Belizean Seafood Soup Recipes

BELIZEAN SEAFOOD SOUP

Steps:

• First heat oil in a heavy pot, add flour and stir constantly with a whisk until flour is copper in color.
• Add onions and tomato paste and stir for two to three minutes until onions are a deep golden brown.
• Add coconut milk, fish stock, thyme and garlic. Mix well, bring to a gentle boil, lower heat and let sauce simmer for ten minutes more.
• Add potato, cassava, bell pepper and carrots and boil until vegetables are cooked.
• Add lobster, fish, shrimp and conch and simmer until cooked.
• While soup is boiling mix grated green plantain with coconut oil, salt and pepper. Form into little dumplings the size of a teaspoon.
• Add dumplings along with ripe plantain to the soup and bring to a rapid boil for five minutes or until plantains are cooked.
• Serve hot and enjoy.

FISH TEA (CARIBBEAN BOUILLABAISSE)

Steps:

• In a large braiser over medium heat melt butter; add onions, garlic, scallion whites, thyme, and bay leaves. Allow to sweat for 5 minutes then add fish stock, raise heat and bring to a simmer. Add potatoes, squash, chayote, Scotch Bonnet pepper, and a little salt. When potatoes are tender, begin layering fish, start with tile, then bass, snapper, and shrimp then adjust with salt and pepper. Simmer fish until firm and flakes to the touch, about 10 to15 minutes. Sprinkle scallion greens and cilantro over top and serve.

BELIZEAN FISH SERRE

Steps:

• Wash and rinse the snapper.
• Wash, clean and cut vegetables.
• Place bacon into a saucepan over medium heat, pour in coconut milk.
• Add the onion, seasonings, plantain and yucca.
• Bring to a boil until vegetables are tender.
• Dip the fish into the coconut milk to ensure it is coated and place the carrots and fish on top, and simmer until the fish is tender.
• Serve over rice.

CREOLE SOUP

Steps:

• In a soup kettle or Dutch oven, cook beef and onion over medium heat until meat is no longer pink; drain. , Add the remaining ingredients; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 25 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Discard bay leaf before serving.

HUDUTU

Steps:

• Using a spice grinder, pulverize the oregano, and reserve ½ tablespoon of the powder for the soup. Season the shrimp with ½ teaspoon cumin, 1/3 of the oregano powder, salt to taste and a few pinches of adobo powder, if using. Pound the conch until tender with a mallet or the back of a knife, cut into bite-size pieces and season as you did the shrimp. Pat the snapper dry with paper towels, and season with 1/2 teaspoon cumin, the last third of the oregano powder, salt to taste and a few pinches of adobo powder, if using.
• Heat 1/4 inch of oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat, until lightly smoking. Carefully place the snapper pieces into the oil, working in batches if necessary. Turn heat up to high, and sear until richly browned, about 3 minutes. Flip and sear the other side, another 3 minutes or so. Remove the fish to a plate.
• Heat 1 tablespoon of oil over medium heat in a large pot. Add the minced garlic, chopped peppers and cilantro and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the coconut milk, 5 cups water, sofrito, the remaining 2 1/2 teaspoons cumin, the reserved 1/2 tablespoon oregano powder and chicken bouillon. Bring this to a simmer over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally to keep the fat from separating. When it comes to a simmer, add the snapper, and turn the heat to high. When the liquid comes to a simmer again, add the shrimp. When it comes to a simmer again, add the conch, if using, and immediately turn off the heat. (The conch will cook quickly in the residual heat of the soup.) Season with salt to taste.
• Divide immediately in shallow bowls to prevent the conch from overcooking, and serve with the machuca, which guests can spoon into their bowls as desired.