Grated coconut is seasoned savory and sweet for serving vegetables. As a delicious vegetable salad.
In Indonesia, we have a typical vegetable salad. With seasoning from Spiced Coconut. This is because parents in the past, especially in my area, did not know salad dressings made from mayonnaise or similar.
Coconut provides a delicious flavor for us, especially people who live on the outskirts of villages. With so many coconut trees, we often make daily meals from coconut ingredients. One of them is serving boiled vegetables with spiced coconut. So, for today I will make this menu.
Inspired by coconut, I will make a food art. Food that is not only delicious and what we usually eat. But it is also beautiful food and can be used for photography purposes ❤️
Fresh And Beautiful Mature Coconut
I have a mature coconut which is fresh and beautiful. Not that old. This is great if served as grated coconut for spiced coconut. It's different if the coconut is too old, which is suitable for squeezing as coconut milk.
I also split this fresh mature coconut into two parts. Before it was completely split into two parts, I took out the coconut water from inside the coconut. I got a cup of coconut water.
You can see that the coconut flesh is very white, which is a sign that the coconut is fresh. Also the texture is crunchy.
You have to throw away the coconut flesh which has a watery and soft texture.
Apart from that, fresh coconut has a delicious fragrance that is unique to coconut flesh.
Well, for this recipe, I only used half of the coconut. It will become a big dish when it is grated later.
For the spices, I used onion, garlic, and red chili. Then, use brown sugar to make a delicious combination of sweet and savory flavors.
Spiced Coconut Ingredients
- Half of mature coconut
- 3 cloves of garlic
- 5 small cloves of red onion
- 3 kaffir lime leaves
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 cup of chopped brown sugar
- 1/4 cup of water
For the veggies, I use long beans and corn. You can also use sprouts or any of your favorite veggie types.
Preparing Coconut
After splitting the coconut into two parts, I pried out the coconut flesh.
You can see that the skin underneath the coconut flesh is blackish brown. This part is hard and should be discarded.
So, after removing the coconut flesh from the coconut shell, I also had to peel the brownish skin.
When the coconut flesh is clean without hard skin, then the coconut can be grated. I used a cheese grater because my traditional grater was broken.
This is the result of grated coconut. Enough to make several servings of up to 4 servings of vegetable salad. Then, grated coconut too
Making Seasoning
Here, I use a little red chili ingredient. You can skip the red chili. Actually, the final taste of this seasoning is not too spicy because it uses brown sugar. That's why the taste becomes sweet with a little spicy.
First, we blend those ingredients except kaffir lime leaves. Blend until perfectly smooth.
Then, cook the seasoning until it boils with the kaffir lime leaves.
After the seasoning boils, add chopped brown sugar. Cook until the brown sugar is completely melted.
Cooking Grated Coconut
After seasoning with brown sugar, add grated coconut. Stir well continuously. Use medium heat so it doesn't burn.
Cook the grated coconut until it looks a bit dry in texture from seasoning. Then lift.
Boil The Veggies
If you use green leafy such as lettuce, you don't need to boil those vegetables. But here I use long beans and corn. So I need to boil them first.
Boil the water first. Then add a teaspoon of salt. Add long beans and corn. For long beans, boil for 5 minutes. And, boil corn 10 minutes.
Remove them and set aside to let them cool at room temperature.
Serving Veggie Salad
Before serving, chop the boiled long beans. Also, remove corn from the corn cob.
In a bowl, mix Spiced Coconut with boiled vegetables. Then, ready to serve.
For food art purposes, I use the remaining half of the coconut for serving way. I also used cucumber to decorate the coconut base.
Then, add veggie coconut salad. Looks perfectly fresh and beautiful, right? Do you think this is food art? I'd love to hear your opinion. See you, veggie lovers!
Thank you for reading my blog and reblog if you want my blog this time worthy of reading by others.
Best Regards,
Anggrek Lestari
Anggrek Lestari is an Indonesian fiction writer who has published two major books. Now She is a full-time content creator. She has a goal to share life, poem, and food content that makes others happy and can get inspiration.
Contact Person: authoranggreklestari@gmail.com
Discord: anggreklestari#3009
