Easter, Hotel Chocolat - St. Lucia, Fabergé, Fortnum & Mason, Soweto Gospel Choir, Simnel Cake

 

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Hotel Chocolat, St. Lucia

Easter eggs from Hotel Chocolat

Yummy, scrumptious beautiful chocolates and chocolate eggs, some made with the very fine cocoa produced in St Lucia.


St. Lucia is famous  for producing some of the finest cocoa in the world.   Most of St. Lucia's cocoa production is used for blending with lesser varieties for taste, texture, colour etc.  

You can purchase online from  HOTEL CHOCOLAT.   They ship throughout the world.  I often use them to send gifts to family and friends abroad.  They are reliable, prompt and delicious!!  

Hotel Chocolat, Boutique Hotel, St. Lucia, at Rabot Estate, is a great place where one can have a lovely chocolate themed lunch or dinner in their fantastic restaurant  facing the Petit Piton.  Also highly recommended: Hotel Chocolat's blended Portuguese wine to accompany any chocolate based dish. 

I remember on a visit to the Rabot Estate, some 20 years ago, meeting the great Scottish born artist, Alan Davie, who lived and painted on St. Lucia for many years. 

Alan Davie,Village Myths No. 36 1983, Tate Collection 

There is also at Rabot, an unexplained phenomena:  in a lake on the plantation is a small island which floats and drifts from side to side during the rainy season, possibly due to thermal energy, as Rabot is adjacent to  St. Lucia's drive-in Volcano.  Rabot is also famous for  being the scene of numerous battles between the French and the British, and until recently war artefacts were found on the plantation.

Half and Half Easter Egg from Hotel Chocolat

Champagne Truffle Easter Egg from Hotel Chocolat

 

FABERGÉ EGGS

Lilies of the Valley  Easter Egg by Fabergé

Peter Carl Fabergé also known as Karl Gustavovich Fabergé, 1846 - 1920, a Russian Jeweller, renowned for his Easter eggs known as Fabergé Eggs, using gemstones and precious metals.   50 Imperial Eggs were created.  The 1913 Winter Egg sold for US$9.6 million in an auction at Christie's in 2002.

Fortnum & Mason

 

Fortnum & Mason Fabergé inspired Easter Biscuits

Fortnum & Mason, aka "Fortnum's" is a luxurious department store, in Piccadilly, London, now with branches in Japan.   It was established in 1707 as a grocery store by William Fortnum and Hugh Mason and has gathered many Royal Warrants over the past 150 years.
Fortnum's reputation has been built on its fine quality, speciality foods and teas and its teashop.  In 1761, William Fortnum's grandson, Charles, went into the service of Queen Charlotte  and the Royal Court affiliation led to an increase in business. Fortnum & Mason claims to have invented the Scotch Egg in 1738. 

Fortnum & Mason  selection of Easter Eggs

eggs, eggs, eggs

As a child, I remember Easter Sundays being a joyous occasion.  Daffodils were picked from the garden and put in vases and the collection of beautifully hand painted Polish wooden eggs would be put out on display, then my mother would help me take the yolk and white of the eggs out by carefully making a pin hole at both ends and blowing gently until the shell was empty, then washed and dried,   we would then paint them, using dyes and acrylic or water based paint. 

 Sequin Eggs © C

Easter Egg gift boxes  © C

Ukranian Easter Eggs

The Amazing Egg Tree Fruit © C

The Amazing Egg Tree grown in the herb garden at
Llewellyn Xavier's Studio © C

Seeds available from
 HIRTS GARDENS through AMAZON.COM

This tropical plant produces 10 to 20 egg-shaped fruits. The fruit vary from pure white to yellow-gold. The purple flowers are stunning.  Eggs have a delicious melony taste. Can be eaten raw, baked, or fried. The Amazing Egg Tree is a exotic and unusual plant to grow either inside or out. Plant height: 36" tall. Prefers full sun. If grown outside you can move the plant indoors in the winter in a sunny window. 60 days.   Proper name: Solanum melongena 'Ovigerum'

Caribbean Easter Traditions

Easter is a time of joy for the Christian communities in the Caribbean, spent attending church services, followed by an Easter lunch.

Easter Lily Antique Print

Jamaica  Most churches and homes in Jamaica are decorated with Easter lilies, which seem to appropriately bloom at Easter.  The lily is a symbol of purity, innocence and virtue because of its delicacy of form and its snow-white color. The Easter Lily has come to symbolize the resurrection of Jesus Christ. History, mythology, literature, poetry and the world of art are rife with stories and images that speak of the beauty and majesty of the elegant white flower. Often called the "white-robed apostles of hope",  lilies were found growing in the Garden of Gethsemane after Christ's agony.

BEQUIA has held an annual Easter Regatta for the past 30 years (St. Vincent and the Grenadines). 

