The mature coconut
the coconut meets the cleaver
Thank goodness it was a sunny day so I could take my production outside to not harm man nor beast.
- the coconut water is running away
As the pictures speak for themselves, one crack leaked out the water and didn’t open the coconut. I eventually had to get a steak knife and pry open the coconut. The cleaver was basically useless. I’ll keep it around for butchering a hog (not).
cracked the nut
yielded 1/4 cup of water
After this endeavor, I chiseled away at the coconut flesh. It was extremely difficult to get shavings out of it. Then I went to the Frontera Produce website, the brand that wrapped my coconut, and it did not recommend a cleaver at all. Instead, as the recipe below details, the coconut should be baked, for easy opening and to soften the flesh to be shaved like cheese.
This approach was helpful, somewhat. It did soften the flesh and I put it in a cheese grater. It was labor intensive and I got very little coconut shavings out. After all this work, Mr Coconut was thrown in the trash. Ba bye.
- 1 Frontera Produce coconut
- 1/2 Cup confectioners sugar
Place coconut in heat-proof container, cover and bake at 400° F for approx. 20-40 mins. Once coconut has cracked open remove from oven, discard coconut water, and remove white pulp immediately. This process is much easier when the pulp is still warm. Shave pulp chunks using a cheese shredder. Lay out on a sheet pan and toast coconut shavings at 400° F until dry and golden brown. Remove shavings and dust with powdered sugar.
After my coconut adventure, I saw a food show on the OWN network Anna and Kristina’s Grocery Bag. The show, first aired 3/11/2009 was their review of a Thai cookbook which recommend using fresh coconuts for the dishes they were preparing for a professional chef. The highlight of the show was their adventure into cracking open and using the water, milk and flesh from green and mature coconuts. Oh my gosh. It was hilarious. These women tried to open a green coconut with a hammer and nail. And the mature coconut was taken to the side of the road near a drainage grate and she beat it open with a hammer! I kid you not!
Kristina and Anna made five recipes and three turned out well. The professional chef told them to just buy the coconut milk and cream in the cans and forget about the fresh coconut. I totally agree.
Coconut water by Naked
So going back to coconut water. I drank the quarter cup from my coconut and it tasted like plain Pedialyte (infant electolyte replacement formula). Vita Coco has it in variety of flavors. Most recipes have it as an ingredient in smoothies. It is pricey at about $3.00 per container. If I start drinking it daily, I’ll report back on my youthful transformation (or not). Madonna and I are a year apart in age, she’s older.
I want some of this coconut water now!
Yeah! Me too!
That’s alot of work for coconut water…I think I’ll stick to the old fashion way of buying it 🙂
totally agree 🙂
I looooove using coconut in everything. We use coconut oil, water, and milk in a lot of our recipes.
Wow that is fabulous. Any recipes to share?
To get the water out you’ve got to pierce the soft ‘eye’ and scrape it open as wide as you can without endangering life and limb… then comes the hard part, waiting for all that lovely juice to really sloooooowly drain. Then you can take a hammer to it with impunity…
… You can usually prise the meat away from the shell fragments by inserting a (blunt) knife (butter knives are great for this) between the two and twisting the knife along its long axis.
A lot of work but think of the sense of achievement you will feel at the end!!!!
Thanks for the tip and thanks for stopping by 🙂
I can tell you one thing: I don’t have the patience for extracting my own coconut milk!
I admire your courage in tackling this challenge. I’m glad that no injuries were incurred (except to the coconut, of course) because that cleaver looked like it meant business 😉
the cleaver STILL scares me just looking at it. I placed it back in it’s plastic container I bought it in and tucked it away.
You do realise that cleaver is plotting its escape … and revenge?
LOL LOL
I was taught – many, many years ago – that an easy way to get the coconut “juice” out of a coconut was to use a hammer and a clean nail.
Widdershins only uses the hammer later on it appears.
Tap the (clean) nail into an eye of the coconut, then tap it into another eye – that way one does not have to wait for the juice to slowly emerge because the second opening is to let the air in to replace the juice.
As for shaving the meat of the coconut … I’ve never done that. Chunks were what I was after – peeled like widdershins said – but while still warm from the oven.
Showing my age perhaps, but when did it become coconut water? In my day I only ever heard of it as coconut milk.
Good question about the milk part. maybe it was milk but it was pretty thin and looked like water.