Someone told me that if you move a chicken to a new spot when it is roosting, it forgets where it was and won't go back to the old place. This didn't quite turn out to be true - it took at least a couple of weeks of gently lifting him off the washing machine every night and popping him up on the branch of a frangipani tree. The first time I looked outside at night and found he wasn't on the porch, I was such a proud mother! It was like having your child sleep through the night for the first time:-) Anyway, thank goodness - because he can now crow. It's one thing having roosters crowing at all hours of the night a little way away... but a couple of metres away is quite another.
Everyone makes it slightly differently, but I cut it up and cook it and then add it to sauted onion and garlic. Then you have to make your coconut cream. It is available in cans here, but so much nicer - and free - to have it fresh.
My husking skills are ever so slightly better. My neighbour still laughs when she watches me, but it's now about 10 minutes per coconut instead of 15. She - like everyone - does it in literally 30 seconds. Once they're husked, I'm a dab hand at opening them: if you know where to tap with your bush knife, they crack open easily.
The grater is a board that you sit on, with a curved metal grating part out the front on which you scrape the coconut whilst simultaneously shooing gutsy roosters away from the delicious results. Once grated, add a little bit of water to get it started then squeeze big handfuls of it wrapped in muslin-type cloth. The cream drips out through the cloth into a bowl. Yum. I like the cream - or the freshly-grated stuff - on my breakfast as well. Or simply eaten by the spoonful.
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