Butterflies, Butterfly Field and Madama Butterfly

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flowers from the butterfly field in a Kosta Boda vase

After the pumpkins we decided to establish a butterfly field, not edible, but far more beautiful.  For the butterfly field we collected seeds from anywhere and everywhere:  Zinnias, Cosmos, Marigolds, Portulacas, Asters, Lantana, Cockscombs, miniature Sunflowers, Et cetera, Et cetera, although after sowing there was a deluge, a tropical rain storm,  and most of the seeds were washed away, but some of the flowers grew beautifully.  The butterflies were fed and the birds were happy.  Apart from enjoying the butterflies we were able to harvest enough flowers to make beautiful small bouquets for the guestrooms, kitchen and friends.     Unfortunately,  this too had to go in order to re-establish the Bougainvillea (story to be told in a future post).

We had a wealth of butterflies including our favourite, the graceful Monarch Butterfly which loves to feed on Milkweed Asclepias species. The only weed allowed to grow throughout the garden.

Many Caribbean islands now have local populations of the Monarch Butterfly.  Caribbean Monarchs are resident and do not migrate.

Milkweed

Do you know how to tell a male from a female monarch butterfly? The male monarchs have a black spot on each of the hind wings over a vein. The female monarch butterfly does not have this spot. Many people think that only the male monarch butterfly is beautiful, but that is simply not true. Every monarch butterfly is beautiful. - from  www.Monarch-Butterfly.com 

Antique print of Monarch Butterflies

Fleur Butterfly Limited Edition Prints

Helena

Cynosura

Eugene

Cajetani

Albertisi

Peacock

Octavia

Rurina

Fleur Butterflies Limited Edition Prints available from Art & Antiques, Pointe Seraphine, St. Lucia Tel. (758) 451 4150 or (758) 450 8485 or write to: email.  artandantiques@candw.lc 

butterfly pina colada cupcakes

recipe

cupcakes

140 g caster sugar

120 g sifted all purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

a pinch of salt

40 g unsalted butter

1 tablespoon coconut powder

1 tablespoon Malibu or similar coconut liqueur

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 tablespoons coconut cream

1 egg

small can drained pineapple in juice (save the juice for a drink)

topping

8 oz cream cheese (softened)

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 tablespoon coconut powder

1 tablespoon Malibu or coconut liqueur

2 tablespoons coconut cream or milk.

2 tablespoons crushed pineapple

freshly grated (fine) coconut

Prepare your cupcake liners and place in muffin tins or similar.  Heat the oven to 170 degrees.

Put the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and butter in a bowl and beat until it is well mixed and looks like biscuit crumbs.  Mix the coconut cream, coconut powder, Malibu and vanilla together, add to flour mixture and mix well.  Add egg and mix until you get a firmish consistency, easy to spoon into the cupcake liners.  

Put about 1 teaspoon of the chopped pineapple into each of the cupcake liners (1/2 teaspoon pineapple for mini cupcake liners) and spoon the mixture over the top to three quarters full (allowing  the cupcake to rise).  Bake for  about 20 minutes until golden but not brown.  Leave to cool.

For the topping; blend a softened cream cheese with the sugar then the coconut powder and Malibu, add the crushed pineapple and coconut cream.  Mix well until blended. 

Spread the topping on the cupcake and add a good tablespoon of the grated coconut, enough to cover the cupcake. 

Add a decoration, a piece of candied pineapple, a piece of a glacé cherry or whatever takes your fancy.

The photos show my cut out butterflies using a cookie cutter on sugar paste and then painted with food colouring and set to dry on a M-shape folded aluminium foil sheet.

Tip: The nicest coconut is freshly grated coconut.  Buy the brown ones that when you shake them have water in them.  Break the outer layer with a mallet, take the white flesh and peel off the thin layer of skin, then grate either by hand or in an electric grater.  Use some to make milk or cream by adding  warm water and let it sit for about 1/2 an hour, then strain through a sieve or muslin or cheesecloth.

Keep any left-over grated coconut or coconut milk or cream in a container in the freezer and use for future recipes.

Pina Colada Cupcakes on a hand painted Sicilian Butterfly plate

butterfly coconut shrimp

This is very easy, no fry version of a very tasty way of cooking shrimp.

recipe

Medium or large uncooked shrimp - peeled and butterflied, with tails left on
1/2 teaspoon chilli powder
1/2 teaspoon salt 

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 cup flour

1 beaten egg
1/2 cup shredded coconut
Preheat oven to 220 C.  Grease baking sheet with non-stick spray.

