Kitchen Essentials: Kanthne - Coconut Scraper for grating coconut

Coconut is used very heavily in Manglorean cooking. I think grandma used to use up over 6-8 coconuts a day when the whole family was over for meals. Mum still uses about 4-5 a day when we are all at home and she wants to cook Manglorean food for us.

Most Manglorean food, needing coconut, needs it to be grated: whether it will be used as it is, ground into a masala paste or if the milk has to be extracted, the coconut needs to be grated first.

The only city I have ever been able to buy freshly grated coconut is Bombay. Its easy to make do with frozen coconut, but the taste is obviously way beter if you are using fresh coconut.

When living in Egypt, there was a time when all the coocnuts arriving in the market were rotten. At that time, I did substitute dessicated coconut, by soaking it in a few tsps of milk first.

If coconut oil is not available, you can get a hint of the flavour by roasting dessicated coconut in a non-stongly flavored cooking oil.

But nothing, can beat the taste of a freshly grated cooconut.

The traditional Manglorean implement for grating the coconut is the "kanthne".

It is a short stool with a serrated blade attached at the end.

The person doing the grating has to sit astride the kanthne with the serrated blade in front of them.

Using several practiced movements, the flesh is scraped away from the shell.

The curve of the blade ensures that you get every bit of flesh away from the curved shell.

That's how much flesh you can get out of half a coconut.
I don't like the last dry bits of the edges as they add a brownish color to the dishes, and are dryer in texture thats why there is still a few slivers of flesh left inside the shell.

Voila - the freshly grated coconut!

As I mentioned at the beginning, this grated coconut can be used directly in dishes and desserts. It can be ground for masalas, coconut milk can be extracted out of it.

A few teaspoons of this normally does end up in my mouth. I love the taste of fresh coconut. Slip a little sugar into it or some pieces of jaggery and its an instant pick me up.

When the maids used to grate coconuts in grandma's house or if I could manage to let them allow me to do the grating myself (the blade is very sharp and grandma didn't like the "children" anywhere near the blade,) I always popped a few teaspoons into my mouth. But nana being nana always knew if any flesh was missing from the plate (she also knew if any mangoes were missing from the trees!). She used to give me an old Manglorean warning which said that yeh tuve kelyaar, tujha rosachya disak paus yetale puta if you eat the grated coconut which is meant for cooking, it will rain on the day of your roce (Manglorean ceremony held the day before the wedding)

I think it did drizzle before my roce!

Kitchen Essentials: Koithi - Sickle

A koithi was always a must,  in every Mangalorean house.

It is used in the fields and farms to cut grass, on the estate when taking a walk, to break away branches from coffee shrubs that had grown too long, to cut off fruits from the trees without damaging the stems or the fruit. But it was also used within the house.

I have seen women practiced in the art, actually grip the koithi handle between their big and second toes and clean fish with the curved blade and chop vegetables. No need for an adalo, just the koithi would do.

With the introduction of better quality knives, the koithi is slowly being eased out of Manglorean kitchens.

While I personally do not use it to chop vegetables, I definitely need it when I'm cooking with coconuts.

The sharp tip is used to clean up the fibre on the exterior of the coconut. Then using the back of the curved part of the koithi, you hit the coconut hard around its mid section, until the shell cracks.

Using the sharp tip of the koithi,seperate the two halves of the coconut, keeping a bowl or a glass handy to collect the water inside the coconut (which is not as tasty as tender coconut water/ bonda neeru, but its quite drinkable too - very cooling and high in Potassium - so good for rehydration)

This entire process is normally completed on the edge of the kitchen sink to reduce the clean up of the coconut fibres and in case any water spills out of the coconut.

Looking for Xmas gifts?

Stuck looking for Xmas gifts?

Well its the easiest thing to do, for people in your family and friend circle who love cooking. Gourmet foods, Stoneware, Flatware, Kitchen knick knacks. The list is endless no matter what your budget.

Choose a Holiday themed dinner set like those available from Pfaltzgraff stoneware.



If you like to cook and have friends who aren't too keen on the measuring and preparation behind cooking and baking, then use one of the many recipe sites on the net to search for a "in a jar" recipe. Like Brownies in a jar, Soup in a jar, Cookies in a Jar or something else. Decorate the jar and voila you have an inexpensive gift which can be treasured by the receiver.

These are also a great return gift if you have called people over for dinner.

Wondering what new dishes to cook for these you have invited? Here are some ideas for dinner recipes