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Wednesday, December 28, 2011

How To Cut Open, Scrape and Freeze Fresh Coconut

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BM#11 Fresh scraped/shredded Coconut plays a major role in Indian cooking. It is used for making Coconut chutney, Coconut Rice, making ground masala for curries,as a garnish, for extracting Coconut Milk etc etc. Since we are all under time crunch, the optimal thing would be scraping and freezing it in a large scale. MIL taught me to freeze them into golf size balls rather than a slab cause it is much easier to thaw these smaller portions.

Procedure:
  • To cut open the coconut you need a heavy (iron) rod and another heavy rod with a sharp hook at one end ( like in the picture) to pry the flesh from the shell.
  • To crack the coconut, hold it in your left hand and smack it in the center to cause a fissure. Rotate and repeat to create a hairline fissure all around it.  
  • Don't discard the water.
  • Filter the water and drink it as is.Don't waste it. It tastes heavenly and it also cools the body. Perfect drink for summertime! From this coconut I got nearly 2 cups. Lucky day and I felt blessed!
  • Now use the rod with a hook to put deep cuts into the flesh of the coconut all the way down the shell.
  • Seperate the coconut pieces from the shell by giving a little nudge from underneath the flesh. Some brute strength is needed!
  • The brown rind on the underside of the coconut is edible. So most of the times I leave it. Wash the pieces and pulse in a food processor.  
  • Optionally the rind can be peeled or shaved to yield a much whiter coconut flakes, if desired. 
  •  Make small golf-sized balls and line in a box.
     
  •  Freeze immediately.It stays fresh for upto 2-3 months. Usually it doesn't last that long in my house as I use coconut in everyday cooking.
  • Frozen coconuts in shapes of balls are much easier to seperate and thaw.
Tips to buy a Coconut that hasn't spoiled:
  • Pick coconuts with shells that are light brown in color. The darker the shells the older they are.
  • Shake the coconut to make sure there is water in it. Presence of water is an indication that the insides aren't spoiled.
Some recipes that use Coconut:

 

Enjoy!
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11 comments:

  1. We make it as small cubes..balls sounds great as it's easy to measure this way too..love that soft dosas CL..

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  2. thats a real cool trick , i use grated coconut sparingly so, it is very useful for me

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  3. Another useful post CL. I hardly see fresh coconut in my place though :(.

    Vardhini
    Event: Sinful Delights
    Event: Stuffed Paratha

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  4. I don't get good coconuts here usually use good quality frozen coconut and divide into cubes when I open the bag.
    I have been eyeing your ragi stringhoppers for quite sometime now and I think it's time to try those. :)

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  5. This post has been so helpful to me. What an easy way to keep fresh grated coconut on hand! Thanks!

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  6. 2 cups of coconut water from 1 coconut. The most I ever got was probably 2tbsp. It's probably because I've no clue how to select a good coconut :-(
    Nice tip on freezing coconut in the form of balls. Easy to defrost and use. Thanks for the helpful post.

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  7. great idea to roll them up.. this way you can measure it out! thanks!

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