granules, add it to everything, and bring to a boil.  In a little dish, dissolve the recado.  {CAUTION:  This will stain your clothes, fingers, towels, etc.]  Use your fingers to work it into a paste or soup.  It will wash off your fingers eventually.  <grin>  Add recado and cook chicken until it's starting to fall of the bones. Use in other recipes or serve bones and all. 

Rix Comment:  I used to think they left the bones in by mistake, but Belizeans really LIKE the bones, and they eat them all!!

Rix Mods:  When the chicken is done, but not off the bones, separate the chicken meat from the bones, skin, and feet.  (I give these delicacies to my cats, and they love me for it.)  Use the meat for Taquitos and other dishes. 

Belizean Bake Chicken.  I don't have an oven right now, so I'm not cooking this very often. (You can do it on the barbecue, if it has a lid.)  They make a paste of the red Recado, and smear that all over the pieces of chicken.  

Belizean Bake  Fish. Use this for smaller fish, one per person.  Bake these head and all.  If your fishman has cut the outsides, you can rub Season-all or Lowry's Seasoned Salt in those cuts.  Make the following mixture:   A half cup of diced fresh tomatoes;  A half green bell pepper, diced, a half cup of onion, diced nicely.  Sprinkle generously with black pepper and Season-all or Lowry's and mix.  Lay down a generous piece of foil, and put the fish on top of it.  Stuff the body cavity of the fish with the mixture, and if it doesn't all fit inside, leave it in that place and hold it in with the foil.  Lift the long part of the foil and fold it over to make a rolled seam.  Fold in the ends so that the package is airtight. Bake these in a 400 degree oven for 20 minutes.  Cook up white rice, and put the veggie mix over it after you open the foil package. 

Note: If you have frozen fish filets, thaw them in cool water, and then bake them as described above. 

Belizean Chicken Stew.  Put in a couple of bay leaves to clarify the flavor.  After the chicken cooks a while, add the following.  2 big carrots, peeled and cut in half-inch disks; 4 or 5 small scrubbed white potatoes.  Optional; Boiling onions, big slices of celery, slices of green pepper.  Don't forget the Recado  (see Stew Chicken above)

Ceviche  (pronounced Seh – Beech’ ay)

This is fish or shellfish, cooked by marinating it in lime juice.  For shrimp or lobster ceviche, the meat will not be pink if you don’t parboil it first.

To parboil shrimp (or lobster.)

1.      Shell the shrimp

2.      Bring two quarts of water to a hard boil.

3.      Dump the shrimp in the boiling water and immediately dump into a strainer.  Cool under running water.

Tip:  If you don’t do this quickly, the meat will be tough.   

To prepare Barracuda.

The fresher the barracuda is, the better.  Skin filets if necessary.  Cut meat into 1/2” cubes.

To prepare Conch. (pronounced Konk)

Conch can be very chewy.  Here’s how to get tender conch, according to my friend Lester. 

There are two colors of conch, white and pink.  Get only the white.  When you lay out the conch, it looks like a hand and wrist. Cut the conch like you were cutting the hand from the wrist.  In the wrist piece, cut 1/2” wide strips parallel to the arm. Cut 1/2” strips from the hand as though they were parallel to the fingers.  Cut all these 1/2” strips into 1/2 “ cubes.

To prepare Shrimp.

Butterfly shrimp, removing vein.  If they are large shrimp, cut into approx. 1/2” sections.  Leave small shrimp “shrimp shaped”

To prepare Lobster.

Cut lobster into approx. 1/2” pieces. 

Other ingredients:

Tomato

White Onion

Fresh Habeñero or Jalepeño Peppers.

Fresh Cilantro

Limes

Cut tomatoes into 1/2” cubes.  Chop onions coarsely.  If you have a cup of meat, you should have a half-cup of tomatoes and a half-cup of onions.

Use one habeñero or three jalepeños for each half-pound of meat

Note:  Habeñeros vary in heat.  Green is less hot.  Red is hotter, and Orange is the hottest.

Slice peppers crossways into very thin slices. (1/16” for the habeñeros, 1/8” for the jalepeños.)

Don’t dice these.  Leave them so that they become optional for the snackers.

The seeds are the hottest part.  You may not want to add these. 

