St Martin's feast

Next Sunday we shall be celebrating St. Martin's Day 'Jum San Martin' in Malta. The actual feast was last Wednesday, November 11th but it if it happens to fall on a weekday we usually celebrate it on the Sunday nearest to November 11. In the past the children used to hang an empty bag by their bedposts in anticipation for St Martin's arrival. In the morning, then the excited kids would find a bag full of goodies or a bag full of coal - depending on their behaviour.

Nowadays, at school children are usually given a bag called 'Il-Borża ta' San Martin', containing autumn fruits such as figs, oranges, tangerines, apples, pomegranates , nuts like walnuts, hazel-nuts, almonds, chestnuts and a sweet bread with an aniseed-tasting sweet on top (Il-Hobza ta' San Martin) associated with the feast. There is also a traditional rhyme associated with this custom:

'Ġewż, Lewż,

Qastan, Tin

Kemm inħobbu lil San Martin..

(Walnuts, Almonds, Chestnuts, Figs, Oh how I love Saint Martin!)

The feast of St Martin is celebrated in the village of Baħrija on the outskirts of Rabat at the the only chapel in Malta dedicated to this saint. It is the tradition that on that Sunday a fair is held to commemorate the feast. The Turkeys' Fair, in Maltese referred to as 'Il-Fiera tad-Dundjani' , originally took place in 1953 , when the rector of the time started the fair as a fundraising for the building of the new church to replace the small chapel that had become too small for the evergrowing congregation that attended. At this fair one can find plants, fresh vegetables, local honey, and other such local stuff and an exhibition of local animals.

At this time of year we usually have a temporary respite from Autumn and enjoy what we call in Maltese - Is-Sajf ta' San Martin - St Martin's summer. I always look forward to this feast because we get to enjoy a couple of warm days at this time of year. This feast is also associated with a substantial increase in hairfall too. Have you noticed how much more hair falls at this time of year? Men beware!

Open Weekend at Fort Manoel

Manoel Island is a tiny island which lies in Marsamxett Harbour between Sliema Creek and Lazzaretto Creek, and is accessible by a bridge from the Gzira seafront. The Knights of St John realised the potential of the Island as an isolated territory against the plague and other infectious diseases and built a quarantine hospital here in 1643. In 1722, Grand Master Manoel de Vilhena began to appreciate the value of the Island for the defence of Valletta and commissioned the fortress which bears his name, Fort Manoel. The first stone was laid in 1723 under his patronage and the supervision of world-famous engineer Francois de Mondion.

While its defining characteristics survived the ravages of time, over the centuries Fort Manoel fell into disrepair, especially following the heavy and extensive aerial bombardment endured during World War II. On 23rd February 1965, the Fort was officially handed over to the Maltese Government; Fort Manoel was subsequently abandoned and fell into a state of neglect. Further damage was also inflicted during peacetime by vandals, squatters and souvenir-hunters, and by the end of the 20th century, a derelict ruin was all that remained of this once proud and imposing fortress.

In the year 2000 MIDI developers took possession of Fort Manoel and works relating to the restoration of the Fort were initiated by a restoration team. Last weekend the MIDI consortium hosted an Open Weekend at the Fort for the public. Yesterday, hubby and I together with a couple of friends joined the thronges of people who paid a visit to this historical gem on our island. Below you'll see some of the photos I took of the event.

World War II lorry on display

World War II exhibition

The view of Valletta from the parade ground

The parade ground and Barrack Block B

a closer view of Valletta from the parade ground

St Anthony of Padua's chapel where the engineer Francois de Mondion was buried

a detail from the chapel's interior

St Anthony of Padua's chapel and its restored interior

exiting the Polverista

The Polverista



Couldn't help taking a photo of these 3 nuns...

Blogging Women

Oh! I've just discovered that I've won a contest in Blogging Women. My blog will be featured for the month of November. Isn't that lovely? All you female bloggers out there - I invite you to hop over to Blogging Women and have fun discovering other blogs. Thanks Fay!

Chilling out with friends at Ghajn Tuffieha

Yesterday, we decided to go out in the afternoon and dine out with our friends at Ghajn Tuffieha - (pronounced 'ine' as in 'nine' Too-fee-ha ) one of the most beautiful sandy beaches in the North of our island. Although the air is now somewhat cooler than in summer, yesterday a good number of people were either sunbathing or frolicking round at the beach. When I saw all the activity at the beach, I kind of forgot that it's been almost a month since Autumn started. We are still enjoying warm days here in Malta. There were even some daring people who went for a dip in the choppy sea even though it was windy. We enjoyed ourselves so much that we did not notice how time flew. At the end, after watching sunset, we reluctantly made our way home.

Bird Hunting in Malta

There goes my staying late in bed this weekend. Living near the countryside does have its repercussions. Why is it that weekend or no weekend I have to be woken up so early? Today, (like in the past 4 weeks) the constant gunshots of heartless bird hunters, somewhere in the vicinity of our house woke me up at around 5:30am. I can't imagine, for the life of me, how they can make out the birds flying in the darkness of morning. Don't they strain their eyes? Their incessant killing starts from 5am!!! Today, I've been tossing and turning in bed waiting for the shots to abate - in vain. Blessed Sunday indeed!

