Grenada: My 5 favourite things about the island

I will shortly be making my third visit to the Caribbean island of Grenada. My first visit was two years ago when I was invited to experience the Grenada Chocolate Festival, then in it's second year.  I had been to the Caribbean before but I was not expecting to fall in love with this spice paradise like I did.

The island is a very complex place and it's impossible to narrow down the reasons that I love it there so much, however I thought I would just list a few. In no particular order they are as follows:-

Chocolate: Grenada has three main chocolate producers, all of them growing the cacao, harvesting the wet cacao beans and processing them into top quality, world class chocolate.  The future of the chocolate on the island is championed by Magdalena Fielden who has organised The Grenada Chocolate Festival to educate, enlighten and inspire generations of future Grenadians and visitors alike.  This year is the 4th Annual Grenada Chocolate Festival will include some of the familiar events and some exciting new ones as well.  Click here to check it out.

Spices: Grenada is a spice paradise on earth.  You don't need to look far to find nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, turmeric, vanilla to name but a few and all growing in abundance on the island.  One of my goals was to pick my own nutmeg.  As well as a visit to the Grenada Nutmeg Processing Plant in the small fishing village of Gouyave I had the immense pleasure and opportunity to pick my own nutmeg from a nutmeg tree on the Crayfish Bay Cocoa Plantation as well as stuffing my pockets with the ones that had already fallen on the ground.

The local spice market in St Georges is an explosion of colours and smells to treat all your senses.

I visited the home of a local man who had turmeric growing on his land,

and cinnamon trees.  He and his wife showed me how to remove the bark from the cinnamon tree with instructions to lay it out on our balcony for the rest of our stay and it would dry and curl and look like the cinnamon we know.  On the trip home the smell in my suitcase was intoxicating!

People: Generally I have found that the people who live in Grenada are warm and friendly. The residents of this paradise island want you to enjoy your time there. If you ask anyone for information or help in finding somewhere they will go out of their way to get you there.  Grenada is not a wealthy island for most of the inhabitants however they take great pride in the jobs that they do whether it is supplying bananas they have growing on their property to the hotels or a family ice cream company.

Beaches: Grenada has some of the most beautiful beaches in the world! Grand Anse beach is often considered one of the top 10 beaches in the world.  Over 2 miles of beautiful white sand - you can walk the whole length dipping into the calm and warm waters to cool off at regular intervals!

Food: The focus on food is freshness and local, simplicity yet innovative, intricate and innovative!  There is a plethora of high end restaurants, small food bars and street food available.

We stopped by the side of the road to chat to this young lady who was cooking corn on the cob from her home garden and selling to passing motorists.

Then markets have piles and piles of fresh produce all locally grown, bananas, coconuts, limes, breadfruit and more.

And of course don't forget the rum.  Rum is my spirit drink of choice, on it's own with an ice cube, a splash of Coca Cola or local pineapple juice, mmmm!!

I was not paid to write this post. All opinions and photos are my own. No photos may be reproduced in any manor without my written permission.

Giveaway: - Chocolate and Love and who doesn't love chocolate!!

When Richard O'Connor's daughter became old enough to eat chocolate he wanted to make sure she ate only the best!

Richard and his partner struggled to find quality, organic chocolate so they decided to make their own. They sourced excellent great quality chocolate and committed to pay a fair price to the growers sourcing their ingredients for their chocolate from certified Fairtrade co-operatives, as well as the cane sugar, vanilla and coffee (their Coffee Bar - 55% dark chocolate with coffee was in fact my favourite).  Their cacao comes from Peru, The Dominican Republic - rich with notes of red berries and Panama - decadent and incredibly smooth. With the support of Fairtrade Premium the farmers can invest in their own communities including ensuring a supply of clean water.

Chocolate and Love has won Great Taste awards - 15 so far and they are confident of more in the future.

When I met Richard O/Connor he challenged me to taste his chocolate and not find it incredible. He was right - this chocolate is a rare treat.