Mince cilantro, and stir in approximately 1 TBSP for each half-cup of meat.  This should be done to taste.  Some people find cilantro overpowering.  My friend Mike Gallego says “you should just be able to taste a fresh cut copper taste.”   I think you should see the cilantro nicely scattered through the civiche, but not dominating the look of it.  

Mix this thoroughly, and squeeze enough fresh lime juice to approx. half cover the mixture.

Tip:  To easily get the juice out of a lime, roll it hard on the countertop until it’s soft.  Then cut & squeeze.

Let the mixture marinate in the refrigerator until the meat is cooked, stirring well every five minutes. As the meat cooks, it will change from clear to white. This takes about 15 or 20 minutes. When it is done, the color will be nicely Mexican -- red, white and green.  Of course, if you use shrimp or lobster, the pink will be in there too!

Serve civiche on a plate without the lime juice – this is not soup!  It goes best with fresh-fried corn tortilla chips.

Belizean Scramble  Eggs.  Chop two or three small Roma tomatoes or one bigger one into a nice dice.  Cook in a skillet until dry -- i.e. water has evaporated.  While they are cooking, peel a ripe avocado and cut into 1-inch cubes.  Sprinkle avocado with garlic salt or granules. 

 Stir up enough eggs to serve everyone, add a little water to make it meld, and start frying.  After eggs begin to set, add tomatoes and avocados and salt/pepper to taste. . 

NEW (January 2005)  I'm using Salsa Casera in my Belizean Scrambled eggs.  I usually have an open can in the refrigerator, and I just throw a couple tablespoons in when the eggs are almost done. Simplicity, simplicity!

Taquitos.  The Belizean answer to build-it-yourself Tex-Mex fajitas.  Put out the ingredients and let everybody pig out!

Tomalitos.  Let Charlotte tell you how the Belizeans build 100 little Mexican-style tamales at a time here. Then we'll cut the recipe down to size for you here. Well -- later.  NEW:  Actually, a guy in an old Ford Tempo with big speakers on top prowls Corozal all day, playing a song "Tomalitos are nice" and selling them fpr two shillings (a US Quarter) apiece.  They are sweet, generally taste a lot like my favorite "green corn tamales" in the States.  A handy addition to any Mexican meal, and cheaper to buy than to make.  

Conch Fritters.  These are a lot easier to make if you have a Cuisinart®.  (DC-10-Pro...eat your heart out!!)  If you have one of those, you just put the conch in and it beats it to smithereens.  Without it, you have to lots of pounding and cutting, to get the conch to be tender.  (Conch tastes like abalone, but it's a lot tougher!!)  Here's the combination, courtesy of the Hospital Auxiliary Cook Book.  (Thanks, Olga.)

Step 1.     Put all of this in the Cuisinart.

    1 lb Cleaned Conch  (drop this in, a piece at a time, while the machine is running)

    1 oz. sweet green or red pepper

    1/2 habañero pepper (or equivalent Marie Sharp's Habañero Sauce)

    1 oz. tomatoes

    1 oz. onions  

Step 2:  Sieve this together and then add to blend from Step 1.

   2 cups flour

   2 tsp baking powder

   1 tsp salt

   1 tsp black pepper

Step 3:  Add as much of this liquid to form a stiff consistency.

   1. cup water

   1 TBSP lime juice

 

Fry in deep fat by dropping spoonfuls.   Fritters will be golden to deep brown.  Big spoonfuls for a main dish; small spoonfuls for an appetizer.  Dry on absorbent paper. 

Serve with sections of lime, cocktail sauce and/or tartar sauce                           

Tortillas (flour)

2 Cups Flour

1/4 Cup  Shortening

1 tsp Baking Powder (prove)

About 3/8 Cup Water

1/4 tsp Salt   

 

Mix dry ingredients well.  Cut in shortening with a fork until it disappears.  Add water & knead until you have dough.  (Add water, one tsp at a time, if it's too dry.)  Cover & allow to rest for 10 minutes.   Cut into six equal pieces and knead each piece until you can make a nice round ball.  Coat the inside of a flat bottomed bowl with shortening.  Flatten each ball into a round tortilla on the bottom of the bowl. (Sebastiani, our housekeeper, greases the countertop with Crisco and uses that.)  Fry tortillas on a hot comal until they are slightly brown on both sides.  The comal should be VERY hot, and if you cook too long, the tortillas will be tough.