Unusually I shan't be spending the Easter holidays in Jacarilla this year. In Jacarilla, like many rural villages around Spain, Easter is a huge celebration with a strong traditional theme, villagers come together as one, starting with the procession on Good Friday. Sculptures of religious figures are carried around the village by candlelight, accompanied by spine tingling music played by the village band. The procession is an emotive experience on so many different levels, even a hardened atheist would be hard pushed not to feel some sort of spiritual connection, even if it were remembering their own lost loved ones.
Easter used to be a time of celebration and reflection here in Britain. I remember waking up on Good Friday morning (much like Christmas morning) full of anticipation. My mother would have spread the breakfast table with an array of pretty, pastel coloured boiled eggs (she would cook the eggs in water coloured with food colouring.) But our favourite treat was the homemade hot cross buns! These were literally eaten on that one sacred day of the year as opposed to now, when hot cross buns are in the supermarkets from February onwards. I suspect many people now don't even understand the significance of these buns.
Before the introduction of bank holidays, Good Friday and Christmas Day were the only two days of leisure which were universally granted to working people. I remember as a child my father being at home on Good Friday, most businesses were closed, and after our special breakfast and a post-prandial stroll we would settle down to an afternoon of biblical epics such as The Ten Commandments or Ben Hur.
On Easter Sunday the villagers of Jacarilla will don their best clothes and attend the special service in the village church. Afterwards there will be festivities, the emphasis being on the dawn of a new life. Children will collectively scour the village for Easter eggs and families will congregate in the bars and cafés for a celebratory lunch. For many villagers the Lenten period will have been about abstinence of certain foods, simple living and prayer, in order to grow spiritually. On Easter Sunday they can partake in foods which they have denied themselves for 40 days. Tapas feasts will be shared consisting of meats, cheeses and tortillas, and for many, a welcome glass of wine.
If you are spending Easter with friends and family a tapas feast is an easy alternative to our more traditional roast lamb dinner. Just place the various components on large serving platters and let everyone dig in.
Tapas feast
Firstly make your own infused oil. These have become very popular and are expensive to buy, far better to buy a large bottle of good quality olive oil and transfer small amounts into sterilised jars adding your chosen ingredients: dried chillies, garlic, herbs or peppercorns
Slice ripe tomatoes, drizzle with infused oil and sprinkle with salt and sugar
Add some whole garlic cloves and sauté gently on a low heat until caramelised
Place in a bowl and cover with olive oil
Slice a buffalo mozzarella and drizzle a little honey over the cheese, then sprinkle over a pinch of ground coffee
Lay slices of cured meat on a plate alongside marinated olives, drizzle with infused oil
Serve with baked bread
Serve with a nice bottle (or two) of red wine and enjoy.
'Would you like some warm spring pie?
Then take a cup of clear blue sky.
Stir in buzzes from a bee
Add the laughter of a tree.
A dash of sunlight should suffice
To give the dew a hint of spice
Mix with berries, plump and sweet
Top with fluffy clouds and eat!'
- Paul F. Kortepeter: A child's book of Easter
Happy Easter
Love Donna xxxxxxxx
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