Coconut Delight

It was heart rending to watch the great old Cannon Ball tree lying on the ground like a gentle giant.

The home of a variety of birds, the trapeze enjoyed by the occasional visiting monkeys, the play ground where the chipmunks played 'catch me if you can', the sunshade which filtered the harsh sunlight and sent in a green glow into my drawing room - all was gone with a single stroke of the woodcutters axe. I felt heavy at heart as though I had lost a near and dear one in my family

A shiver ran down my spine when I realized that the second in line to fall prey to the axe was the tall coconut tree which stood in the adjoining site.

The Indian tradition reveres the coconut tree because it is 'Kalpa Vriksha' - the all giving tree. Coconut plays a prominent role in all festivities and rituals. No prayer or worship is complete without offering one or many coconuts to the deity invoked. People who built new houses incorporated the coconut trees in the building site - if there were any - in their building plans, so that they could retain them and nurture them.

Other than quenching thirst and nourishing the body with its fruit and sweet water, every other part of the tree is useful in the manufacture of various essential articles.

Whenever a coconut sapling was planted in our garden, mother fed the laborers and gave away gifts to ­them as a gesture of reverence and gratitude for having brought good luck to the house.

Plucking the full-grown coconuts from the tall tree tops is a special fete carried out by skilled labourers.Father hired them when our trees were overburdened with the yield. We children were asked to stay away inside the house, till all the coconuts were 'dropped' down, lest we got bombarded by the coconut shower.

The professional coconut tree climbers lassoed their feet with the two ends of a short rope. Hugging the tree with their hands and feet, they made an upward thrust to go up the tree, and in no time they scaled to the top.

We stored all the coconuts in a large room in our backyard. The ripe ones were shorn out of the outer tough skin and the fibers, and the edible portion was left to dry. We stored a few for our cooking, and the major portion was sent to the oil mill.

Home made coconut oil was used for massaging new borns.Grand mother extracted the milk from fresh coconut gratings. Then she boiled it in a huge pot until the oil separated from the scum. She filtered the pure oil in a clean muslin cloth and stored it in numerous bottles. She was very happy to give them away to families with new arrivals.

Grand mother prepared mouth watering coconut burfies -candy made out of fresh coconut gratings and sugar in large quantities and stored them in air tight jars. It came in handy to entertain the children who accompanied our visitors. But with us around, the burfies would not even last for a day or two.

Chutney powders, coconut chutneys, various other sweets and porridges made out of coconut , and spicy gravies were all part of our daily menu.

One of the favorite dishes which mother contrived at the sight of an unexpected guest was coconut rice. Cooking rice in coconut milk and then seasoning it is a laborious task. But here is a very simple and easy method to turn out a tasty coconut delight.

Coconut rice

Ingredients:
Rice – 1 cup
Fresh coconut gratings – 1 cup
Cooking oil - 2 Tbsps
Ghee - ½ Tsp
Salt – 1 Tsp or to taste
For seasoning :
Asafetida powder - 1 pinch
Mustard seeds -1 Tsp
Split black gram dal - 2 Tsps
Bengal gram dal - 2 Tsps
Ground nuts - 4 Tbsps
Red chillies - 4 to 6
Curry leaves – A few
Papad ( optional) – 1
Sugar - 1 pinch
Method:
Step -1 : Wash and cook rice with just enough water so that it does not become mushy. Allow it to cool.
Step -2: Break red chillies into small pieces. Crush papads into small bits.
Step – 3: Heat cooking oil in a pan and add mustard seeds and allow it to splutter.
Step – 4: Add black gram dal and Bengalgram dal . Roast until it turns golden in colour. Add ground nuts and let it crack.
Step – 5 : Add the crushed papads and fry.
Step – 6 :Add in the red chillies and asafetida powder and fry for one more minute.
Step – 7: Add the curry leaves
Step – 8: Add the fresh coconut gratings to the above seasoning and roast it in low fire until it turns into a golden colour and lets out a pleasant aroma.
Step 9 : Add salt and sugar and toss for one more minute and turn off the flame.
Step – 10 : Dot the cooked rice with a little ghee and break it until it separates. Then add it to the seasoning and blend well.
Serve hot . It tastes good even without a side dish.

