| Going Coconuts: Form and Function | |
by Judy Sobeloff, from the December 2005 newsletter
My four-year-old’s first impulse upon seeing a coconut’s white flesh suddenly freed from the shell was not to taste it but to pick up a red crayon and start drawing on it. Though her efforts were in line with the coconut palm’s status as the “most useful tree in the world” (www.globalgourmet.com), utilitarian aspects were far from my mind when Co-op employee Renee praised the coconut as a “fun little deal” and shook one. Listening to the liquid sloshing around inside, I imagined the coconut as a $3 ticket to a tropical mini-vacation.
Nonetheless our coconut gathered dust on the counter for a while, perhaps due to such words and phrases in the accessing instructions as “flying shards,” “cleaver,” and “poke out the eyes with a screwdriver and hammer.” Or was my hesitation due to its status in northern India as a fertility symbol? (Coconut palms bloom up to thirteen times a year, and in Bali women are forbidden to touch them “for fear of draining the fertility of the tree into the woman” (homecooking.about.com).)
Opening ours looked to be our most ambitious craft project of the holiday season, but I found the process of drilling and whacking more sedate than anticipated. In selecting a coconut one should check for heaviness and sloshing liquid and avoid those with eyes (the three round indentations at the base) that are damp, moldy, or leaking. Our specimen may have been past its prime, or perhaps it just gave in. After screwdriving the liquid-draining holes myself, I held the children back while my husband, and then I, tapped in a circle with the hammer (see instructions below).
The shell came off not with a bang but a whimper.
“Is a coconut a fruit?” Co-op employee Beane asked me at the register, searching for the price of the hairy brown thing before him. Yes, botanically speaking, coconuts are classified not as nuts but as drupes: fruits such as peaches in which an outer fleshy part surrounds a pit or stone with a seed inside (www.answers.com).
If you guess, as I did, that the white edible part of the coconut is the flesh and the hard brown shell is the pit, guess again. The hairy brown coconuts you find in stores are merely the seed of the coconut—the largest seed of any plant, mind you, but merely the seed. Growing on the tree, the coconut has a light gray or greenish rind, under which is a one- to two-inch husk of reddish-brown fibers, which surround the hairy brown shell we know and love. The coconut is technically a “dry drupe,” then, with its fibrous outer husk akin to the fleshy part of a cherry or peach. The white edible part inside the brown shell is the seed.
In any case, the word coconut comes from the Spanish and Portuguese word coco, meaning monkey face, due to the three round “eyes” at the base.
Though it’s possible to suck the liquid out of the coconut through these eyes with a straw, my children watched rapt as I poured the coconut water (note that coconut milk is actually made by straining the white flesh inside) out through the eyes (“It’s silly, like a water fountain,” commented the four-year-old.) Despite the great presentation, she found the taste of the liquid “disgusting,” though my husband, more accustomed to exotic treats, enjoyed it. Coconut water is apparently best when chilled, and while we had ours in sippy cups over ice, feel free to find a vessel that resonates with you. Foregoing coconut milk, we made salty coconut chips instead, which both children enjoyed. “More chips! Other chip!” requested my 21-month-repeatedly. “New chip!”
If hammering and clawing isn’t your preferred m.o. of getting what you want, you may prefer using dried shredded coconut (delicious with mandarin sections as ambrosia) or canned coconut milk (delicious with red Thai curry paste over cooked vegetables and tofu), all of which are available at the Co-op. Or, simplest of all, grab yourself a coconut popsicle from the freezer.
Coconut Accessing (adapted from www.globalgourmet.com and
www.hungrybrowser.com/phaedrus)
To drain the coconut water: pierce two of the eyes with a screwdriver or ice pick.
To crack the shell, using its natural fracture point: Place the coconut on a flat surface, and locate a point about a third of the way from the smaller end. Give that spot a light whack with a small hammer, then rotate slightly and hit the coconut again the same distance from the end.
Repeat this several times as you rotate the coconut, going all the way around. Once you see the fracture develop, insert the tip of a knife into it and pry upwards.
Variation: Wrap the drained coconut in a towel (to prevent flying shards) and, wearing heavy gloves, smash it into five or six pieces with a hammer.
To make the meat easier to remove from the shell, bake coconut pieces for about 20 minutes in a 400-degree F. oven.
Coconut Chips (adapted from www.globalgourmet.com)
1 ripe (hard) coconut
Salt
Drain, open, and shell the coconut as described above. Trim the brown skin off the white meat with a paring knife. Cut the coconut pieces into paper-thin chips, using a mandoline, vegetable peeler, knife, or food processor fitted with a slicing blade. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Arrange the strips on a baking sheet and lightly sprinkle with salt.
Bake the chips until crisp and golden brown, 8 to 10 minutes, turning with a spatula to ensure even cooking. Transfer the chips to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container away from heat or light for up to a week. If they become soft or soggy, you can rebake them until crisp.
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