The start of the festive season indicates an abundance of coconut. It is followed by a fervent search for coconut recipes online. So, here are two foolproof recipes to help you make laddoos and barfis, and two additional ones to use any leftover coconut.
Two-in-one recipe for coconut laddoos and barfi
Mumbai-based food writer and consultant Saee Koranne Khandekar’s Instagram account @skoranne is a treasure trove of recipes. When she is not travelling for fun or work, she posts daily recipes of dishes that are cooked for her family. During festivals, she offers step-by-step breakdown of recipes such as modaks, shrikhand and laddoos. She posted a two-in-one recipe to make coconut laddoos and barfis for Diwali last year. It never gets old.
10-minute coconut barfi
Goa-based Warsha Vimadalal is a food curator and home chef whose Instagram account @warsha_mv is all about traditional recipes. Along with the dishes, that are usually from the western belt of India, she writes about the mythological and spiritual significance of food. Her quick recipe of coconut barfi contained fresh milk cream with a touch of nutmeg and cardamom.
Lau podapitha from Odisha
An addiction to Instagram should be legitimised if it involves looking for rare regional dishes of India. One such find is the lau podapitha (loosely translated as bottle gourd cake), posted on the Instagram account @mrs_mohapatra run by Swati Mohapatra. She shares delicacies from the Odia kitchen. Mohapatra made the lau podapitha with coconut left over from Ganesh Chaturthi celebrations. The fascinating recipe contains grated coconut, bottle gourd and is generously garnished with coconut slivers.
Coconut fritters
The YouTube channel Bong Eats ranks high when it comes to Bengali recipes. If you follow them word for word, there is little room for error. Coconut fritters, or Narkol’er Bora, spiced with green chillies and nigella seeds fall in the category of Sattvic foods; meaning they don’t contain garlic and onion. Just as the lau podapitha, these fritters are a clever way to cook with leftover coconut.
Also read | Add the sweetness of coconut to your Diwali