In Kerala and much of coastal South India, coconut oil is not an alternative to other oils. It is the oil, and dishes cooked in anything else taste wrong to people who grew up there.

It has a distinct flavour and it does not hide.

Use it for South Indian vegetable dishes, fish curry, and tempering with mustard seed and curry leaf. It solidifies below about twenty-five degrees, which is normal and not a fault. Stand the jar in warm water if you need it liquid.

Stocked at Curry Corner in North Melbourne.