The woman turning Brussels sprouts, and other things, into spoon sweets
It’s green and crunchy and most people either love it or hate it. There are dozens of recipes cooking Brussels sprouts – which come into their own during the festive season – in the oven, with cheese flakes or a honey glaze but what if they could satisfy your sweet tooth? One woman in Cyprus has transformed them into the ultimate traditional dessert – Brussels sprout spoon sweets!
In Cyprus, tiny plates of spoon sweets typically end a meal at a tavern, best enjoyed with a Cypriot coffee. Every grandmother’s house has a jar of them in some cabinet. The flavours are plenty – walnuts, watermelon, citrus, grapes, the list goes on. Yet these are the ordinary flavours, the traditional recipes. Believe it or not, there are many more experimental spoon sweets out there. Think olives, garlic, jasmine blossoms, tomato and even, Brussels sprouts.
In the Limassol village of Doros, Katerina Christoforou is leading the way with one of the island’s most famous sweet brands. Katerina Cyprus Sweets has been in business for decades, making all kinds. But, keen to blend tradition with innovation, Katerina began creating new spoon-sweet flavours.
“Why not experiment?” she says, “I make the traditional ones and people love them but I also wanted to take it a step further.” So many fruits, vegetables and flower blossoms have health benefits and nutrients, she decided to make them into spoon sweets.
“Cooked garlic doesn’t smell, so we can enjoy it as a sweet and get all its qualities without its strong aftertaste. Surprisingly, Brussels sprouts are soft as a spoon sweet, there is of course a process to prepare them.”
It is not often that you will find Brussels sprouts, cucumbers, rose flowers or coconut in a syrupy glass jar yet Katerina’s recipes bring a taste of something unusual. An ancestral Cypriot dessert with a twist. The most popular ones are the traditional flavours she admits, the walnuts, cherries and grapes. “Cypriots tend to love those, whereas foreigners tend to enjoy the citrusy flavours.”
Katerina’s willingness to experiment extends beyond unusual flavours; she was also the first in Cyprus to create diabetic-friendly spoon sweets, and her whole range of products uses no preservatives at all. Her philosophy, whether making peculiar sweets or age-old recipes, is to use what nature offers, what is abundant on the island. She emphasises sustainability, using every part of the fruit, from blossoms and pollen to pits and skins.
This is how it was in the old days too she says, nothing would go to waste. “Our ancestors would use dried hollow squash gourds, the kolodji, as storage units like we use bottles today. They would even use them for water to wash themselves. All from the humble kolodji, so just imagine what nature offers us.”
Katerina keeps this connection to the past and her childhood memories in Lapithos as her love for Cyprus sweets comes down to one person – her grandmother, also Katerina.
“I was the eldest of six children and I remember watching my grandmother in the kitchen often,” she says. “I loved baking. I slowly picked it up, observing my aunts and other women of the community making delicious sweets. My grandmother was always next to me, she showed me everything and then I began to expand my knowledge.”
What is now an award-winning business making authentic Cypriot products, began as a hobby. Katerina recalls leaving her hometown after the 74 war to find relatives in Australia. Her father and siblings still live there but something pulled her back to Cyprus. She returned in 1981 after having studied maths and fine art degrees and began making sweets as a hobby while pregnant.
“It has been very much a family affair since the beginning. I started alone at the house I raised my children in, with my grandmother by my side. I would find all these fresh fruits fallen from the trees and nobody would care for them. I’d pick them up and make jams, what a pity to waste them!
“My aunts helped me find my first customers. I remember I would stop at every hotel on Limassol’s seafront, belly forward as I was pregnant, and I’d take my spoon sweets to them. Now, it has been 33 years that we collaborate with some hotels – Four Seasons and Amathus included.”
Today, apart from employees, Katerina’s children are integral to the business as well. Her daughter is the face of the company as the logo of a girl dressed in a traditional Cypriot outfit, is her when she was a teenager.
“They have been with me from the start,” she calls. “My children grew up around sweets. I remember when my son was a toddler he would climb down to where I had my jars and eat them, I’d find tiny fingerprints in my jams!”
The Christmas period is their busiest time of year she says as people flock to their shop in Doros village or order online to get their ingredients for Christmas cakes, glaze, icing, liqueur to douse their desserts in and chopped-up spoon sweets.
The spoon sweets, both the traditional kind and the alternative, can be used in many dishes, Katerina says. “Chefs like to use the mushroom spoon sweet to decorate their plates, for example, I’ve seen this happen a lot.” Walnut sweet ice cream is now available at some gelato shops, barmen use walnut liqueur in their cocktails and Brussels sprouts spoon sweets can accompany a nice risotto.
The ideas are endless and while preserving tradition, Katerina uses Cyprus’ local goods to celebrate the island’s raw materials. “Nature gives us what we need, it is all around us so, why not use it?”
Find Katerina Cyprus Sweets at www.katerinasweets.com or their shop in Doros, B8, Limassol 4750. Tel: 25 432000