Venus Rising

Food for SoulIssue: cancer 08

It’s Time to Go Coconuts!

Watercolor by Philip GaligaSummer is here and milkshakes and fruity, iced drinks are making their way into our afternoon treats and cocktail hours. If sipped outside in the sun, these concoctions should make you feel like you are actually on vacation, especially if you use the quintessential sunny tropical island ingredient – coconuts! No other fruit starts off a warm weather party with as cool a vibe as coconut. 

Coconuts are hard to come by in their original form. Their source is the coconut palm, the archetypal tree of tropical climates. In fact, coconut palms dominate that landscape, providing a vital source of sustenance to people in Southern Asia, Malaysia, and the South Pacific. In these places, the entire coconut palm and its fruit are used for various life necessities and tools. Palm trunks are dried and carved into dishes and other household goods and the palms are use for thatched roofs. The hairy strands on coconut shells are dried, twisted and tied into rope, and the shells are dried and sanded into bowls and spoons. 

The coconut fruit hangs high, hugging its protective palm branches, at the end of a long pier-like trunk. Coconuts are shaped like an American football and in their adolescence they have a green outer shell. Deceptively smooth, the shell is a tough fibrous layer that becomes tan or gray as it matures. Beneath this rough exterior is still another barrier to the fine fruit, the familiar hairy brown husk that has three “eyes” at one end. This is the mature coconut found in grocery stores. Finally, there is a small thin brown skin encasing the coconut’s white kernel and it is filled with an opaque juice.

At six months, a coconut is at its most divine. Called “green coconut” this is when its meat is not quite hard but instead has a jelly consistency easily scooped with a spoon and its juice is sweet. Resident islanders are the beneficiaries of this otherworldly treat as green coconuts don’t travel well. If you don’t have a coconut palm in your backyard then you get mature coconuts…the meat is white, firm, and fibrous and the juice is not-so-sweet. When choosing coconuts in the store, make sure that the liquid makes a sloshing sound when you shake it, and pick coconuts whose eyes are dry.

While it would be an adventure to shimmy a palm tree and hack away the outer shell of your hand-picked coconut with a machete, that experience is rare and involved. Instead, use a sharpening steel or Phillips screwdriver and hammer open two of the eyes of the store-bought version. Drain the liquid, which can be reserved as a beverage, although a heavy dose of sugar is recommended. Put the whole coconut in a pan in a pre-heated 350˚ oven. Bake for 25 minutes. Remove the coconut and let it cool until it is safe to handle. Place the coconut on a hard surface and whack it moderately with a hammer until it cracks open. It may spurt its juice, so do this somewhere you don’t mind its spatter. Divide it in half or several pieces. Insert a flat knife or flat-head screwdriver between the meat and shell of each section to separate them. The coconut meat may now only have its thin dark skin that can be peeled off with a vegetable peeler; this is easiest when the coconut is still warm. Cut the coconut into pieces or shred it with a cheese grater or in a food processor. In either form, you can store it in a sealed container in the refrigerator for about a week or freeze it for up to three months.

Fresh coconut can be nibbled right out of the fridge, roasted until brown in a skillet, or added to salads. Most recipes using fresh coconut call for it shredded. This form is friendly and can be sprinkled on lots of things; pineapple, orange and banana fruit salad, yogurt parfaits, ice cream, French toast, cereal, on top of home-made granola. Of course, it is always great in baked goods; cookies, cakes, frostings, muffins and scones. Toasting coconut adds a rich vanilla and butter flavor. To toast coconut flakes, put about a cup in a dry skillet over medium heat, stir until all of the coconut is browned. Cool completely and store the same as you would fresh coconut.