Blog's Category: Healthy, Snacks, Vegetarian, Drinks
Just a Few Words About
- Store-bought bottle of coconut water is not at all the same as this fresh coconut water you are about to pour from your crack-opened young coconut. This fresh coconut water has indescribable warm flavor you never taste in a commercial coconut water.
- Where to get young coconut? At any Asian market, or high-end grocery store, in a produce department, look for those young, white, funky looking coconuts. See pictures below to have an idea how they look. If you not going to crack them the same day, keep them in fridge. They will hold there for a week or two. Choose coconut without damages, cracks, or moldy spots.
- Those hairy, woody, dark-brown coconuts in your regular stores produce sections are not good for coconut water, they used for its white flesh inner lining. I'll make a separate post about how to open those in case you want to use fresh coconut meat for baking or may be for making your own coconut milk! Actually to crack-open those coconuts is also fun and easy.
- Fresh coconut water is very rich in nutrients. It's even can be used for emergency IV injections because it is isotonic to human plasma and can quickly to re-hydrate human body!
- Fresh coconuts are pretty inexpensive, so you just have to learn how to open coconut. Shell we?
Tips
- One young coconut will give you about 300 ml of coconut water.
- Don't throw away the shell with young white flesh inside - grab a spoon and have it as a snack while watching you favorite TV show ;)
- It take just a couple times to become an expert in coconut opening. I'm sure you'll have fun doing it. I have!
- Be careful not to hurt yourself hitting coconut with a heavy knife. For a first time, try to wrap bottom part of coconut with a towel, it will protect your holding hand.
Coconut Water
- 1 young coconut
- your largest chef's knife, it has to have heavy wide blade at a base
- ridiculously large cup or mug
- small strainer, coffee strainer is ideal
- Cut of white outer layer from the top part of coconut to expose woody nut surface.
- With a lower edge of knife blade hit coconut wood at about 2" from a center of a top of your coconut. Please, be very careful doing this, never allow children to do it. Refer to pictures below.
- Strain water from a coconut into a cup and enjoy!
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In Pictures
It's a $2.69 at our Asian market.. I remember them even cheaper a couple of years ago.
This white outer layer is somewhat soft so it's easy to cut if off with your huge chefs knife.
For a first time, wrap bottom part of coconut in a kitchen towel to protect your holding hand. Find a spot about 1.5 " from a center, where you will direct corner of your knife.
Tap with corner of your knife until it cracks. Then insert the same knife corner into a crack and pry it down to open along the circle line.
I scraped a coconut meat from inside and used it in my morning oatmeal - delicious!