The Easter season, like all major events in the annual calendar, comes with its own culinary traditions. Here in Bermuda, Good Friday is synonymous with hot cross buns and codfish cakes, while the Easter Sunday menu can vary according to family traditions.

For the main meal, some like to repeat highlights of the Christmas menu: roast turkey or baked ham, cassava pie and fresh vegetables, while others opt for roast lamb because of its Christian association with the paschal lamb. A traditional codfish breakfast is also popular on both Good Friday and Easter Sunday, and in the Portuguese community a special version of Portuguese Sweet Bread, baked in the form of a cross with whole eggs baked in the dough.

However families choose to celebrate the holiday, now is the time to assemble the necessary ingredients so that all will be prepared on time.

Here are some traditional Bermuda recipes for you to enjoy.

2 lbs. codfish, soaked overnight

Boiled potatoes

Avocado pear, sliced

Whole bananas, peeled

SOAK codfish overnight in cold water with a few drops of vinegar. Place in pot, cover with fresh cold water, cover pot and simmer until skin can be removed (if using codfish with skin).

Replace fish in pot and cover with boiling water and simmer until cooked. Serve with boiled potatoes, avocado pear, and bananas. Pass separately a bowl of warmed sweet olive.

1 lb. cooked codfish, flaked

3 cups mashed potato

1 egg

tsp. pepper

1 tsp. seasoning salt

tsp. thyme leaves

1 lb. chopped parsley

BEAT egg in a bowl. Add flaked codfish and mashed potato. Mix well. Add seasonings, onion and parsley. Mix well. Form into patties. Dust with flour and fry until golden brown.

Don?t like codfish cakes? Then try these delicious meat patties ? a perfect way to eat and fly your kite at the same time!

Sieve together four cups flour, one tablespoon curry powder, one teaspoon salt. Work in lb. shortening or lard and enough iced water to hold dough together. Refrigerate in foil for 12 hours. Remove 15 mins. before using, and pull off just enough to make one patty at a time. Roll out pastry and cut into six-inch circles. Flour each circle and stack. Cover with a damp cloth.Mince two onions, one ounce of scallions, two hot peppers. Add to two pounds ground beef. Heat two ounce oil in frying pan, add minced beef and stir fry for ten minutes. Add lb. bread crumbs, three sprigs thyme, two tablespoons of curry powder, one tablespoon salt. Mix well, then add one cup water. Simmer for further hour. Cool. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Spoon meat mixture on prepared pastry circles, fold over and seal edges by crimping with a fork. Bake on ungreased baking sheets for 30-35 minutes until brown. Yield: approximately three dozen.

1 cup milk

1 cup brown sugar, lightly packed

2 tsp. salt

cup shortening

1 tsp. sugar

cup lukewarm water

2 pkgs. yeast

1 egg, beaten

1 egg, separated

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. nutmeg

1 tsp. ginger

5 to 5 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup brown raisins

SCALD milk and pour into large bowl. Add brown sugar, salt, and shortening. Stir until shortening melts. Cool to lukewarm. Meanwhile, in a separate bowl dissolve one teaspoon sugar in lukewarm water. Over this, sprinkle yeast. Let stand ten minutes. Stir briskly with fork. Add to milk mixture. Add beaten egg and egg yolk. Add spices. Beat in 2 cups flour. Then beat in raisins. Then gradually beat in the remaining flour.

Turn dough onto lightly floured surface and knead eight to ten minutes. Shape into a smooth ball and place in a greased bowl. Cover and let rise until doubled ? approximately 1 hours.

Punch down and shape into 18 to 20 buns. Place on greased baking sheets. Let rise until double ? 45 to 60 minutes. Beat egg white with one tablespoon of water and brush over top of buns. Slash top of bun to form a cross. Preheat over to 400 degrees F. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes or until done.

8 lbs. cassava

lb. butter

cup flour

2 tbsp. salt

1 tsp. nutmeg

8 eggs

3 cups sugar

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tbsp. cinnamon

1 cup sherry wine 4 lbs. chicken

2 lbs. pork

Salt, pepper, thyme to taste

BOIL chicken and pork in seasoned water until tender. Cool. Remove any bones from chicken. Break up chicken and pork into small pieces. Reserve stock.

Cream butter and sugar, add beaten eggs. Add cassava and mix well. Sift flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Combine with cassava mixture, add sherry and mix well. Line bottom and sides of a deep pan with some of the mixture; add meat mixture. Add 1 cup of stock. Cover with cassava mixture and bake in slow oven for four hours.

5 lbs. flour

1 lbs. sugar

18 eggs

lb. vegetable shortening

cup lukewarm milk

1 tbsp. salt

1 tbsp. lemon juice

lb. butter

2 pkgs. yeast

BEAT eggs with sugar. Dissolve yeast in cup warm water. Rub butter and shortening into flour, salt, and lemon juice. Add egg and sugar mixture, then the milk and the dissolved yeast. Mix well and knead as ordinary bread. Let rise three to four hours. Knead again and put into loaf pans. Let rise again two to three hours. Brush tops of loaves with a little sugar dissolved in water. Bake in slow over (250 degrees) for one hour.

Special for Easter: Line a pie plate with bread dough and place two strips over it in the form of a cross. In each of the flour spaces between the strips place an uncooked egg, shell and all. While the bread is baking, the egg will, of course, be baking too. The bread is served cut into wedges; the eggs are shelled and eaten with it.

5 lb. leg of boneless lamb

1 cup olive oil

cup red wine vinegar

2 tbsp. minced garlic

cup fresh, chopped parsley

cup fresh, chopped dill

4 tbsp. fresh, rubbed oregano

Black pepper

WHISK together oil, vinegar, garlic, parsley, dill, oregano, and pepper. Butterfly the lamb and pepper generously on both sides. Cut some slits in the meat. Marinate the lamb for two to 24 hours.

Drain marinade from lamb and put lamb in 425 degree F oven in shallow roasting pan for about 45 minutes, or until internal temperature reaches 135 degrees F. Let lamb rest before serving. Yield: eight servings.

4 cups loquats

1 cup sugar

cup water

2 tbsp. flour

tsp. cinnamon

teaspoon allspice

tsp. salt

teaspoon ginger

Pastry to line, cover 8-9-inch pie dish

PREPARE pastry. Wash and quarter loquats, removing seeds. Combine loquats and water and cook till tender, about 15 minutes. Sift dry ingredients together then stir into loquats. Cook over medium heat till mixture thickens, remove from heat and partially cool. Line pastry dish with half the pastry. Pour in loquat mixture. Cover with top crust and bake at 450 degrees F for ten minutes, then 350 degrees F for 30 minutes.

1 cup oil

2 cups sugar

3 eggs

3 cups flour

1 tsp. baking soda

2 tsp. cinnamon

tsp. nutmeg

tsp. salt

3 cups loquats, skinned, pitted & chopped

1 cup chopped walnuts

2 tsp. vanilla

PREHEAT oven to 350 degrees F. Mix all ingredients in order given. Beat for additional two minutes with electric mixer. Bake until cake is done, approximately 30 to 35 minutes.