To butterfly the shrimp; insert knife about 3/4 into the shrimp back from the head, downwards, ensuring you do not cut right through, flatten the shrimp and devein, rinse and pat dry with a kitchen towel.

Mix salt, pepper and chilli powder and sprinkle over shrimp evenly.  Have the flour, egg, and coconut in different containers.  Take one shrimp at a time and dip in egg, then flour, then back in egg, then in the coconut, making sure there is enough on top of the shrimp.  Put  shrimp on baking sheet and bake for about 15  minutes or until crisp.  Serve immediately with a chilli sweet sauce or mango salsa.

Madama Butterfly and

the Andaman Islands  

I shall write in subsequent blogs about my travels in India but since we are on butterflies, let me share with you a butterfly experience I had with Lady (Bindy) Lambton, (who was often painted by the great Lucien Freud),  in the Andaman Islands for which one had to have a permit to visit in the 1980's, there was one main hotel where we stayed and dined together.  Lady Lambton, on this particular visit, was on a diving expedition with Vane Ivanovic, a Yugoslavian diplomat, and a Sri Lankan Zoologist whose name escapes me, and I was working, doing a research project for a travel company.  The three were appalled at the destruction of the coral by local fishermen who used dynamite to blast the fish to the surface.  Bindy, to her friends,  had a fantastic  butterfly hat and virtually all her clothing was butterfly inspired.  Apparently, she had a butterfly shaped swimming pool in one of her homes in England.  I referred to her as Madam Butterfly.   

Bindy Lambton never wished to be thought of as "eccentric", for she always strove to be - and imagined herself to be - a pillar of respectable society. Her cheerfulness survived to the end.

In hospital on the day of her death, just before being given a morphine injection, she amazed both the doctor and nurses by singing and acting out a favourite  1940s song:

Cocaine Bill and Morphine Sue
Strolling down the avenue two by two.
O honey
Won't  you have a little sniff on me,
have a sniff on me.

Those were her last words.

from the Obituary in the Daily Telegraph, 2003

There are over 200 species of butterflies in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

  

The Andaman Islands are a group of Indian Ocean, archipelagic islands in the Bay of Bengal, between India to the west and Burma to the north and east. Most of the islands are part of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands Union Territory of India, while a small number in the north of the archipelago belong to Burma.  (From Wikipedia)

I travelled back with a documentary producer, who had just returned from trying to film one of the tribes on Lesser Andaman with the Indian Government, who attempted to bring them gifts, and got arrows thrown at them.  They never got to meet the tribe. 

The Andamanese people are the various aboriginal inhabitants of the Andaman Islands.  They include the Great Andamanese, Jarawa, Onge, Sentinelese,  and the extinct Jangil. (From Wikipedia)

  

Personally, I think, these magnificent tribes should be left in peace. 

Great Andamanese couple, circa 1876

Group of Andaman Men and Women in Costume, Some Wearing Body Paint And with Bows and Arrows, Catching Turtles from Boat on Water, circa 1903

I digress, as my fascination with butterflies began as a child, I became a member of the Camberwell Beauty (Butterfly Club) of which I can find no trace apart from a building which is now the Lynn AC Boxing Club in Camberwell, London. (How extraordinary, a boxing club with a large butterfly at the side of the building.  Remember Cassius Clay, now, Muhammad Ali's Dance like a Butterfly, Sting like a Bee?)  For years, well into my late teens, I received a gift of butterfly gummed stickers, books, colouring books, etc.  from the club on my birthday.  

original poster

Madame Butterfly - the Opera

Opera Madama Butterfly Madama Butterfly (Madame Butterfly)  by Giacomo Puccini.    Un Bel Di, aria by the great diva Maria Callas.  She achieved some of the most extraordinary never-ending notes with the most incredible clarity and crispness.  This is one of my preferred versions by Maria Callas, recorded in the 50's at Teatro alla Scala, Milan,  from Rigoletto - Caro Nome , by Verdi.  Listen to the notes towards the end of the aria;  just amazing!

Does anyone remember this fantastic version of  Madame Butterfly  by the punk artist  Malcolm McLaren, of the Sex Pistols,  who had opened a boutique on the King's Road in the 70's with his then girlfriend, Vivienne Westwood, now Dame Vivienne Westwood,  the fashion designer.  

food, flower and butterfly photos copyright the author