A Recipe from a Belizean Kitchen Rice & Beans
1/2 lb. red kidney beans (450g)
1/2 tsp. pepper (2ml)
1/2 tsp. thyme (2ml)
  1 tsp. salt (5ml)
  2 plugs garlic (crushed)
  1 medium onion (sliced)
  1 cup coconut milk
  2 lbs. rice (900g)
  1 small pig tail or salted beef
6-8 cups of water
Methods
•   Soak beans for 4-6 hours
•   boil beans until tender with garlic, onion, and pig tail.
•   Season beans with black pepper, thyme, and salt.
•   Add coconut milk. Stir and taste. Let boil.
•   Clean rice.
•   Add rice to seasoned beans. Stir, then cover.
•   Cook until water is absorbed or rice is tender. If necessary, add more water gradually until rice is tender.
Food Preparation Tips
•   Baking soda destroys B vitamins. Do not put in beans or peas to help soften them.
•   Rice grans vary in the amoun of water they absorb. Usually, one cup of rice can absorb two cups water.
Reprinted from
Belizean Favourite Foods
by Erleen Godfrey



A Recipe from a Belizean Kitchen
Garnaches

Ingredients:
1 lb corn tortilla
4 ozs cabbage
1 cup red kidney beans mashed or
1-cup refried beans
½ tsp salt ½ tsp pepper
¼ lb (1 cup) grated cheese
1 medium carrot grated
½ cup vinegar
Cooking oil for frying

Method:
1. Wash hands
2. Mash cooked beans, season and fry (set aside)
3. Grate cheese (set aside)
4. Grate carrot (use second largest side of grater)
5. Shred cabbage and put carrot and cabbage in small bowl with vinegar
6. Fry tortillas
7. Put beans on refried tortilla (as generously as possible)
8. Cover with cabbage and carrots
9. Sprinkle top with grated cheese.

A nutritious snack.
  Cuisine
in Belize, Central America

Article Index
Recipe from a Belizean Kitchen:
Pumpkin Rice
Recipe from a Belizean Kitchen:
Garnaches
 
Recipe from a Belizean Kitchen:  Rice & Beans
 










  
Fast Food
Restaurants of Belize
One of the first things most visitors to Belize come to recognize is that there are no fast food restaurants here. No McDonald's. No Burger Kings. No KFCs. No Wendys. No Pizza Huts. No chain restaurants at all! How different this is to what we are use to.
But just ask the next taxi driver or business owner you see where the closest fast food restaurant is. You'll be surprised when he points his finger to some little shop down the road from where you are standing.
They don't look the same as you know them, but there are fast food restaurants and fast food anywhere you go in Belize. It just doesn't look like what you are accustomed to.
Fast food restaurants generally have a little area where you can stand at a counter or sit at a bench to eat. They are small little shops without fancy marquees. Maybe a sign will say Norma's Fast Food or Rosie's Restaurant or something else painted free-hand on the wall to indicate that food is sold there.
Once you identify a fast food restaurant and venture in you'll need a lesson on how to read the menu. Fast food is not a burger and fries here. A normal menu might include panades, garnaches, burritos, tacos, and salbutes.
Yes you recognize the burrito, a rolled up flour tortilla stuffed with goodies (usually chicken or beef, cheese or beans, and cabbage), and the taco, which in this case is a soft corn tortilla rolled up and stuffed (usually with chicken and cabbage).
Panades are corn turnovers stuffed with meat, beans, or fish, deep fried and garnished with cabbage. Garnaches are fried corn tortillas, like nacho chips but round and the size of small pancakes, with beans, cabbage, and cheese piled up on them. Another favorite is salbutes, flat, round circles of fried corn masa (the dough used to make corn tortilla) with stacks of stewed chicken and cabbage with tomatoes and cilantro on top. You can also ask for them with beans.
Other favorites usually sold by street vendors include bollos or tamales (usually filled with chicken and wrapped in plantain leaves) and tamalitos (grated fresh corn steamed in corn husks, sometimes with chickenjust ask).
If you see it on the menu, try the local Cowfoot Soup. It is a delicacy and can not be found just anywhere. No, you don't have to eat the foot, but the soup is worth the usual price of $2.50 US and is normally served with rice.
Just like in any culture, fast food is inexpensive. Eight panades will fill you up and will probably cost only $1 US. And for another 50 cents you can quench your thirst with a glass of fresh squeezed juice or a soft drink.
And every restaurant, fast food or otherwise, will include the famous rice and beans on the menu. This plate includes beans cooked in the rice with the meat of your choice, salad, and often a slice of fried plantain. It is the daily meal for many Belizeans, not to mention the number one choice on the menu for Belizeans who are eating out.

Explore, taste the difference, and enjoy!


 


Fast Food Redefined

Fast Food Restaurant - A little shop with a hand painted sign that indicates food is sold there which has a little area where you can stand at a counter or sit at a bench to eat.

Panades - Corn turnovers stuffed with beef, chicken, beans, or fish, deep fried and garnished with cabbage. Eight for $1 US.

Garnaches - Fried corn tortillas, like nacho chips but round and the size of small pancakes, with beans, cabbage, and cheese piled up on them. Six for $1 US.

Salbutes - Flat round circles of fried corn masa (the dough used to make corn tortilla) with stacks of stewed chicken and cabbage with tomatoes and cilantro on top. You can substitute chicken for beans. Four for $1 US.

Bollos or Tamales - Seasoned corn dumplings stuffed with chicken and wrapped in plantain leaves. Two for $1 US.

Tamalitos - Grated fresh corn steamed in corn husks, sometimes with chicken. If you don't want the chicken be sure to say "con no carne." With pollo, two for $1 US. Without chicken, four for $1 US.

Cowfoot Soup - A delicacy that cannot be found just anywhere. No, you don't have to eat the foot, but the soup is worth the usual price of $2.50 US and is served with rice.

Rice and Beans - The staple meal in Belize. Red beans cooked in rice and served with your choice of meat and a salad (coleslaw or potato salad). Often can be purchased by the plate at a choice of $1.50, $2, or $2.50 US.

Stewed Beans and Rice - Red beans stewed and served on top of white rice with your choice of meat and a salad. Not always found in fast food restaurants. $2.50 to $3.50 US.





  A Recipe from a Belizean Kitchen
Pumpkin Rice
1 small pumpkin
2 cups uncooked rice
1 tblsp. vegetable oil
1/2 sweet pepper
          (chopped small)
1 small onion
          (finely chopped)
1 medium sized tomato
          (chopped fine)
3-4 cups water for
          cooking rice
1 tsp. salt
Method
Wash pumpkin.   Boil pumpkin in just enough water to cover it for about 15 to 20 minutes.  Test with fork for doneness.  Dice pumpkin in 1/2 inch squares.  Save the pumpkin water.
Heat pot.  Add oil (or margarine). Fry rice, stirring frequently.  Add water, including pumpkin water.  Add salt. Partially cook rice.
Place pumpkin, sweet pepper, onion and tomato on top of rice, cover, and cook another 10 to 20 minutes until rice is tender and dried and vegetables are steamed. Stir well.
Serves 4 to 6.  
Reprinted from Belizeans Favourite Foods Using the Food Groups dedicated to the children of William Harvey Home Eco. Centre with love from Erleen Godfrey.