Happy Sunday, Everyone!
The inspiration for my coconut rice this Sunday is my neighbor. She traveled for a wedding and when she returned, she brought coconut and some other stuff for me.
As much as I love to eat coconut, 🥥 I find it very difficult to buy it because of the ridiculous prices placed on it. A small one may be priced seven hundred naira or eight hundred naira, while the big ones may be priced one thousand five hundred naira or one thousand four hundred naira as the case maybe.
This has always been my reason for not bothering to buy it because I used to think it's a waste of money. It's in front of our house, all my life, I've never bought it with money and the prices made it more difficult for me to get it even when I crave it.
With the gift, came some creativity.
The first thing that came to my mind when I saw it was was coconut rice it's been a really long time I prepared it. So, I kept it for some days to have enough money for everything I would want to put in it.
The ingredients for use are as follows:
Rice
Coconut extract (juice)
Vegetable oil
Turkey wings
Chilli peppers
Tomatoes
Red bell peppers
Seasoning powder
Onions
Salt
I started the process by draining the water from the coconut because I don't want a drop of it to waste. I got the water and kept it aside in the fridge. After that, I broke the coconut and removed the shell.
We almost eat half of it while removing the shell because it was really delicious.
After that, it was time to grate it manually. That's the only means I have to process it so I used my manual grater to work it out.
When I was through working on that, I poured water in it for and set it aside. That's the water that will be used for the cooking so, I wanted it to get the flavor needed.
After some minutes, I extracted the juice from the shaft with a sieve. This gave me a pure liquid without any chaff. This liquid is going to be used for the cooking of the Rice, so I set it aside and trash the chaff.
Now is time to start cooking.
I added a little vegetable oil in a clean dry pot on low heat, and used it to fry the turkey wings, after frying it, I used just a little of the oil for the food because the coconut juice will still bring out it's oil.
Then, I added my pepper, tomato, onions and red bell pepper mix to the oil. Just like in the preparation of jollof rice. After frying this for a while, I added the salt and seasoning powder for the cooking of the three cups of rice.
After few minutes, I added the coconut juice. The one I set aside earlier.
I added the the rice when it started boiling and cover it up to cook. After about fifteen minutes, I checked it and adjusted the salt.
The aroma filled the house.
Five minutes later, my coconut rice was ready looking beautiful with it's captivating coconut aroma. It was irresistible.
I garnished it with some carrots, sweet corn and hotdog.
Coconut is antimicrobial, it helps the digestive system of the body and the oil contributes to good body cholesterol.
You can try out this recipe anytime.
Cook your rice any way you know how to, just make sure you add the coconut juice.
Thanks for stopping by, I really appreciate you.
Yours truly, @auny-tosin💕💕