Coconut Shoots Curry

Coconut shoots curry. It sounds illogical. Lol. Did you imagine a coconut holding a rifle and shooting a bowl of curry or something. Well, I meant "coconut palm shoots" cooked in a curry gravy. ;p

Fifth Aunt's Mercedes Benz halted at the front gate early this morning, and she emerged with a bunch of coconuts and a bag of coconut palm shoots. All from her family orchard outskirts of the city.

Fresh young coconut

Coconut shoots（椰心）

This is the heart or the core of the coconut palm. It is known as umbut in Malay and 椰心 in Mandarin. The umbut is harvested from the top of the tree. It is the part of the tree where the fronds develop and emerge. It is considered a delicacy as one has to kill the whole tree in order to harvest it. It has a firm but crunchy texture, and is usually cooked in a curry.

Mom trimmed off the tough bits and cut them into bite-sized pieces. Mom soaked the shoots in water to prevent discolouration.

Coconut shoots in water

Mom got ready her spices - shallots, garlic, turmeric, chilli paste, lemon grass. The spices were all pounded by hand in a stone mortar. She also pounded dried prawns to flavour the curry.

Spices

This is Mom's favourite brand of curry powder.

Then, Mom sauteed the spices and the dried prawns, and added some chopped fresh chicken, and the cononut shoots and then simmered it for a while, and finally added coconut milk.

Yum. It was really appetising, when served hot with steamed rice.