Love this cookbook and love coconut, at one time we waited till we went to the far east and enjoyed so many local foods with coconut, now we can do easily in the UK with the ingredients available in asisn food stores.
This book goes beyond just being a cook book and encompasses everything about the coconut.
Beautifully written with lovely photos.

Overall helpful, this is an excellent book for anyone who wants to add more coconut/learn how to really take advantage of cooking with coconut in all of its forms.

I think this is a great starting point and walks the reader through the recipes with clear instruction.

I love all things coconut - coconut oil, coconut butter, coconut yoghurt, coconut shampoo, shower wash!!!! etc so its no surprise that I absolutely loved this book - given that I am also vegan I loved the recepies in book - they are a collecition for various geographical places - a lovely little book full of interesting facts and great cooking ideas.

Published by: Storey Publishing (13 January 2017)

ISBN-13: 978-1612126463

Source: NetGalley

Rating: 4*

Description:
Coconut is healthy and delicious. It is also native to cuisines around the world, including Thai, Indian, Filipino, Vietnamese, and many Caribbean cultures. Cooking with Coconut offers a tantalising taste of this tropical superfood's culinary diversity, with 133 original recipes using coconut in all its forms. Options span the menu, from breakfast dishes like Savory Coconut Crepes to dinner and dessert dishes like Asparagus with Shallots and Shredded Coconut, Coconut Pork Kabobs, and Coconut Rum Creme Brulee. Ramin Ganeshram, an award-winning food journalist, dishes up everything home cooks and health-conscious eaters need to know to fully enjoy this delectable powerhouse!

Review:
I simply adore coconut and already use coconut oil, sugar, milk, flour, water and desiccated and shredded coconut in a few recipes. With this book, I now have a lot more recipes at hand so I can include this gorgeous fruit at every meal time! Okay, I may be getting a bit carried away, but I'm sure you get the picture. The recipes I've tried have been easy to follow, they aren't too difficult, nor do they have you juggling all manner of pots and pans at the same time as trying to keep track of dozens of ingredients. Coconut lovers...you need this book!
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing a review copy in return for my honest opinion.

From the country where coconut is widely used, I love this book. We use coconut daily in our cooking be it as oil , grated fresh coconut or as coconut milk. There are huge collection of recipes with coconut in the book......

I would like to thank Storey Publishing for providing me with a free electronic ARC of this book, via Netgalley, in exchange for an open and honest review.

Now THIS is a proper Coconut cook book! I’ve read and reviewed a few in my time and they’ve barely touched on the most common of recipes. But ‘Cooking with coconut’ goes far beyond that and brings you some of the most amazing traditional coconut recipes from around the world. Some I grew up with, others I do similar dishes to today as coconut makes up a large part of our diet. I absolutely LOVED this book.

The array of recipes from starters, mains, dessert, drinks and everything in between was wonderful. You can tell there is a love and passion for recipes here, and not just for the ones Ms Ganeshram grew up with, but the ones shared from other places.

And yes, my own food intolerances to seafood and allium would restrict me from making some of these recipes… but there are a few that I’d still attempt and just leave out the allium or sub fish for chicken and see how it goes. I’m a big girl, I know my way around the kitchen. ;-)

And, be still my sweet toothed heart for all the coconut sweets recipes! I was in HEAVEN!

For me, the ingredients will mostly be easy to get my hands on. Let’s see, I already have coconut jelly, coconut water, coconut nectar, coconut sugar, coconut oil, coconut flour, coconut milk, shredded dried coconut and desiccated coconut (both unsweetened as we don’t do sweetened coconut in Australia). Oh, I have other stuff too of course, but I wanted to show that I was indeed the right person for this book as, yeah, we eat coconut daily in this house. ;-)

To the technical side of things, the layout and formatting of ‘Cooking with coconut’ was also excellent. Clearly laid out sections, easy to understand and follow recipes – though they are in, I believe, American measurements so realise the cups and spoon measurements won’t be the same for Australian measurements. All the same, so easy to understand, convert and work with. Heating temperatures shown in both Fahrenheit and Celsius.

Another thing I liked about the recipe formatting is that there is a clearly shown tab for recipes that are allergy/intolerance friendly. Well, gluten and dairy at least. Pretty sure I remember some vegan tags there too. It’s good to be able to flick through a book and see these tabs right away if you’re cooking for specific dietary restrictions without making a big song and dance about it. Wonderful.

There is also a wide range of recipes too so people wouldn’t get tired trying the different dishes. Coconut is such a versatile ingredient; it is just lovely to see it all put to such good use!

There was also an in-depth introduction to the different types of coconut ingredients, a lovely explanation as to why Ms Ganeshram is so passionate about this ingredient and a great glossary at the back to help smooth out any questions the novice cook may have.

Would I recommend this book to others?

Yes I would. In fact I was showing my electronic copy off to my dad and telling him we should buy a paper copy to share. Some of the recipes do contain a lot of ingredients – and therefore may put off some of the less experienced cooks – but the wording and instructions for each recipe is clear and precise and so if you wanted to give it a go, I feel cooks of any skill level would have success.

Would I buy this book for myself?

Well duh! ;-) Yes, I simply fell in love with ‘Cooking with coconut’ from the dips to the curries to the sweets to the teas. Yes there are recipes I would avoid, but there are so many more I would and do want to try that they outweigh those I can’t make due to food issues.

In summary: If you truly want to explore all the different options of cooking with coconut – this book is for you. Loved it.

Cooking with Coconut by Ramin Ganeshram is a book that has a wide range of recipes, and a large number of them. It includes a variety of forms of coconut in the recipes as well. There are many photos of the recipes, though not all have pictures. The opening sections discuss coconut and it different types and their uses. Recipes are complete and well-written, and range from basics of coconut sticky rice, which I made, to main course dishes and baked goods. The sticky rice recipe was the first time I had made that type of rice. It turned out very well, though it was savory when I had been thinking of sticky rice as sweet. The other recipe I made was the one for savory coconut crackers. The dough was a bit difficult to work with and was crumbly so I had a hard time rolling it out thin. Therefore it didn't make many crackers. However, the flavor had a nice and strong herb taste.

I received this book from Storey Publishing via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.