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:
Tips to buy a Coconut that hasn't spoiled:
Enjoy!
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.
- 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.
Enjoy!
We make it as small cubes..balls sounds great as it's easy to measure this way too..love that soft dosas CL..
ReplyDeletethats a real cool trick , i use grated coconut sparingly so, it is very useful for me
ReplyDeleteinformative..thanks
ReplyDeleteAnother useful post CL. I hardly see fresh coconut in my place though :(.
ReplyDeleteVardhini
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I do the same way too,useful post again CL..
ReplyDeleteVery informative...
ReplyDeleteUseful Post CL!!!!! Lovely Clicks!!!!!
ReplyDeleteI don't get good coconuts here usually use good quality frozen coconut and divide into cubes when I open the bag.
ReplyDeleteI have been eyeing your ragi stringhoppers for quite sometime now and I think it's time to try those. :)
This post has been so helpful to me. What an easy way to keep fresh grated coconut on hand! Thanks!
ReplyDelete2 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 :-(
ReplyDeleteNice tip on freezing coconut in the form of balls. Easy to defrost and use. Thanks for the helpful post.
great idea to roll them up.. this way you can measure it out! thanks!
ReplyDelete