Coconut

Growing up as Southern Bella, coconut is something that is used on a daily basis, be it in chutneys,stews or rice items it's a qunitessencial ingriedent for daily cooking, the easy with which coconut meat is scrapped and how quickly it was turned into a mouth watering concostion is quite a wonderful thing.Well on the other side of the world where I currently live getting fresh coconut is a matter of luck.Groceries stores here carry coconuts that are like years old. With many coconuts gone bad learnt to use alernatvies like coconut cream,cocnut milk found in Asian/Chinese stores. Well must say it comes close to tasting like fresh coconut.Today receipe is cocnut stew eaten with rice, quick and delicious to eat.Ingredients1 small coconut cream can or 1 cup of grated coconut2 tb Sesame seeds3-4 garlic podstamrind size of 2 quaters, add water and sqeeze the pulp to make it about 2 cupsa pinch Turmeric1 tbsp sugar

mango

If there is a vegetable that's celebrated in Southern India in summer it has be Mango, be it in vegetable form orfruit, Mango is eaten and relished through out the season in various form dal,mango rice, famous mango pickles, mango rasam, mango everything.Its amazing how many varites are created without repeatation and trust me at the end of theseason you would still be hungry for more.Raw Mangoes found in US do not have the same level of tartness as in India, they tend to be more on the sweeter side hence you don't get the same taste back home but with subtle modifications to orginal mom's recipe it comes close in taste.Mango and coconut compliment each others flavors, Mango's tartness and coconut's sweetness balance each other and hence the end result is yummy concoction of flavors.Simple yet delicious.