In Sanskrit, the coconut palm is known as kalpa vriksha, meaning "tree which gives all that is necessary for living". Nearly all the parts of the coconut tree can be used in some manner or another. The coconut itself has many food uses, including milk, meat, sugar and oil as well as functioning as its own dish and cup! Because ot the moisturizing properties of the oil, and delicious fragrance it is used to make soap and is recommended to keep the hair and skin healthy and beautiful. The husk is used to make brushes, mats, fishing nets, rope and it is also burnt for fuel.
I am very much into cooking healthy and delicious meals. Coconut oil is the best cooking oil available. The only problem is that it is so difficult to find sometimes. The thought have crossed my mind about making my own coconut oil: I do have the coconuts + we need coconut oil, why not trying? I will keep you posted on this project!
Next are two paragraphs on the health benefits of using coconut oil. They were written by Dr. Raymond Peat. The full document could be found at Long Natural Health
"The unsaturated oils in some cooked foods become rancid in just a few hours, even at refrigerator temperatures, and are responsible for the stale taste of left-over foods. (Eating slightly stale food isn't particularly harmful, since the same oils, even when eaten absolutely fresh, will oxidize at a much higher rate once they are in the body, where they are heated and thoroughly mixed with an abundance of oxygen.) Coconut oil that has been kept at room temperature for a year has been tested for rancidity, and showed no evidence of it. Since we would expect the small percentage of unsaturated oils naturally contained in coconut oil to become rancid, it seems that the other (saturated) oils have an antioxidative effect: I suspect that the dilution keeps the unstable unsaturated fat molecules spatially separated from each other, so they can't interact in the destructive chain reactions that occur in other oils. To interrupt chain-reactions of oxidation is one of the functions of antioxidants, and it is possible that a sufficient quantity of coconut oil in the body has this function. It is well established that dietary coconut oil reduces our need for vitamin E, but I think its antioxidant role is more general than that, and that it has both direct and indirect antioxidant activities."
"The anti-obesity effect of coconut oil is clear in all of the animal studies, and in my friends who eat it regularly. It is now hard to get it in health food stores, since Hain stopped selling it. The Spectrum product looks and feels a little different to me, and I suppose the particular type of tree, region, and method of preparation can account for variations in the consistency and composition of the product. The unmodified natural oil is called "76 degree melt," since that is its natural melting temperature. One bottle from a health food store was labeled "natural coconut oil, 92% unsaturated oil," and it had the greasy consistency of old lard. I suspect that someone had confused palm oil (or something worse) with coconut oil, because it should be about 96% saturated fatty acids."
Enjoy your Coconut Meringue Pie! Yum!
Tags: coco, coconut, cookingdiva, pie, panama, personal chef
Its great too see your cocunt history and its uses.
I have cooked some dishes using cocunut myself. Please feel free to take a look at your leisure.
Thanks,
Posted by: sushma | September 16, 2006 at 03:13 PM