Coconut beans

Sunday after church, I went back to my friend's place and we decided to take on the task of cooking coconut beans. Now, we make everything from scratch here. You can buy coconut and coconut milk in the supermarkets but it is much cheaper (and time consuming) doing it yourself. We arrived home. I started making grilled cheese sandwiches for a quick lunch and at the same time we started shredding the coconut. Note that we started cook lunch and dinner at the same time! 

I am not so sure what this device is called but it is common here on the coast. Coconut is in great supply so there is lots of local foods made with it. However, I find the method of getting the coconut a pain in the butt. So we sit on this little folding, wooden chair (that should be only meant for children cause it is so small), then we grind the coconut on the end which has a knife-like thingy made of wood, and after you grind out all the coconut, you start rinsing and squeezing out the milk. Now I am not going to fool you here and say that I did this process myself. In fact, I did it for only about 2 minutes and after cutting myself and smelling my burnt grilled cheese, I stopped and let my friend finish the task. 

My grilled cheese was finished within a matter of minutes but we didn't end up eating our coconut beans and rice until about 9pm. I just kept thinking about me living in the village one day and having to make this since it is the only food readily available. Or what if I marry a Kenyan man who must eat this food every day, how will I survive?? God give me grace!

Although, I must say, the coconut beans were delicious.