BENEFITS OF COCONUT AND COCONUT SAMBOL

COCONUT

Coconut tree is a palm tree.It is mainly grown in coastal areas of tropical countries. The fruit of that tree is called coconut.Coconut has many uses. Especially coconut oil and coconut  milk are used in preparing food throughout the world.Tender nuts or in my country's language "young coconut" has a refreshing drink in it.Almost no part of the coconut tree is left without taking its use.Coconut milk, coconut oil, coconut toddy, coconut vinegar, copra are some of the edible products that are made from coconut.

A husked coconut

PROPERTIES AND NUTRITION

People have been using coconut milk and coconut oil for centuries in preparing their food, especially curries. coconut oil and coconut milk provide a lot of energy. It is about 350 calories in 100 grams of coconut. They contain carbohydrates, sugar,dietary fiber,fat, protein,vitamins and minerals. some knowledgeable people say that coconut raises both types of cholesterol LDL and HDL. But in my country where coconut is widely used in cooking, doctors do not press healthy people too much on restriction of coconut usage.

COCONUT SAMBOL

In my country Sri Lanka,among all the delicacies, there is a traditional dish called coconut sambol. The word sambol is not an English word.There are various types of sombols. Usually when the ingredients like onion, chillies, salt, lime juice, are mixed together with the main ingredient such as coconut meat, somsbol is made. Coconut sambol is a very popular low cost,common man's food item widely consumed in breakfast in my country. Try the following recipe and see how delicious it is. 

a dish of coconut sambol

INGREDIENTS

Finely grated coconut meat--------------------     500 grams
Peeled,washed and chopped red onion------     50 grams
Red chili powder------------------------------         2 tea spoon fulls
Salt powder--------------------------------------       2 tea spoon fulls
Lime juice-----------------------------------------     4 tablespoon fulls

METHOD

Put the above ingredients in a bowl and mix them manually or with a spoon. ( your hand should be clean and well washed.)
Or
Put the above ingredients into a mortar and pound them with a pestle until all are well mixed and take it out. (this is the traditional method) You may change the amount of ingredients a little bit less or more to your taste.

FLAVORS

If you want to get a different flavor you may add the following ingredients too separately or in combination

Finely chopped maldive fish-----    50 grams
pepper powder---------------------    1 tea spoon full
Garlic--------------------------------    3 pods chopped  
Tomato------------------------------    100 grams.