Not to long ago, my friend, Sha, asked me how to open up a coconut for its juice. Maybe, there was some mis-communication somewhere in our conversation, she ended up with lesser juice than expected and a damaged cleaver. :P
Hence, I made a simple video on how it is done. This is specially for you, Sha! ;)
To make the video shorter, I have cracked the coconut slight first. The coconut I bought was without the husk. If you are from Singapore, you can get them is some wet markets, NTUC and Shop N Save.
Sadly, there wasn't much choice for me to choose from today. So the coconut I bought, as seen in the video, was a bit old. Hence, the pulp was thick and hard and slightly more difficult to open. I should have used the coconut used in the photo above instead.Younger coconut will have very tender pulp which is very nice to eat. :)
The steps to crack open the coconut is as follows:
- With one hand firmly holding the coconut, hit it with the back of the cleaver. Very important to make sure noone is behind or beside you!!
- Turn the coconut around and continue to hit on it until you see a crack-line around the coconut.
- An 'old' coconut will have thick and hard pulp. Don't force it open with your hands. You will end up having coconut juice splashing all over.
- Use a fork or spoon to poke in-between the crack-line into the coconut.
- Twist a little to force open the coconut.
- You can now drain out the coconut juice from the opening.
- Open up the 'top' of the empty coconut to scrape out the pulp.
- If you have problem opening up the coconut, use a knife to cut the pulp first.
- You will be able to open up the coconut easily now.
Note:
- You can control how big the opening you want by hitting on a position of the coconut. Hit it closer to the top, you have have a smaller opening. It's good if you want to drink the juice straight from the coconut.
- Hit it on the position about 1/3 from the top, you will have a larger opening. Good if you want to scrape out the pulp.
Here's the video as mentioned ...
Now, I'm off to crack some coconuts to make coconut jellies. :D
Enjoy!
:.