Belize - home cooking

The more I look at the countries coming up in this project, and compare it to the few that we've managed to conquer so far, it's becoming clear that home cooking is going to be quite a regular thing. Where in London was I going to find a restaurant that offers authentic Belizian cuisine? Nowhere, it would seem.

My research into that can only be so extensive. A fairly thorough search online, including delving into similar blogs such as this. In this case I even sent an email to the Belize High Commission to ask - essentially - where they go for their dinner like granny use to make. They clearly must think I'm mental.

The next search online was for what to cook. It would seem Belizian cuisine isn't a particularly beautiful thing. Of the options that did appeal, most of it was beyond our tastes. Mostly bits of sealife.

Then I came across the Belizian stew. Everyone loves a good stew. A few sources came up with a similar recipe - from Belizian Garifuna - in which you could use either chicken or fish. As seafood seemed to be popular in this part of the Americas, I went for the fish option.

With Belize being a Central American country, rice and beans was as much a part of this stew as the fish. The suggestion was to buy "red beans". I automatically think kidney beans. Elle doesn't do kidney beans. I opted for a tin of pinto beans instead. Other ingredients to go with the 400g of rice was a can of coconut milk, half an onion, half a sweet red pepper, a teaspoon of garlic powder, of black pepper and of salt.

For the stewed fish, I started with buying some fish - two fillets of river cobbler. Because I'm a tight Scotsman. Also, one green and one red pepper, 2 lemons, one onion, one teaspoon of black pepper, salt and dried thyme. Also a few genrous tablespoons of tomato puree.

I cooked the meal in two parts, as above. The first part is the rice and associated flavours. As the beans were already cooked, I threw them into a large pot with the coconut milk, chopped onion, black pepper, garlic powder and the (washed) rice. After giving it a good mix I put it on to a low heat and simmered for half an hour. It's important to keep an eye on this. I'll come back to why shortly.

Once that bit is done, start with the second part - the fish stew. Juice the lemons and pour it over the fish fillets. Let the lemon juice soak into both sides of the fillets for a good five or ten minutes. Then add this to a pot with about 400ml of water, salt, the chopped onion, peppers and black pepper. Cover the pot and let the fish poach in this for around 20 mins.

Even before I got to the end of that stage, I could tell the rice had already absorbed most of the liquid, requiring a substantial top up. It's important not to overdo stirring the rice to avoid mushiness.

The last step is to add the tomato puree to the fish. I tried to add it just to water/sauce then ensured that as much fish was submerged in this as possible. I then turned the heat right up to try and lose some more of the liquid.

To serve, I first layered a bowl with a generous helping of the rice, the placed a fish fillet on top and topped with the chopped peppers and onions. Finally, I spooned out a few good spoonfuls of the brown from the fish pot into the bowl. It was at this point I realised that this actually came together quite well.

And it really was a beautiful meal. The rice had a lovely subtle but present coconut taste and fragrance and with the beans gave real substance to the meal, absorbing some of the fish broth in the process. The fish itself was so succulent, very tender. The peppers just firm enough to not be mushy. The fish broth was really fresh and almost refreshing. It had a lovely, almost fruity tang to it.

I have to point out that calling the sauce a "fish broth" is actually a bit of a misnomer. This meal wasn't particularly fishy at all, which is part of the idea. That was the reason for soaking the fillets in lemon juice before hand.

Overall, the portion was substantial. It would've fed six people. Clearly, we ate most of it on the same night. That's how we roll.