This is not only a delicious collection but visually eye 'candy' as well! Richard and his partner Birgitte worked with designers in New York to produce the beautiful wrappers for their chocolate bars. The lovely floral wrappers are a delight with their cacao pods, cacao flowers, orange flowers, mint leaves, cocoa beans and so many other beautiful designs.

If you would like to win a box like the one above with four x 100g bars - one of each of Sea Salt (55% dark chocolate with caramel and sea salt), Filthy Rich (71% dark chocolate), Orange (65% dark chocolate with orange) and Creamy Dark (55% creamy dark chocolate and cacao nibs) then complete the Rafflecopter option below:-

I was sent a 4 bar selection box but was not required to write a positive review.  All photos and opinions are my own. a Rafflecopter giveaway

June: Bits-n-Bobs Review

I get sent a lot of products each month for review and each month I like to bring you a selection.

1. Cadbury have two new large bars out, great for sharing but of course perfect to eat by yourself! The two new flavours are 'Toffee Whole Nut' and 'Oreo Crunch'. Both available in most shops and supermarkets.

Mr R was very keen to get this one unwrapped!

Nice little squares for sharing ...... Who are you kidding no one would share this bar!

Oops and it's gone!! Mr R has put in an order for more of these next time I am shopping!!

2. Schwartz Grill Mates - Just add beef mince(ground beef) and shape into burgers 

then either grill or cook on the BBQ and you will have a fantastic and flavorsome burger.  The Grill mates come in two varieties - American Smokehouse and Classic Steakhouse.

Each packet is enough to make four large burgers when added to 450gm of beef mince.

3. HECK Vegetarian Sausages - If you are having a get together or gathering you don't want to leave out the vegetarians now do you.  Heck have a new range of vegetarian sausages and sent me some of them to try.

The double cheese 'sausages' tasted really cheesy however I pan fried them instead of grilling because I couldn't read the instructions on the pack. The light yellow outside packaging was written with white letters and really quite small which made it nearly impossible to read indoors.

The goat's cheese burgers would be welcomed by anyone loving goat's cheese however that is not me.  At least the packaging could be read!

The little green balls are a great way to get your 'super greens'!

4. Book Review - Mason Jar Nation by Joann Mosser, published by Quarto Books Group.

Mason jars have always been around in my lifetime. When I was younger people that we knew would grow their own produce and "put up" their gluts of things like peaches, beans, and sweetcorn relish. Every garage or shed had Mason jars full of nails and various screws.
As transport improved bringing fresh food to every village and town as well as the surge of home freezers the popularity of these jars seemed to dwindle.

However today there has been a surge in their popularity due initially to the move to make homemade jams and chutneys and  crafty and creative folk have found a plethora of uses for them as well as the obvious.

There are 50 great projects in this book but two of the projects in the book that caught my eye are Tabletop Mason Jar Water Fountain and

Tiki Torch Jar.

These are just a few thing I get sent to review.  There will be more next month.  Stay tuned and keep your eyes out to see what's on the menu for July.

I was sent a selection of goods to review.  I was not paid nor was I required to write positive reviews. All opinions and photos are my own.

Chocolate and Coffee - How do they go together

My ideal coffee-chocolate moment is to take a sip of my evening coffee and pop into my mouth a Lindt chocolate ball and let it melt with the warmth of the coffee. Mmmmm heaven!

But there is more to coffee pairing with chocolate than my little moment.

I was invited to an event with De'Longhi and Lindt and along with a Master Chocolatier and Master Coffee Blender we went through some of the aspects of how the coffee and chocolate go together.  Most of the examples we tasted were really defined coffee from countries like Ethopia and Baku to name a few.

My problem with this way of tasting coffee was that they were too strong for my taste buds so what could I do with all the lovely chocolate I got to take home and how to describe them.

Well in the words if a certain meerkat "simples"! I would do a coffee-chocolate comparison of my own!!

I chose to compare with the Lindt Excellence range.

Firstly I used my De'Longhi Icona vintage espresso maker and made my self a latte.  A latte is a very milky coffee and a sip of latte with a square of the dark (47% cocoa solids) especially Stawberry Intense from the Lindt Excellence range is simple a melting moment of summer and fresh strawberries.

