11 Apr, 2010
We are back in Barbados for a lovely long Easter visit. After a seemingly endless, chilly winter in England we were longing for the warmth and beauty of this beautiful little island. So wonderful also to catch up with old friends and family. Easter is a great time to be here with plenty of time for long lazy beach parties, egg hunts for the children, and the traditional kite flying fun. The colours in the Caribbean never fail to delight and startle me with their vibrancy. It’s like the intensity of life is turned up a few notches.
Easter Sunday began with an Easter egg hunt. It’s great to search around the mango and banana trees.
I’ve been doing some cooking here but not found much time to photograph the dishes – will post some recipes next time. I love the peppers, seasonings and limes.
Then we set off with a group of friends – families in convoy – for an island road trip and beach picnic. Can there be a nicer way to celebrate Easter?
The older generations teach the little ones the tricks of flying kites.
Chocolate is extra melty and messy in this climate!
End of the day. Beautiful Barbados – so happy to be here.
in Barbados, Beach, Easter, Family, Kites, Picnics, food, friends | Comments (7)
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16 Dec, 2009
Christmas is truly upon us here in our part of England, complete with frosty weather. We even had some snow flurries today! I really love Christmas -twinkly lights, all the social and community activities, the music and of course, Christmas food!
We do a lot of baking in our house and no one escapes getting involved at this time of year. D is King of the Christmas Cake and it his his special project every year – especially the part of ‘feeding’ the cake with rum or brandy in the weeks leading up.
Our little boy loves being in the kitchen and he gets busy rolling and cutting out festive cookies.
This week we made some little buttery galettes sprinkled with gorgeous amber grains of sugar from Barbados. L was born in Barbados and likes to bring bits of that lovely island to our life here in England. I was delighted to find a box of Barbados sugar in our local supermarket. (See Plantation Reserve.) We sometimes like to dust with spice or infuse the sugar with vanilla. A recipe for the galettes follows below.
Christmas Galettes
225g plain flour
175g butter, chilled and diced
130g caster (finely granulated) sugar
1 egg yolk
Barbados golden sugar or demerera sugar to sprinkle
Dusting of cinnamon or mixed spice (optional)
Put the flour and butter into a food processor and whiz to a texture of breadcrumbs. Add the sugar and egg yolk and process until it forms a ball.
Turn the mix out onto a floured board and knead for a minute or and then wrap and allow the dough to rest in the fridge for at least half an hour.
Roll the dough out thinly (about depth of a pound coin) and cut out with a crinkly edged round cutter. You can make other shapes if you like, however these biscuits are quite delicate and break a bit easily for some shapes. Dust with spice if using, and sprinkle with the demerera sugar. (Or the wonderful Bajan sugar if you can find it.)
Bake the galettes on parchment in oven (preheated to 180 degrees centigrade) for about 10 minutes or until golden. Allow to cool on a wire rack.
These biscuits go very nicely with a small glass of something festive!
in Baking, Barbados, Biscuits, Christmas, Sugar | Comments (0)
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