May 2019 – Enjoying Fresh Coconut
“My doctors told me I would never walk again. My mother told me I would. I believed my mother.”
– Wilma Rudolph 1940-1994, Olympic Gold Medalist
It is so much fun to get to share with you each month.
This time I have learned a new “food trick”
that I hope you benefit from as much as Phil and I have!
Plus I am looking for your input to help our
Newsletters be of even greater value and interest to you.
FYI~ If at anytime you have a suggestion to help us make things better
please feel free to send us an email.
Thanks for being you!!
I ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW HOW TO DO THIS!
When we have been in the tropics we have enjoyed fresh coconut water and fresh raw coconut meat.
The reason we didn’t enjoy these two fabulous treats at home is that I had only ever seen a coconut opened with a machete.
Far too dangerous, not to mention we don’t own a machete!
So since I found out just how EASY it is to open a coconut, we have been enjoying this fabulous real raw food many times per week. I have even added the coconut water to our Schmunkie.
It is soooo good!
(and Alkalizing too!)
Did you know that 1 cup of fresh coconut water has only 50 calories?
The water is great for replacing electrolytes in your body
when you have been perspiring.
Most of the coconuts we have opened
have 1/2 to 3/4 of a cup of tasty coconut water inside.
Notice in the first picture below that each coconut has 3 “eyes”.
What you do is just poke at each eye with a small paring knife.
One of the eyes will be softer than the others.
Simply apply a little pressure and twist the knife in the soft one.
You will hear a “sucking” noise, kind of like opening a jar of canned fruit. This lets you know the coconut was intact and airtight.
Just twist the knife so you create a hole big enough to either put in a straw and enjoy drinking it straight out of the coconut itself,
or turn it upside down over a measuring cup to allow it to drain. I usually tilt the coconut a bit so air can get in to allow the coconut water to flow out more freely.
I also learned how to crack the coconut open with the back of a clever or heavy knife. Just hold the coconut on its side,
smack it with the back of the knife blade and then rotate it a bit,
whack it again and keeping doing this around the middle of the coconut until you hear it make a hollow sound.
Then you know that you are in!
There are tools online to separate the meat from the hard shell as well as tools to grind out the flesh and make like coconut snow!
Very fun!!
Last night I separated the meat from the shell and then took the meat and sliced it into ribbons on a mandolin. I laid them out on a parchment covered cookie sheet overnight (it was getting late).
This morning while making my Schmunkie
I put them in the oven at 250 degrees for 1 hour to lightly toast them.
I really like how they turned out.
You could easily add cinnamon or something else
if you want added flavor.
Plain, lightly toasted coconut works for me.
They are a great homemade healthy snack.