Shredded Coconut from Scratch
A few months ago, I was fortunate enough to come across a 50 lb bag of mature coconuts in a dumpster. Most of them were cracked or had had all the coconut water drained out of them, but I knew there must be a good way to salvage them. Since I had so many to work with, I needed a way to preserve the meat. Shredded coconut was the perfect solution.
If you’re starting with a whole coconut, you’ll have to drill a hole into it to drain out the coconut water. Keep this and drink it; it’s high in electrolytes and other good things. Then get a clean towel and a hammer. Loosely wrap the coconut in the towel, and take a few good whacks at it with the hammer. Once it’s cracked, keep pounding away at it until the shell is in manageable pieces. It might also be helpful to let your downstairs neighbors know that you’re not trying to drill your way to the North Pole through their ceiling.
My relationship with coconuts goes way back. Someone in the collective house I lived in in 2004 decided to buy a case of coconuts, thinking it would be funny to walk around the house in the middle of winter with a straw and maybe a cute little paper umbrella sticking out of a tropical fruit. The coconuts, however, had the last laugh when the emptied shells, ravaged and abandoned to random nooks around the house, began to mold. So every night around 3AM one of my insomniac housemates and I would dutifully sit around the kitchen table and whack away at the shells, carefully carving out every last bit of meat before storing it in the freezer for later consumption. “Never again,” I declared solemnly.
Once you’ve broken the coconut shells into several pieces, pick one up and inspect it. You’ll notice three layers: the white flesh on the inside, the dark brown, hairy husk on the outside, and a thin layer of brown shell in the middle.
Take a butter knife and maneuver it between the two brown layers; once you’ve got some leverage, you should be able to pop out large pieces of flesh fairly easily. Repeat as needed.
Then, with a vegetable peeler or paring knife, scrape off the brown outer layer from the white meat. Carve out and chuck any soft spots or anything that’s turned a weird color or smells off.
Once you’ve got a billion chunks of white coconut, get out a grater and start shredding (on a coarse setting, if you don’t want to be doing this for another twelve hours).
If you have a dehydrator, you’re all set: just spread out a thin layer of coconut and dehydrate. If you don’t, you can spread a thin layer of shredded coconut on a baking sheet and pop it in the oven overnight with the pilot on, or for an hour or so at 200 degrees. If you want toasted coconut, it’s even easier: heat your oven to 250 or 300 degrees and flip the coconut frequently so it browns evenly. Allow the coconut to cool completely at room temperature; when it’s done, it should be a bit crisp and have a similar texture to store-bought unsweetened coconut. Transfer it to an air-tight container and store in a cool place for up to a year.
Use shredded coconut in coconut rice, frosting, bars, cookies, more cookies, granola, trail mix, or just enjoy it plain.
If you want to convert this to sweetened coconut, just add 1 tablespoon of warm water and 2 tablespoons of sugar for every cup of coconut. Mix well, then set aside and cover in plastic for 10-15 minutes, and you’re good to go.
Also note that you can freeze the coconut at any point in this ordeal to preserve it until you have more time to deal with it, provided you have the freezer space. It won’t hurt a thing.
Stay tuned for part two: how to make coconut milk from scratch!
Tags: veganmofo 2009
`You might also like
 |
 |
 |
 |
Subscribe to the HYIV! RSS feed
I love this post, such an awesome example of vegan ingenuity at its best! Great photos and brilliant writing.
you’re a genius!!!
god. you’re amazing.
This is so ambitious and wonderful.
In Fiji they shred coconut on a stand kind of thing. You can see them doing it here: http://www.fotosearch.com/UNH147/u27588284/