what to do with a whole coconut

One thing I'd never done before moving to Berbérati was really deal with whole coconuts. I have a childhood memory of eating handfuls of sweetened, dried coconut from a bag in the freezer (sorry, Mom--I'm sure I was not supposed to do that). 

But until this past year, whole coconuts (or even the brown ones in the grocery store, with huge outer shell already removed) were a bit of a mystery to me.

In case you would like to learn--as I have pretty recently--exactly what to do with a whole coconut, I thought I'd share the process with you. We just so happen to have a coconut palm in our front yard, and after patiently waiting for nearly a year for the crop of coconuts to get to their full ripeness (where the flesh is hard and sweet instead of soft and less flavorful), we are now being rewarded by the occasional heavy coconut thunking from its high perch to the ground below.

Friends holding coconuts from our coconut palm tree

Then, after expending a bit of effort to get the coconut open (usually assisted by our neighbor Neil who opens the outer shell with  a machete or mallet), we get to enjoy delicious coconut!

So here is what to do with a whole coconut...

First, if you get them fresh from the tree like we do here, you need to remove the big outer shell with a machete or hammer. It takes quite a bit of work to do this part. I haven't actually done this part myself, but obviously I have watched people do it, and taken pictures of it. 

[In case you are not impressed that I left the toughest part of the job to someone else, I will try to redeem myself by telling you that recently I have ground quite a few pounds of beef and pork with a hand-grinder and--along with my neighbor Esther--have push-started our 4-wheel vehicle...okay, no, that still is not impressive compared to eighty-year-old women I see walking down the road carrying what I estimate to be around 100 pounds of wood on their heads]

 

The coconut will then be a more manageable size. See? Like the kind you find in the grocery store. If you are going to buy one, make sure it feels a bit heavy in your hand, and that you can hear the coconut water sloshing around inside:

At one end of the coconut, you'll find three "eyes." One of those eyes is softer, and can easily be pierced by a knife or with a nail. Dig out that hole a bit, and pour the coconut water into a glass. It's so yummy!

This is the fun part. And very easy, too. Wrap your coconut lightly in a rag or old towel, and put it on a good hammering surface. Our cement floor works well for this.

Smash the coconut with a hammer until it breaks. It's very satisfying to feel the coconut squash under the force of your blow.

Unwrap the towel and voila! A beautiful coconut interior revealed.

Though you can dig the coconut flesh out with any variety of utensils, I find it works best to carefully slice around the edge of the flesh with a small, sharp knife. Then you can often pop out a large piece of the coconut meat all in one chunk (easier for grating, etc.)

If your coconut comes out with a thin brown skin attached, don't worry; that part is edible and taste fine.

Now, what can you do with your coconut? It tastes great just plain. You can also grate it, sprinkle some sugar on it, and bake it on a greased pan in the oven (turning occasionally) until you have golden-tipped pieces of dried coconut (out of which you can, by the way, make delicious coconut macaroons).

Another idea is to grate the coconut, pour a cup of boiling water over it, stir the coconut a lot, and then drain it through a cheesecloth. Squeeze the coconut well in the cheesecloth to get the best of the liquid out. Genuine coconut milk! Which is good for so many uses. Some would say especially curry sauce. Some would say coconut ice cream or coconut hot chocolate. I say it's best if you have enough coconut milk to make all of the above.

If you have a blender, I've read that you can blend the hot water with the coconut in the blender, and then drain it through the cheesecloth. I'm sure that would render a much richer coconut milk.

I would love to hear if you have any other ideas for how to use coconut, as I foresee more coconuts falling directly in front of our house, in the very near future!