Next I made a strongish coffee in my French press coffee maker and tried it with Lindt Excellence chocolate with chilli.  A dark chocolate with 49% cocoa solids and a hint of chilli. The smooth richness of the coffee melted the dark chocolate leaving a tingle on the tongue from the chilli!

47% cocoa solids feature in the Lindt Excellence chocolate with  A Touch of Sea Salt and with an Americano coffee (freshly made coffee from my De'Longhi machine with a touch of cold milk) left a haunting taste on the tongue in an interesting but still slightly dull background note of salt.

I followed on to the Lindt Excellence 70% chocolate which is smooth and velvety with slight undertones of vanilla, perfect with a hot steamy cappuccino and the chocolate with 85% cocoa solids which when melting in your mouth with a sip of hot coffee is just about as good as it gets!! This chocolate is neither bitter nor overpowering so neither should your coffee.  These latter two coffees also melt exceedngly well and make a chocolate cake so much more chocolatey and delicious!

What this all boils down to is that coffee and chocolate are two universal pleasures and at the same time are very individual. A great way to find out your tasting pleasures is to try a up of coffee that you really enjoy with a square of fine chocolate and let it melt on your tongue from the warmth of the coffee.

So put the kettle on or switch your coffee maker on and get tasting!!

 

RussellHobbs Cake Bake Competition

And the winner is ...... ME!!  I was invited to enter a competition sponsored by RussellHobbs recently to create a themed cake using their new Creations Food Machine.  I had never entered a compeition where I baked anything before which made this one all the more scary. 

New Creations Food Machine

First of all RussellHobbs asked their Facebook followers to vote for the flavour the bloggers would use.  The choices were Chocolate, Lemon, Coffee and Strawberry.  Unsurprisingly Chocolate won.  We were each given a category to bake a cake and mine was 'Celebration Birthday Cake'.  I am generally a competitive person once I say I will take part in something so the first thing was to sit down and plan the actual cake, filling and icing.  I decided to make my cake a Chocolate and Macadamia Nut Sponge with a Maple Caramel Filling and a Dark Chocolate Buttercream Icing!

Maple Caramel Filling using My Secret Kitchen Maple Caramel Sauce

We were sent a new and still unreleased Creations Food Machine to use to make our cakes and invited to bring the finished creation up to a London hotel for champagne and cake.  When the food machine arrived I set out to do a trial cake to get to know the machine and to make sure the recipe would work.  The first sponge I made was from the recipe book of a well known cooking celebrity and was so dry that it broke up when trying to put it on a plate!

The second attempt was not dry but didn't rise very well so I was quite nervous when starting the third attempt.  I opened a fresh bag of Self Raising Flour and double sifted it to make sure the final cake would be light and airy. The only other difference to the third cake was that instead of creaming the butter and sugar, adding the eggs one at a time etc, etc, I followed the instructions in the booklet which accompanied the Food Machine!  It directs you to put all the ingredients into the Food Machine and turn it on. Three minutes later pour the mixture into your two prepared cake tins.  I did this and the cake came out moist and well risen.

2nd vs 3rd attempt!

When the cake was finished I took it up to the competition in London.  Upon arrival we were offered a glass of Prosecco and put our entries on the counter top.  They all looked so good there was no way anyone could predict which one would win.  The Judges introduced themselves and then we introduced our blogs and told them a bit about our entries.

The Line-up

Judges tasted, keeping silent as they went along the line and making copious notes. Then whilst the judges went off to confir and decide on the winner we all got to try each other's offerings and drink some more Prosecco.  When the judges came back they gave a quick summing up of their notes on each entry and I was impressed how they gave their critiques without giving any hints to the winner.  The entries were judged on taste, smell, texture, overall look.

 

I have never baked a cake for a competition before so you can imagine how gobsmacked I was when I was the winner!

The Final Cake - let the judging commence!!

My prizes for winning have started to arrive with the rest due on Monday!