Preparing a coconut

How to prepare a coconut

This is easier than you would think. Don't bother drilling out the little `bungs' unless you want to drink the coconut juice with a straw first!

If you need to reserve the juice, break it over a bowl, if not then just do it over the sink.

The citrus zester shown here is identical to tools sold specifically for scraping a coconut. It scraped a coconut clean in 3 minutes, leaving a neat pile of coconut `spaghetti'. However, as shown here, you can improvise with an ice-cream scoop, a mandoline, a knife and probably many other ways.

If your recipe requires toasted coconut, once you have the flesh grated, roast in a dry wok until it's golden brown.

Step by step

Pull off any loose matting from the outside of the coconut.
Rinse the coconut under warm running water to remove any grit and dust that might contaminate the coconut flesh that is being removed.
Hold the coconut in the palm of your hand.
Sharply tap the middle of the coconut with the blunt side of a cleaver.
Rotate it a little and tap it again.
Repeat until it cracks.
When it cracks, quite often the juice won't escape immediately as the flesh tends to hold the juice until you prise the two halves apart.
Scoop out the flesh with a coconut scraper.
Hang the used coconut halves outside for the birds, they love them.

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How to completely remove the meat/flesh of a coconut

Split the coconut into two halves by giving it a few taps around the middle.
Place in a preheated oven [200°C (400°F)] for a few minutes.
The coconut meat will simply separate from the shell.
You will however still have to separate the coconut flesh from the thin brown membrane that surrounds it.