I grew up in an little island off the coast of Sumatera, in Indonesia, where coconut is plentiful. Indonesian use a lot of coconut milk, especially for curries and desserts. As a little girl, my grandmother used to send me to the shop to buy freshly grated coconut. I used to watch the whole grating process with fascination. The grating of the coconut produced snow flake like particles that looked moist and full of promising sweetness. I always head home full with excitement knowing curry will be on the menu that day 
Freshly extracted coconut milk taste hundred times better then the tinned product. However, despite knowing the fact, I was guilty of cruising through the convenient life Australia has to offer and I have been using the tinned varieties for years.
Not until I was watching My Srilanka on SBS that I had the urged to extract my own coconut milk. Peter Kuruvita made it look so easy, I had to try it.
With my mind fixed on finding a coconut grater, I made the trip on Saturday afternoon to my local Indian grocer. I found one for just under $ 11. It was a bargain
I got home with a coconut grater and a whole coconut on my hand. There is a big life lesson learnt from cracking a coconut by myself. Having never done this ever in my life, I sort of had the idea what need to be done but I never quite understood the amount of effort it will require. I must say …. It was hard. I spent half an hour hacking the coconut shell. I was ready to give up at one stage, but I kept persisting and finally…. It split open … revealing it’s previous white flesh. The lesson I learnt from this, if you do want something bad enough, just keep going. No matter how hard, if you keep persisting you will crack it …..
With a bowl of freshly grated coconut, I made Paradise Prawn with Coconut Sambal for dinner. The recipe itself is very quick and easy. If you don’t have freshly grated coconut at hand, you can use the desiccated coconut. Just hydrate them a bit by soaking them in a little bit of coconut milk.
For me it is a perfect summer night dish. It’s fresh, bursting with flavors and the best thing you can use your fingers.
Ingredients
20 paradise prawn, peeled and de veined
3 tablespoons of coconuts oil
1/2 teaspoon of brown mustard seeds
10 curry leaves
1/2 teaspoon of red chilly powder
A pinch of turmeric
A pinch of garam masala
1/2 teaspoon of coriander powder
4 cloves garlic
2 bird eye red Chillies
1 teaspoon of salt
5 tablespoon grated coconut
Method
Finely chopped the Chillies and garlic and pound them in mortar and pestle to make a paste
Heat up the coconut oil
Add mustard seeds and curry leaves and fry until the mustard seeds splatter a little
Add the spice paste
Saute for few seconds
Add the coconut and powdered spices
Saute until the coconut is golden brown
Add a little bit more oil onto the pan
Then pan fry the prawn with the coconut sambol for no longer then 3 minutes
Garnish with freshly chopped mint and coriander and a squeeze of lime