Great Post on Cork Flooring

Over on HGTVpro.com; Andrew and Stacy, The Green Team, write about cork flooring pros and cons:

Popping the cork - getting to know cork flooring

I think cork is an ideal product for kitchens and other rooms where you want a smooth, cleanable floor but hardwood won't work because of noise transmission.

Cork has better sound dampening characteristics than any other hard surface flooring.

Easy on the feet, legs, and back too!

Peggy

LED Recessed Lights are Here - REALLY HERE!!!

This morning I finally got a look at the new LR6 6" LED can light module from LED Lighting Fixtures, Inc. (LLF).

After many disappointments in my search for an LED fixture that provides a comparable amount of light to a 65 watt incandescent flood light, the LR6 fills the bill and then some!















The LR6 actually provides more footcandles of light on the work surface than a 65-watt flood. Mounted side by side, the LR6 was clearly brighter.

An LR6 installed pulls just 12 watts of electricity. WOW!!!

Better yet (Well, that was pretty good but THIS gets a designer's attention), the LR6 has a Color Rendering Index (CRI) of 92. That means a tomato will look like a tomato; nice rich red...not purple, not brown. Very few light sources have CRIs over 90. That is considered the gold standard.

You may never change another light bulb, or even forget how! The LR6 lasts more than 20 years (50,000 hours) under normal use.

It comes in 2700 Kelvin (incandescent range) or 5300 Kelvin (sunlight range) temperatures.

The LR6 is dimmable, though Lutron is working on a better dimming system than what is available now (which I am told is a bit choppy in its dimming).

A lens that is quite unique covers the LEDs, so you don't see a light bulb at all. The lens refracts the colors of red and green LEDs in the fixture to make white light! Who'da thought?

It retrofits (screws into the existing light bulb socket) easily in most 6" recessed IC or non-IC fixtures. So if you already have can lights in your ceiling, chances are you can swap them out very easily yourselves.



























If you are doing a remodel or new construction they have a hard-wired setup that conforms to California's Title 24 requirements (YEAY!) with a GU-24 base instead of the screw-in base. (Here in California we have had homeowners and contractors who install fluorescent fixtures and then swap them out for incandescent after the final inspection. Therefore the State requires bi-pin fluorescents and fixtures that are much harder to swap.)

They run cool. So no running up the air conditioning bill or burn spots on the tops of bald heads from hot halogens.

I've been saying they're not quite there yet for two years now. THE WAIT IS OVER. They are here.

I know, the next question is: How much?

They are pricey at about $130.00 each. They WILL pay for themselves pretty quickly in energy savings compared to incandescent. Comparing to fluorescent, the premium is a little harder to justify unless you are one who wants that perfect color rendering characteristic of a 92 CRI fixture.

LLF technology uses only 12 watts of power. That's 85% less energy spent per incandescent light, and 50% less than a CFL.

Save Money
How can one light save hundreds of dollars? On average in the United States, running a 65-watt light for 50,000 hours would cost $325 in electricity alone. Because the LR6 uses only 12 watts, running the light for 50,000 hours will cost only $60 under the same scenario. In addition, you will no longer spend time or money replacing lights. Over the lifetime of one LR6, you will save $265 dollars or more on your electric bill alone. Imagine the savings if every light in your home was an LR6!

They're GREEN too! No mercury or other earth or people-poisoning substances.

I think most of my clients will want it enough to pay the premium once they see one on display. I'm putting one (2700 Kelvin) in my own kitchen to see how I like it...I have a feeling I'm gonna be buying four more for the other cans I have in there.

Before I post this, I think I'll invest in the company. I'm sold! ;-D


Peggy


02/25/08
An addendum to this post is that LLF has just been acquired by Cree, Inc. After the acquisition is complete, in March 2008, LLF will be known as Cree LED Lighting Solutions. Cree will be keeping the LLF people on board.

7/29/08
A further addendum:
I have finally gotten around to installing an LR6 in my own kitchen (replacing the center surface-mount fluorescent). It is incredibly BRIGHT and there's a wonderful color to the light.

I STRONGLY recommend these fixtures, and using wider spacing than past practice. I'd say 4' on center would provide plenty of ambient light for a room. I will be interested to try the new LR4 in kitchens too, as that will be fewer lumens and likely closer to what we are accustomed to with 8' ceilings.

Peggy