Caribbean Beat — January/February 2019 (#155)

cookup
Coco loco
Coconut — ubiquitous around the
Caribbean — is a longtime staple
ingredient for baking and sweets, and
savoury dishes like oildown. New health
trends have brought coconut oil back into
favour. And don’t talk about our insatiable
thirst for coconut water . . . Franka Philip
investigates a new coconut-centric
recipe book, and considers the potential
for even more culinary innovations
Illustration by Shalini Seereeram
I
love coconut bake. I’m always searching for
ways to make the “perfect” version. This
simple, lightly leavened bread is something
that says comfort to me. What we West
Indians call bake is a staple in many homes,
because it’s quickish and easy to make, if
you don’t mind kneading dough. There are many
variations, but for me, coconut lends the sweetness
and texture that make a bake irresistible.
It’s only recently that I’ve given serious thought
to how ubiquitous coconut is in Caribbean cuisine,
particularly baking and confectionery. If you walk
into a bakery, you’ll find coconut drops, coconut
tarts, coconut turnovers, pone, and coconut
bakes. Head to Store Bay, Tobago, and among the
much-sought-after sweets sold by vendors there,
you’ll find sugar cake (shredded coconut cooked
with sugar and spices), toolum (shredded coconut
cooked with molasses and spices), and chip chip
(chipped coconut cooked with sugar and spices).
There are several key savoury dishes that aren’t
complete without coconut milk — like breadfruit
oildown, for example. Trinis, Grenadians, and Vincentians
argue about who makes the best oildown,
but everyone agrees that coconut milk — the kind
made from fresh blended coconut, not the powder
from the pack that’s mixed with water — is crucial.
My coconut education got a proper upgrade a
few months ago, when I received a copy of Cooking
with Coconut, a book by American chef and food
journalist Ramin Ganeshram. Ganeshram’s father
was Trinidadian, and he was a major influence in
her approach to appreciating food. She is also the
author of Sweet Hands: Island Cooking from Trinidad
and Tobago, one of the best cookbooks about our
cuisine.
Cooking with Coconut is one of the few mainstream
coconut-only cookbooks on the market.
In an interview, Ganeshram said she wrote it as
a result of the growing popularity of coconut as a
“superfood.” “I began to notice first that the cuisine
of coconut-heavy cultures was coming into the
mainstream,” she says, “and then, that coconut
itself was taking hold as a crossover ingredient,
beginning with coconut water. Today, coconut has
‘jumped the shark’ if you will. I even see house
cleaning products with coconut here in the US.”
Although coconut might be at risk of becoming
over-exposed, Ganeshram believes that, based on
responses to the book, coconut is being explored
by people with alternative dietary preferences.
“The book has been most popular with coconut
lovers, but I’ve been pleased to see that it has created
some converts — usually from people eating
carb-free, gluten-free diets or vegan diets, who are
willing to try coconut as a substitute for various
things.”
Cooking with Coconut is the first cookbook I’ve
seen that gives details about using all the parts of
the coconut, from coconut meat to coconut milk, to
coconut nectar and coconut flour. Some of these are
not usually seen on our supermarket shelves here
in the Caribbean, but do bear some exploration —
like tadi, or the sap of the coconut palm. Ganeshram
explains in the book that it “can be consumed
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