Desiccated coconut

Noix de coco râpée

What it is

Drying was what let coconut leave the tropics — fresh flesh spoils within days, dried it keeps for a year. The Victorian appetite for coconut cake and macaroons is entirely a consequence of that one process.

In the kitchen

Toast it in a dry pan before it goes into anything. Raw desiccated coconut tastes of cardboard.

Goes with

Dark chocolate Lime Mango White sugar Vanilla Cardamom Pineapple Coconut milk

Same species

Coconut Coconut milk Coconut oil Coconut vinegar Gula melaka

Also used with

Kiwi Pomelo Rapadura

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