Campus Buzz: Almonds as Easter sweets

Coming across sugarcoated almond candies at this time of the year is a delight, writes Annie Datta in From the Varsity.

"Eat a lot of almonds on Easter", says my teacher while wishing me a happy Easter in advance. Almonds, it seems, form an essential part of Easter festivities. Coming across sugarcoated almond candies at this time of the year is a delight. Probably it was during the Easter season that my father had brought a wrapped-up gift years ago during a trip abroad. The sweets have a special relevance for me as they bring back equally sweet memories of childhood when I would sneak in quietly to pop one almond after another from a glass container. Surprisingly, even today the sweets look tempting. To the average sensibility however, Easter is associated with eggs and rabbits. Almonds though provide a relief from a surfeit of the conventional.

Easter is a time when one can freely appease one's craving for sweets. Age is no bar to this free-for-all. People who have literally renounced the world refuse to give up the habit. There are those who against the doctor's strict advice consume sweets even if that means injecting themselves with an antidote. These days the Bombay Patti is the latest upper class fad in India. Far from home you can prepare a close analogue of the same. Heat the sugar till it melts and then add almonds to the caramel. Mix it well and flatten it with a rolling pin before cutting it into small squares. Another innovation with almonds this Easter could be with spices. Toasting the almonds and adding a mixture of sesame seeds, cinnamon, curry powder (caril), clove and black pepper to the frying pan.

It's also possible to make tarts, covered cake (Bolo coberto), Tarteletes, Jesuítas and pudding with almonds as the main ingredient. There are various regional sweets in Portugal where almond is a star content. We have for instance Dochinhos de amêndoa, D. Rodrigos, Morgadinhos, Arrepiados, Touchinho-do-céu de Amarante and Talhadas de Cister.

Almond trees are aesthetically very pleasing especially when in bloom in spring in the Douro region, north of Portugal. Thousands of tourists from all over Portugal visit this region every year, attracted by the almond blossom on the banks of the river Douro in the region of Riba-Côa. Almond trees are said to have originated in the Middle East. There are references to the almond tree in the Bible, which also establishes its religious significance. The "Book of Numbers" tells the story of Aaron's rod that blossomed and bore almonds, giving almond the symbolism of divine approval. Almonds trees flourish elsewhere in the Mediterranean too.

Sugarcoated almonds are part of wedding ceremonies even today. There is so much to be said about the almond that the tree demands an Ode to itself. It has fired the imagination of writers and poets like D H Lawrence and Pablo Neruda. The tree becomes the idyllic and the erotic - women clapping hands under a tree in the far- away or the human skin assuming the colour of desire.

Easter has obvious associations with fertility and new life. This explains the importance of the egg symbol in most cultures. Exchanging eggs in the springtime is a custom that is centuries old. Eggs were often wrapped in gold leaf or, coloured brightly by boiling them with the leaves or petals of flowers. The habit of offering coloured eggs or decorations started in Portugal, in the XVth century.

Numerous culinary traditions mark the Easter celebration. As is so often the case, celebration is linked to suffering and sorrow. Easter follows the Lent. Sober subterranean thoughts compel one to wonder if after all man's life is nothing but nuts meant to be cracked open by suffering to reveal the figurative kernel that is man's real self behind a hardened, determined outer crust.

I would personally associate this time of the year with confession (howsoever inconsequential) and prayer, the two definite steps to a person's upward climb. Recall John Donne, the English metaphysical poet and preacher, when he states in Death's Duel how Jesus went into prayer prior to the Crucifixion. The message is man's humility and reconciliation. Man's willingness to submit to the will of God and seek contemporaneity with Him.