anti-recipe #77 how to process a coconut

So. Here's the thing. I'm not really going to be posting about knitting for awhile, or woolen sweater creations, or pine cone gnome crafts or applesauce canning or winter squash soup.

It's just not life these days for me. And yea, I'm kinda out of my element. Canning applesauce (as bad as past experiences have been, ha!) is way more my thing than trying to figure out how to prune a banana tree.

So I figure, what the heck, I'll just show you what I'm up to and we'll learn together and maybe it will be informative or just amusing, as you guys pile on the sweaters and make apple pie.

So, here's what I did yesterday.

Processed four coconuts.

You can actually go out to a fancy store somewhere and buy a whole coconut so maybe it's not all moot.

In any case. I read somewhere, as I was researching what to do with my four coconuts, that being given the gift of coconuts in their raw state is much like someone handing you yarn and telling you to enjoy the sweater... It's a lot of work.

Nevertheless, we charge ahead! June loves a good challenge! Ha.

So, on campus there are many many coconut trees and yesterday some of the yard crew guys had gathered them up in a giant pile and sat with a machete, handing them out to anyone who wanted a drink of fresh coconut water.

Of course the kids and I were entranced. We drank the water inside (slightly tangy, slightly sweet) and there they were. Four coconuts. What now?

Bring them home, I say. Dada says, I have a machete in the garage! Perfect.

He chips them open while I poke around on the Internet.

Dried coconut flakes and some milk is what I decide on. So here's what I did.

First, pull out the flesh from the inside of the coconut. It needs to be not too green. If you haven't drunk up your water inside yet, save it! (Gouge a hole, dump it into a container, then hack the rest open) We'll use it later to make delish coconut milk!

After scraping it out (we, that is my little miss, my only interested helper at my side, we just used a spoon) rinse all the bits of hull or husk or whatever it's called. Then break up your pieces of meat into a few inch pieces.

Next get out your blender. I used the grind option, it worked great but my blender could only handle small batches at a time.

I left several handfuls in the blender to make milk, the rest I spread on a tray and sprinkled with sugar. To dry them out just toast for 20 minutes at 350. I went too brown with my first effort, toasting them until brown, about 40 minutes.

Store in a baggie or airtight container. I put mine in the fridge. And ate some this morning on yogurt. Holy yum. Tomorrow I'm thinking something with dark chocolate. Mmmmmm.

So, with the other handfuls still in the blender, this is when I wish I had saved some of the liquid we drank up because it needs to be added back in and blended with the chopped handfuls of coconut meat. I just added water instead. Blend on your highest setting until frothy and delicious then strain out the chunks. I used a metal mesh strainer but you're supposed to use cheesecloth to squeeze out every last drop.