Help!!! Coconut cruelty!!!

[Carolyn]

Hi!

I'm trying to open my first young baby coconut ... Alissa makes it look so easy in the DVD! I thought, 'Oh sure, I can do that!' ... famous last thought! :eek:

I did manage to (finallY!) get it open enough on top to get the water out ... but how do you open it the rest of the way to get the meat??? I'm mutilating this poor lil' coconut! (Coconut cruelty ...) :(

Any suggestions would be GREATLY appreciated! Thanks so much!!!

Carolyn
... on behalf of the poor coconut I'm mutilating ...

[KitaKazoo]

My Mom use to use a screwdriver and hammer. I supose you need to steady it some how and then wack the screwdriver with the hammer. Don't hurt yourself.

I haven't tried to open one myself.

[RawTruth]

Since it's a Thai young coconut, you don't need to open it up. From the square that you hacked in the top, you slip your spoon and and scoop out the "meat" which is more like a custard lining. It's not like the old, dried brown hairy coconuts where you can split them open and pry out the meat.

As for opening it, it just takes practice and a chef's knife like Alissa's that has a long enough "ledge" to hack into the coconut. You'll get the hang of it after a while. People told me this when I couldn't get my Saladacco working, and they were right. Back to the coconuts -- Even though I've been doing it for a while now, I don't always get my knife whacking in the same place each downward stroke -- and sometimes it goes through on its 1st or 2nd whack and the water sprays out -- oooh, I hate to waste even a little.

Hope this helps.

p.s. Some people use a machete -- uh, no thanks! I value my limbs.

[Carolyn]

Thanks KitaKazoo and RawTruth. I managed to scoop a bit of it out, but since I'd been doing a pretty good number on it, there was just too much of the shell mixed in. So I gave up on that one. :( I'm going to give it another shot tomorrow and see how I do! (Hopefully much better than this time ... lol !)

It's all a learning experience with this! I'll get there yet! :)

Thanks again so much for your help!

Carolyn (the mutilator of young coconuts) :rolleyes:

[fiddler]

I tried Alissa's approach to opening the coconut but prefer Paul Nison's way better -- it was much easier for me. Paul shows how to do this on his DVD "On the Road with Paul Nison". Here's how he does it:
1. With right hand, drape a cloth over the hand and wrist and then grab the thai coconut firmly (the cloth is for protection).
2. With left hand, take a 4" serrated hunting knife and stab the coconut in the top part of the coconut (the teepee side halfway down).
3. Now, just cut around until the top is removed.

You should see how easy and quickly Paul did this on his video!
I did the same thing with a large knife (since I didn't have a hunting knife).
NOTE: I recommend you use the 4" hunting knife for safety reasons.

Anyway, this method worked well for me and seemed a bit quicker and safer than Alissa's method. (Although Alissa made it look easy, I struggled using her technique).

Hope you find this information useful. Paul's video was worth the price just for me to learn how to open up those coconuts this way. BTW, I used the one coconut to make Alissa's Chocolate Mocha Milkshake -- delicious. To me, it tasted similar to her Banana Nut shake --- both excellent!!

Here's a video from an earlier post on this forum that is also helpful for opening the mature coconuts -- wow:
http://www.thaifoodandtravel.com/features/crackcoc.html

[maydolphin10]

my mom taught me how. take the end of a cleaver and go around the top of the coconut. idk if its called a cleaver actually, its the big rectangular knife and u jab the angle closest to you in. it doesnt take a lot of strength. i opened one myself a while ago!

[dhammala]

Here are some links for you with step by step photos and/or videos:

http://www.living-foods.com/articles/youngcoconuts.html
http://www.rawguru.com/openyoungcoconut.html
http://www.serenityspaces.org/coconut.asp

[Carolyn]

thanks for all the replies this week, y'all! :) I'll check out all the links! I haven't had the chance to mutilate .... errrrr.... open ... :) ... a coconut lately. Hopefully I'll be able to do it easily next time! Thanks so much! :)