BARBADOS  Barbados has a national kite flying contest on Easter Monday.  The Oistins Fish Festival created by one of the Caribbean's most elegant and beautiful ladies, the Lady Stella St. John, wife of former Prime Minister, Sir Harold St. John,  created the annual event in 1977, which is fast becoming one of the Caribbean's major events.

MARTINIQUE and  GUADELOUPE Most Martiniquans and Guadeloupeans spend Easter time at the beach and one of their traditional dishes is Land Crab - le Matoutou de Crabes. Guadeloupe has a Crab Festival.

TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO Easter Sunday, Baked Pork, Ham and other meats are eaten.  Hot Cross Buns are an Easter treat.  

ST. LUCIA Most St. Lucians will attend a church service on Easter Sunday.   A St. Lucian tradition is kite-flying at Pigeon Island in the North.

GUYANA Also has a tradition of flying of kites on the sea wall in Georgetown and on open lands in villages. Easter 1885 serves as a good example. “The appearance of the sky all over Georgetown, but especially towards the Sea Wall, was very striking, the air being thick with kites of all shapes and sizes, covered with gaily coloured paper, all riding bravely on the strong wind."

Kite flying competitions are also held in the Bahamas, Bermuda, Grenada and St. Kitts and Nevis.

THE MARVELLOUS

SOWETO GOSPEL CHOIR

Do listen to these links,  you will be enthralled, better still try to see them live on one of their world tours.   AMAZING GRACE,   MUDIMO, THINA SIMNQOBILE, KHUMBAYA (note the egg shaped instrument at the beginning of the video).

Don't  know which one is my favourite singers as they are all brilliant.  Their costumes are magnificent,  colourful and majestic and they create music sometimes without accompaniment  (archapello) .   Just amazing!

CD's available at Amazon.com

S i m n e l    C a k e

 © C

There are numerous myths surrounding the origin of Simnel cake which is a light fruit cake, similar to a Christmas cake, covered in marzipan, then toasted, and eaten during the Easter period.  A layer of marzipan or almond paste is also baked into the middle of the cake. On the top of the cake, around the edge, are eleven marzipan balls said to represent the true disciples of Jesus Christ; Judas Iscariot is omitted.  The other legends are that in the 17th century female servants would bake this fruit rich Easter cake to take home  to their mothers after Lent.  Another myth is that the name is believed to come from a  brother (Simon) and sister (Nell) who wanted to make an Easter cake for their mother.  The word Simnel comes from the Latin word Simila which means fine wheat flour.

 

recipe

500 g Marzipan (rolled or ready to roll packet like Dr. Oetker) for top of cake, including  11 balls and centre of cake (You can make your own almond paste with ground almonds, sugar, beaten egg and almond or bitter almond essence - I find the latter gives a nicer flavour - roll out two circles to fit the cake tin and make the 11 balls with the remainder).

175g butter

175g brown sugar

3 eggs

125g all purpose flour

50g ground almonds

1/2 tsp salt

½ tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp freshly ground nutmeg

7 drops bitter almond essence or 1 tsp almond essence (optional)

350g mixed fruit: raisins, sultanas, currants and glacé cherries

50g  mixed peel

grated zest of 1/2 lemon or lime

2 tbsp apricot jam, warmed in a pan

Preheat oven to 140C/275F/Gas 1.

For the cake, cream the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy. Gradually beat in the eggs, one at a time, until well incorporated and then fold in the sifted flour, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger alittle at a time and the ground almonds.  Then, add the mixed dried fruit, cherries, peel and grated lemon zest and fold into the mixture.

Put half the mixture into a greased and lined 18cm/7in cake tin.  Smooth the top and cover with the circle of almond paste.  Add the remainder of the cake mixture and smooth the top leaving a slight dip in the centre to allow for the cake to rise.  Bake in a preheated oven for 1 1/2  to 1 3/4 hours or until golden on top.  Test by inserting a wooden skewer - if it comes out clean, it is ready.  Remove from the oven and allow to cool on a cake rack.

Remove from cake tin and brush the top of the cooled cake with the warmed apricot jam.   Put the remaining marzipan circle on top and the rolled balls around the edge.

I use a cook's blow torch to brown the balls and top of the cake, alternatively, you can put the cake under the grill for a couple of minutes but watch that it does not burn.

Tie with ribbon and decorate or leave plain.

Caribbean Flowering Trees

at Easter Time

Gliricidia photos by Forest and Kim Starr  

Logwood Blossom     

Nature by H.D. Carberry

We have neither Summer nor Winter

Neither Autumn nor Spring.

We have instead the days

When the gold sun shines on the lush green canefields-

Magnificently.

The days when the rain beats like bullet on the roofs

And there is no sound but thee swish of water in the gullies

And trees struggling in the high Jamaica winds.

Also there are the days when leaves fade from off guango trees’

And the reaped canefields lie bare and fallow to the sun.

But best of all there are the days when the mango and the logwood blossom

           Mango Blossom © C

Mango season to follow soon!

Happy Easter

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