Local Food in Domenica is a welcome change… I’m not missing a thing back in Tennessee | Sequatchie Cove Farm

Please don’t ask me how long I’ve been here. If I looked at the calendar it would probably say two weeks. But you never can tell. It is a little like being out in Sequatchie Cove- time has a different meaning.Since there is so much to say and nowhere to begin so I guess I will start small.I made my very first batch of coconut milk from beginning to end a few days ago. Making-coconut-milk-from-beginning-to-end has already retired off to the Land of Things Other People Are For- along with changing tires and picking okra.

First I found a strong handsome man to knock the coconuts out of the tree while I lay on the beach and looked at teeny shells. Then I carried the coconuts home, one under each arm, first over volcanic rocks by the raging sea and then up a steep muddy path to the house. Then I proceeded to aimlessly hit them with a cutlass (that is a machete but they call it a cutlass down here so so do I) that I have finally gotten the hang of sharpening (I think). After about thirty minutes of that I began to work out a technique for getting the very fibrous tough husk off. I am pretty sure the easy way to do this is to have a pole in the ground with a nice sharp blade on top and cut and wiggle and work the husk from the coconut with that. But I didn’t have one of those fine-tuned gadgets. Eventually I figured out if I set the coconut up on its end on the ground I could whack off pieces of the husk til I got down to the hard shell. Now, it is all well and good to get down to the hard shell of the coconut but pulling the husk off is a whole new battle. I did figure it out eventually though and by the time I got to my third coconut I was averaging about forty minutes a husking.

Then I had to get the meat out. That took me a little while to figure out til someone around here got the bright idea of looking in a cookbook. It said to roast it for about five minutes in a hot oven or less on a gas flame until the meat starts to separate from the shell. Since my oven doesn’t seem to be working I lit all the gas eyes in the kitchen and set the coconut parts on them (they aren’t quite ‘halves’ if you can’t aim a cutlass very well). I brought the first batch outside with me and set the second on the eyes. While I was outside banging at the roasted pieces trying to make the meat fall clean out (I did this a few days before with coconuts I had bought at the market pre-husked and it worked really well.

For some reason this time I had a little trouble) I realized I had forgotten the ones inside. Of course my trusty help who was supposed to be supervising them was too busy reading Anna Karenina and failed to notice that my coconuts were on fire. That was ok though. I kind of like smoky flavored coconut milk for savory things.So then, after all this was over we had to peel off the inner skin with a paring knife. Of course that takes forever (what fun would it be if it didn’t?) and is also very dangerous (also a great asset to the fun of it all). Somehow that step was also survived and I got down to the easy part- chopping the white oily chunks into little pieces and throwing them in the blender with a touch of water (the recipe says to use the coconut water that was inside but I would rather drink it myself and risk the milk being a little watered down tasting (which doesn’t happen)). After it was all blended I put the shredded coconut in a sieve and pushed out all of the juice I could possibly squeeze. Some of the leftover dry coconut meat got fed to Evie the guard dog and the other I kept to put in rice along with some fresh ginger from the market.

The next day I made a sauce with tomato and coconut milk and braised a couple hunks of tuna in it for about fifteen minutes and then it was all gone in about the same.Of course I could go on for miles and miles about my adventures with breadfruit or the dasheen chips I fried last night or the many different kinds of avocadoes or the super fresh super cheap fish or the boys who scale it for you at the market or the tangerine I ate at lunch or the redfish with starfruit or the lizards in the compost or the black hummingbirds with little green hats out back… but I don’t think I will. I think I’ll make this the shortest letter I’ve ever written and just leave it at that. I have too much to say and it will never do to try and get it all out at once. (And I hear a thunderstorm coming)

So- until next time. I hope everyone is cooking away and enjoying the cool weather as much as I am NOT missing it.
Please don’t ask me how long I’ve been here. If I looked at the calendar it would probably say two weeks. But you never can tell. It is a little like being out in Sequatchie Cove- time has a different meaning.

Since there is so much to say and nowhere to begin so I guess I will start small.

I made my very first batch of coconut milk from beginning to end a few days ago. Making-coconut-milk-from-beginning-to-end has already retired off to the Land of Things Other People Are For- along with changing tires and picking okra.

First I found a strong handsome man to knock the coconuts out of the tree while I lay on the beach and looked at teeny shells. Then I carried the coconuts home, one under each arm, first over volcanic rocks by the raging sea and then up a steep muddy path to the house. Then I proceeded to aimlessly hit them with a cutlass (that is a machete but they call it a cutlass down here so so do I) that I have finally gotten the hang of sharpening (I think). After about thirty minutes of that I began to work out a technique for getting the very fibrous tough husk off. I am pretty sure the easy way to do this is to have a pole in the ground with a nice sharp blade on top and cut and wiggle and work the husk from the coconut with that. But I didn’t have one of those fine-tuned gadgets. Eventually I figured out if I set the coconut up on its end on the ground I could whack off pieces of the husk til I got down to the hard shell. Now, it is all well and good to get down to the hard shell of the coconut but pulling the husk off is a whole new battle. I did figure it out eventually though and by the time I got to my third coconut I was averaging about forty minutes a husking.

Then I had to get the meat out. That took me a little while to figure out til someone around here got the bright idea of looking in a cookbook. It said to roast it for about five minutes in a hot oven or less on a gas flame until the meat starts to separate from the shell. Since my oven doesn’t seem to be working I lit all the gas eyes in the kitchen and set the coconut parts on them (they aren’t quite ‘halves’ if you can’t aim a cutlass very well). I brought the first batch outside with me and set the second on the eyes. While I was outside banging at the roasted pieces trying to make the meat fall clean out (I did this a few days before with coconuts I had bought at the market pre-husked and it worked really well. For some reason this time I had a little trouble) I realized I had forgotten the ones inside. Of course my trusty help who was supposed to be supervising them was too busy reading Anna Karenina and failed to notice that my coconuts were on fire. That was ok though. I kind of like smoky flavored coconut milk for savory things.

So then, after all this was over we had to peel off the inner skin with a paring knife. Of course that takes forever (what fun would it be if it didn’t?) and is also very dangerous (also a great asset to the fun of it all). Somehow that step was also survived and I got down to the easy part- chopping the white oily chunks into little pieces and throwing them in the blender with a touch of water (the recipe says to use the coconut water that was inside but I would rather drink it myself and risk the milk being a little watered down tasting (which doesn’t happen). After it was all blended I put the shredded coconut in a sieve and pushed out all of the juice I could possibly squeeze. Some of the leftover dry coconut meat got fed to Evie the guard dog and the other I kept to put in rice along with some fresh ginger from the market.

The next day I made a sauce with tomato and coconut milk and braised a couple hunks of tuna in it for about fifteen minutes and then it was all gone in about the same.

Of course I could go on for miles and miles about my adventures with breadfruit or the dasheen chips I fried last night or the many different kinds of avocadoes or the super fresh super cheap fish or the boys who scale it for you at the market or the tangerine I ate at lunch or the redfish with starfruit or the lizards in the compost or the black hummingbirds with little green hats out back… but I don’t think I will. I think I’ll make this the shortest letter I’ve ever written and just leave it at that. I have too much to say and it will never do to try and get it all out at once. (And I hear a thunderstorm coming)

So- until next time. I hope everyone is cooking away and enjoying the cool weather as much as I am NOT missing it.

Filed under: Local Food Letter on November 17th, 2009 |