When we were in Cochin, we went to a wonderful cooking demonstration at Nimmy and Paul's house (
http://www.nimmypaul.com/). We had such a great time. They have a beautiful house and were so warm, and it was great to see a house after having been in hotels for two weeks. Nimmy brought us back to her lovely clean and organized kitchen (I wish I could have a kitchen like it!) and taught us a few Indian dishes including this Thoren. She then served us an incredible dinner with those dishes as well as a few more she'd been working on all day - yum! Jamie and I agreed it was our best dinner of the trip, and such a fun and interesting night.
I made the green bean thoren last night (though I had to omit the fresh coconut because I couldn't find any, and I had to use dried curry leaves instead of fresh which I know are not nearly as good, but it was all I had) and it was fabulous! Such a tasty, new way to have green beans. I'll definitely be making it again, and Nimmy says you can make it with other vegetables like carrots, cabbage, pumpkin, etc.