The Coconut Scraper #Thursdaytip

 Scraping the coconut is almost like a morning raga in most Malayali homes (Kerala, India). Most of the delicacies prepared in Kerala start and at times end with this (in desserts such as payasams). Most homes require almost two coconuts a day if one goes through the whole nine yards of preparing the so called "nutritious" Malayali sadhya.

Chez moi( @home) a coconut lasts us like a week!!! very minimal usage although we do love the addition of its various concoctions in our meals. I have this lovely scraper which is attached almost screwed onto my granite kitchen counter top. It was presented to me by my mother-n-law almost a quarter of a century ago when I moved to Chennai with the beloved.

 This is the most useful tool at home as one can use this without much strain to the back. I can stand against this and scrape the coconut. I know there are motorised versions and so many other avatars...but I am possessive about this and extremely loyal to this. It has a lot of sentimental value both in terms of its purpose as well as the person behind presenting me this.

While growing up in Kuwait, mama used to use desiccated coconut which would be taken in parts from a huge packet and then kept back in the freezer section. Gradually, a few shops that catered to the Malayalis started selling the coconuts all the way from Kerala. I have so many fond memories of my late mother's occasional shopping ventures to Koya Kada (Shop belonging to Koya) I have no clue if they still exist, I haven't done my research on that! I am talking about the Koya Kada back in the 70s! Everything about the country died with us once the Iraq- Kuwait war commenced.

Fortunately we as a family were safe here in India. But there were other repercussions in terms of my father's employment etc. Many of our family members did go through hell and did travel as refugees by road and from there I don't know how but many returned home insane but safe. Many had jobs, homes, salaries and cars that they were forced to abandon...Anyway, time has erased that pain and people have moved on...sorry for that diversion in the lead story! Coming back to my coconut scraper-it's the hero of my kitchen without which I would feel ill equipped!

 This is the space that I allotted for this scraper in my kitchen as I can stand against this without any hindrance. I take great pride in showing off my coconut scraper...Oh did you think that I was just talking about the tool? Oh the tool came in with my human coconut scraper as well. That was the bonus my mother-in-law gave me. I owe it all to her :) Ok credit goes to the father-in-law as well (Cheesy smile!!!)

 The husband ensures that he scrapes for me much in advance for the week. With age creeping in, I find this a herculean task! If I don't get my week's quota done in time, I skip many of the thorans/poriyals and just sauté the veggies sans the coconut.

Seeing my handy coconut scraper, two or three of my colleagues/friends have asked me to source it for them during my teaching days and I have carried it for them all the way from Kerala.

In fact, a couple of years back I had bumped into this colleague at the supermarket in my vicinity and she refreshed my memory and said that she could never ever forget me because of that scraper! Oh my...my rusted brain forgot about that...I am so glad I did that for her!

So if you can manage to get one of these, do find a nice corner or a space to place this especially if your cooking involves a lot of grated coconut. Once the use is over with, clean the sharp blade with a kitchen absorbent paper and place its cap (the orange cap seen in the pic) back on so that while moving about in the kitchen in all your chaotic routine, one/one's domestic help doesn't accidentally scrape yourself/herself/himself against the sharp scraper.

I am fortunate that at times when I require the scraped version urgently, there is a shop within my radius that stores the grated version in the fridge section. I am very apprehensive when I do buy it, I do open the lid and smell if it has turned rancid, if not then I just go ahead and buy it. When we stayed in Colombo for a while,  they have the motorised version in the supermarket. You can pick the coconut of your choice and go up to the staff in charge of that or the supervisor of that area and he or she would scrape it for you.

That's the one in my hometown which my mother used and many others as well who had helped her in the kitchen. One can sit on this, place a plate under that toothed blade and scrape the coconut. The grated bits fall into the dish. At the moment this looks like a nice photo prop for me.