Coconut

Nariyal refers to the whole coconut, and kopru, to the flesh. Coconut palms (Cocos nucifera) fringe the length of India’s western coast, where Parsis landed after the long flight from Persia. Dairy-loving Parsis found in coconut milk the smooth, creamy qualities they must have cherished in the food of their abandoned homeland. It’s hard to imagine Parsi food without coconut. We love coconut in all its stages. Young and tender, the shell barely formed, it makes one of the most refreshing drinks on earth; in its leathery state, the flesh is delicious eaten with unrefined sugar; mature coconuts are used for their grated flesh or for extracting milk. The liquid in the coconut is known as coconut water. What you get from squeezing the grated flesh is coconut milk; and if that milk stands, cream rises to the top.