🇧🇿 How to Make Panades

Craving Panades? On FoodNeverComes the food never actually comes — so here's how to make real Panades at home, in about 50 min, with stuff you probably already have.

🛒 Ingredients

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• 2 cups masa harina
• 1½ cups warm water
• 1 tsp recado rojo (for colour)
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 can sardines or 1 cup cooked refried beans
• 1 onion, pickled in lime and vinegar with a slice of habanero
• oil for deep frying

👩‍🍳 Method

1. Work the recado into the masa with the salt and water so the dough turns a rusty orange. Belizean panades are almost always tinted.
2. Divide into balls and press each into a disc.
3. Put a spoon of sardine or bean filling on one half and fold over, pressing the edge firmly to seal. A leaking panade will spit oil and fall apart.
4. Press the sealed edge with a fork or crimp it by hand.
5. Deep fry at 180°C for 4–5 min until hard and deep golden. Unlike salbutes these should be properly crunchy.
6. Drain and pile the lime-pickled onion on top just before eating. Sardine is the traditional filling and is not a shortcut.