Coconut Cookery [Paperback]

Valerie Macbean (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 22, 2001

Coconut Cookery fans the flames of Valerie MacBean's longtime love affair with the tropical treat. Written specifically for adventurous amateur cooks, the book contains 130 recipes that will please everyone from gourmands to vegans. Cornbread, Cold Avocado Soup, and Fudge Balls are among the dishes that show the fruit's many uses. Interspersed with the recipes are anecdotes, coconut history, fun facts, and drawings.

Editorial Reviews

Review

April 29, 1997. Nuts about coconuts? Valerie MacBean is. She loves coconuts so much that she's written an entire cookbook about nothing but coconuts. From appetizers and breads to main dishes, pancakes, sauces, soups and seafood, she's found a way to slip her favorite food in. Coconut Cookery will keep you in coconuts for months if you try every recipe in this 196-page book. From cornbread to blueberry cheese pie to parsnips and pasta, Valerie has managed to include the humble and hairy coconut with its distinctive flavor. So, Valerie, why coconuts? The former New Westminster resident laughs. When she was a child, her mother often sang to her the British rouser, I've Got a Loverly Bunch of Coconuts. That likely started it, but from there, it is any one's guess how Valerie became so enamoured with the tropical treat. -- --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From the Author

Named reverently and variously as The Tree of Life; The Tree of Abundance; The Source of The Genesis of Mankind; The Staple of Man's Existence; The King's Blessing, and The Lazy Man's Servant, the coconut, botanically known as Cocus nucifera, has captured the hearts and minds of many of us at some point in our lives.

My own introduction to this magical yet practical item was at the age of eight when my mother, for my entertainment and enlightenment, sang the British rouser I've Got a Loverly Bunch of Coconuts. Two years later I saw real ones, albeit little, dried-up ones, at an English county-fairground coconut shy. My mother explained the object of the throwing game and once more regaled me with song and verse. To this day total recall of the wondrous soft-rough texture to my fingertips is invoked whenever I am stimulated by the smell - that most primordial of all the senses - of sickly-sweet, pink cotton candy. Over the years, snippets of association would occur by such simple events as rubbing my shoes on a coconut doormat; smelling the alluring fragrance in soaps and cookies; wondering at the endurance of old, salt-water-soaked ropes, and the enchantment of a young soldier's tale, told to me, his audience of one, of his life having been saved in battle by a series of coconut water transfusions. Coconuts -- their by-products and the palm trees whence they come provide clothing, food, drink, housing, boating gear, musical instruments, animal fodder, medicines, stationery, ropes, toiletries, fuel, lighting, cooking utensils, fertilizers, tools, personal decoration, legend and song. There are few things in this world which challenge coconuts to match them for functional versatility and universal emotional appeal.

For the past decade, I have played cookery with coconuts in my former galley on the converted tug-boat "Tequila", my present kitchen, on camping vacations in Hawaii - the latter yielding magnificent fresh ones, "Some as big as yer 'ead", and a very far cry from the shies of my youth. It is with pleasurable anticipation that I have condensed the results of my play and explorations to bring them to you in the form of this book.

Because I have encountered many persons who avoid all coconut fare due to fear of the postulated ill-effects of saturated fats, I have included a chapter of my and others' recent research on the subject of coconuts and health. I hope this, and the annotated bibliography at the back of this book, will allay anxiety. I invite you to embark on a new adventure to eat, read, play, and enjoy coconuts! --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 200 pages
• Publisher: Frog Books (October 22, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1583940189
• ISBN-13: 978-1583940181
• Product Dimensions: 5.6 x 0.6 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,097,834 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Probably the Worst Cookbook I've Ever Read, September 24, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Coconut Cookery (Paperback)

I'm disappointed that I can't give this book zero stars, because that's what it deserves. It really is the worst cookbook I have ever read.
I got sick just *reading* the recipes. What was this woman thinking? Here's some examples: Pea Soup Icecream with tinned pea soup and coconut milk; Irish Moss Shake with dried Irish moss, flax seed powder, powdered coconut milk, and sweetened condensed milk; Dulse "Snackerels", which consist of Dulse (seaweed) topped with shredded coconut and shredded cheese!
I could go on, but why bother? Unless you like to mix things like Worchester sauce or aged cheese or tinned soup with coconut, you'll do yourself a favor by avoiding this book.
While the book also pretends to be about "Coconuts & Health", don't expect to learn anything here. The bulk of the chapter consists of two odd-ball stories: one about the author's uncle, who accidentally dumped peas into a fruit salad, and one about her grandfather, who lost his dentures when he sneezed on a beach and they went out to sea. Really!
If you want to good coconut-based recipes, check out a Thai cookbook. These folks have been cooking with coconuts for centuries, and understand the fundamentals about tasty food combining.
If you want to learn more about the healthful properties of coconut, and unprocessed saturated fat, you'd be better off checking out Sally Fallon's "Nourishing Traditions". While she, too, has some strange recipes (most notably for organ meats), there are also a plethora of delicious meals. And Fallon is an excellent writer who probes deeply into the issues concerning what's really healthy, and what's not.

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Can't Write, Can't Cook, September 25, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Coconut Cookery (Paperback)

This is the most appalling cookbook I've ever read. MacBean can't write, and she certainly can't cook. The other reviewer is right; this book is filled with absolutely gross food combinations. What made this woman think that canned cream of celery soup would go well with coconut?!?! And what's the point of publishing a cookbook that relies heavily on tinned, premade ingredients? Better to just follow the recipes on the Campbell's soup labels; they are much tastier.
Unfortunately, the writing is actually worse than the recipes. If you can't write and you can't cook, you have no business publishing a cookbook!

4.0 out of 5 stars COCONUT IS YUMMO!, October 26, 2009

By 

Karmakafebargains "Karmakafebargains" (Upstate NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Coconut Cookery (Paperback)

YOU JUST HAVE TO LIKE COCONUT TO ENJOY THIS BOOK. THERE ARE A FEW RECIPES THAT DID NOT APPEAL TO US, BUT WE NEVER TRIED THEM, EITHER, SO WHO KNOWS. SOME OF THESE RECIPES CALL FOR COCONUT MILK, SO IF IT SEEMS LIKE REAL COCONUT WOULD NOT BE GOOD, IT WORKS WITH THE MILK. THERE ARE SOME GREAT RECIPES IN THIS BOOK: APPLE SOUP; FUDGE BALLS; MACAROONS; CRANBERRY & APPLE SAUCE; COFFEE ICE CREAM; COCOA CAKE & FESTIVE MARMALADE SWEET POTATOES! AND, MANY MORE. YUM!