Coconuts

[Jackie1995]

A neighbor trimmed his coconut palm the other day, and while riding by on my bike I saw those coconuts sitting on the side of the road...
well, yeah, I always have 2 bungie cords in my bike basket, so sure, I picked up the three unbroken ones and brought them home.

Tonight my wonderful spouse helped me get the husk off the coconut.

Ever read those old African proverb stories, usually featuring a little monkey who's trying to do something incredibly stupid, and there's always a moral to the story?

Well you could have written one about us opening up a gray-colored coconut (ie: not green and fresh and easy to open...no...hard, lots of fiber, and lots of work to get to the actual coconut part...LOL!)

We laughed a lot during this process, I must add.

OK, so finally we hit the coconut! Yay! Now, ya gotta break that open. OK, so far so good. I got a bowl to catch the coconut juice. Now, ya gotta really crack it open, to get to the white stuff.

Getting the white stuff off the hard brown shell, well, that's another little monkey story. :confused:

OK, we got all the white coconut meat in a bowl.

NOW WHAT? :eek:

Do I have to peel the thin brown layer off the coconut meat before using? Should I soak the white stuff in the coconut milk?

And there was this small (about 1.5 inches long, rounded at both ends plug or something inside the coconut...was this the part that starts growing if I were to plant it? Another mystery for the little monkey... :rolleyes:

If anyone out there does this coconut thing, please post some words of wisdom.

Meanwhile, I have a nice spot in my yard for planting the other two! I'll have trees in about 5 years, with fresh green coconuts, not these hard things!

Really, you should have seen this, it was TOO funny... :D

[Revvell]

*sits back and waits for replies* :)

Revvell

[Rawkinlocs]

Wow, what a story!! LOL!

Well, when member Cassy (aka AskCassyFirst) was still actively posting here, she mentioned that she stored her white coconut meat in the freezer in a ziploc bag or something and would just take out a chunk whenever she wanted to snack on it or use it for something.

The "milk/water" can be used in a smoothie or something or just drank, but I'm not sure how long it will keep in the fridge.

As for the hard brown stuff on it, I read on here once that you can take a veggie peeler and just scrape, scrape, scrape that off rather smoothly.

Some other things that just popped into my head, put a few chunks in the food processor and pulse chop or just process until shredded and then dehydrate for your own dried, shredded coconut! I LOVE shredded coconut in my smoothies.

I'm glad you wrote this though because I've ALWAYS meant to post something here about coconut. For a long time, I kept hearing/reading within the raw foods circle that those white, young Thai coconuts were what the brown ones become. NOT true. Even the way they smell, taste and and the texture of the meat of each is totally different.

I don't like Thai coconuts - they smell like stinky feet (sorry to those of you who love them! :p) and I don't see them EVER smelling like or tasting like the ones I DO like...the brown-shelled ones.

The brown ones come from this big, greenish thing. The Thai ones are just a totally different KIND of coconut...they're not the same nor does one become the other (I've heard the Thai ones referred to as young coconuts and the brown ones referred to as mature coconuts). So, thanks again for the story because it entertained AND it allowed me to express what I had been meaning to express, but just kept forgetting to do! :D

[RawTruth]

I'm surprised -- I've never even picked up a smell from the young coconuts -- and, sometimes I have 3 or 4 a week!

I used to buy the brown coconuts a lot - my kids had fun with them. It's, of course, totally different than the young ones, and the water and meat is different also. It's coconut "milk" when it's from the brown ones. The meat is, as you know, hard. Just peel the brown stuff off if you don't want to eat it. It can be dried and flaked, but we always liked to just bite chunks off of it as it is. I wouldn't recommend freezing it, though it shoudl be refrigerated. The milk can be used in any number of ways, just as long as you don't keep it too long.

By the way -- it was a great story. We used a screwdriver and a hammer to split it open after using the screwdriver to poke a hole in it to drain out the milk. But we never had to take off all the outside stuff. How fun!

[pineapple]

The clear water from the coconut is coconut water. The real coconut milk you get by grinding the coconut meat with water in a foodprocessor and sift it through a fine cloth. You can make delicious popsicles with this milk. I used to make coconut chips in the oven, but I guess you can make that with a dehydrator. I usually freeze the coconut meat and use it when I need it.

Hope you can understand my poor English. :o

Pineapple

[Jackie1995]

Hey Pineapple, if that was 'poor english', well, I'm doomed! You write like a Professor of English at a top university here in the States! I understood every word and wanted to thank you for your informative reply.

It's getting kind of crowded in my refrigerator, so I'm gonna do some rearranging and creative un-cooking tonight!

Thanks everyone for your input!

[vegangelist]

thanks pineapple, you took the words right out of my mouth. there is much confusion between the terms "coconut water" and "coconut milk", but it is as pineapple said.

also, rawkinlocs--is it possible that you had a thai coconut that was not fresh? and/or, have you had one recently. the first time i had one, i was new to veggie and thought them to be strange and could barely finish drinking half of the water. but, about a month ago I decided to give them another go. Lo and behold, they are absolutely and completely DIVINE! WHO KNEW? :) Now, I am on a young coconut kick big-time!!!

kristi


The clear water from the coconut is coconut water. The real coconut milk you get by grinding the coconut meat with water in a foodprocessor and sift it through a fine cloth. You can make delicious popsicles with this milk. I used to make coconut chips in the oven, but I guess you can make that with a dehydrator. I usually freeze the coconut meat and use it when I need it.

Hope you can understand my poor English. :o

Pineapple