As I'm typing, the sound of gunshots is still going on. The sound of the lead pellets hitting our skylight and the side windows is very unnerving. I feel sorry for those birds, that, after flying for so many kilometers in so many days, their life ends up in one second here in Malta. It's heartbreaking. Unfortunately, the news that makes headlines is only the bad publicity! The BBC and other foreign news are having a field day with our hunting issues. Take a look at these links and you'll see what I mean:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8266902.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8308711.stm

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/malta-hunting239.html#cr

Our island is rarely in the news but wonder of wonders when our hunting season opens we get to be very 'popular' or should I say 'infamous' with the rest of the E.U countries.

Recently, Maltese educators were asked to refrain from passing any negative comments to the students with regards to bird hunting because they were told that the children might turn against their hunter parents!

http://www.timesofmalta.com.mt/articles/view/20091010/local/hunters-protest-over-teachers-attitude

If the FKNK (Federation for Hunting and Conservation representatives) had the time to prepare the Teachers' Pack, I suggest that they keep on reading it themselves. As a teacher, I would never impart positive comments regarding hunting. Hunters should go and get a life! They should abide by the law! The lengths hunters will go through to justify shooting birds is amazing.

img credit Wildlife Extra

Banana and Chocolate Squares

With the onset of the rainy season, I usually start looking for some good baking recipes. This weekend, while I was browsing through some food blogs this recipe caught my attention. It was very easy to prepare - in fact, I think it only took me an hour from start to finish. And, mark my words, once you take these delicious chocolate and banana squares out of the oven, they won't last long - they're simply irresistible! One last thing..make sure you don't forget the chocolate chips - I completely forgot about them - I sprinkled them in the last minute and, as expected, they didn't melt properly!

Another authentic Maltese recipe - Torta tal-lampuki ( Dolphin-fish pie)

Since we are in the lampuka season I thought of posting a lampuka recipe. The Lampuka - also known as Mahi Mahi, Dorado or Dolphin Fish – is Malta's 'national' fish. The season stretches from the end of August to the beginning of November. This is a seasonal fish and is very much in demand during its season. The following recipe was extracted from The Food and Cookery of Malta.
For the pastry

400 g plain flour
200 g margarine
Pinch of salt
4 tbsp (approx.) cold water

For the filling
2 medium sized lampuki (approx. 400 g)
1 onion, sliced 2-3 tbsp olive oil
2 large tomatoes, peeled and chopped or 1 dessertspoon tomato puree
1 medium cauliflower
800 g spinach
8 black olives
1 tbsp sultanas
6 walnuts, shelled
(I also added some boiled potatoes, and some green olives too. )

Make the pastry. Use no more water than necessary. Keep the pastry cold while you prepare the filling.

Cut the fish into 4 or 5 steaks, coat lightly In flour and fry in shallow oil until just cooked. Remove any bones and the skin. Reserve. (Tip: I prepared the fish the night before because it takes a long time.)

In a large pan soften the onion in olive oil. Add the tomatoes, cook for a few minutes more. Add the cauliflower broken into florets and the spinach. Add about 250 ml of boiling water, cover tightly and cook until the vegetables are just tender. Remove from the heat and add the olives, sultanas and walnuts. Season. It is import ant to let this mixture and the fish get quite cold before finishing the pie.

Line a large shallow pie dish with slightly more than half the pastry. Put half the vegetable mixture over it, then the fish, then the remaining vegetables. Roll out the rest of the pastry to cover. Decorate and brush with beaten egg to which you have added a few drops of oil. Bakc at 200°C/400°F/gas 6 for 30 minutes, then at 180°C/350°F/gas 4 until golden brown and the filling heated through. This pie tastes equally good hot or cold.

Some prefer to cook the cauliflower and spinach separately. In this case, add the 250ml water to the tomato and onion mixture and simmer gently for about half an hour.

For a change, I made small pies (qassatat) instead of a large one. Qassatat come in very handy when I'm at a loss at what lunch to prepare for work.

House Parties

I did mention that I like to host parties, didn't I? Well, these past couple of weeks I was busy preparing for two parties, aside from preparing for work too. One party was to congratulate our dear friends from Luxembourg, Ana and Karl, who tied the knot a few months ago and who came to visit us last week, and the second one was our housewarming party. It took us more than 6 months to celebrate our housewarming party with our close friends! We just never found the right time to celebrate it.

When I make up my mind to host a party I get carried away with planning the event, and that includes the decorations, cleaning the house and preparing the food on time. I don't know why but even if I start preparing from three days before I rarely finish on time. My husband, on the other hand, does his best to concoct original cocktails and serve different drinks. When our parties are over our friends usually leave our house,slightly if not totally intoxicated, holding on to their bulging tummies.

I just love throwing parties but they practically, take up all my energy. As soon as I send out the invites I browse my collection of recipe books to get some ideas, and write a list of appetizers. I try to keep to 12 items per person but somehow in the preparation process the items increase in number. Next, I disseminate each food item to its basic ingredients and write all the ingredients that I would need in a list, then buy the ingredients, prepare each item and finally put the final touches to each item..and each time I invite our friends over I always say to myself that next time I should prepare less food but somehow I never manage to..

The collage above shows some of the food I prepared. Clockwise from left: Choco,Oat and Nut balls, parma ham and melon kebabs, artichokes stuffed with Maltese sausage filling, bacon and avocado squares, double decker egg and ham sandwiches, pancakes stuffed with seafood, classic Maltese timpana, lampuki rolls, apple and pork rolls. Centre: S almon and caviar hors d'oeuvres.