The coconut (cocos nucifera) is not really a nut, but a seed. Belonging to the family of fruits called drupes, it is related to dates, apricots, plums, nectarines and peaches.
A coconut palm loaded with coconuts
Inside the “nut” is the edible part of the fruit. Before it ripens, the fruit’s flesh is jelly-like and can be eaten with a spoon right off the shell. As it matures, the flesh solidifies and becomes crisp to form coconut meat; this is kept moist by the thin, opaque coconut juice or water.
A green coconut just fallen from the palm
It has been cultivated so long and become so naturalized on tropical shores all around the world that its origins are unknown.
Cutting off the outer husk with a machete
Fresh coconuts are available year round, with peak season from September through January.
Getting to the inner shell or 'nut'.
The coconut palm is ranked as one of the ten most useful tree species to mankind.
The 'nut'.
It was one of the crops that the early Polynesians brought with them when they came to Hawai’i, along with taro and the Hawaiian purple sweet potato. Plants brought by the early Hawaiians are known as "canoe plants" .
Opening the shell or 'nut'
Pouring out the coconut water
There is a South Seas saying that, he who plants a coconut tree plants food and drink, vessels and clothing, a source of heat, habitation for himself and a heritage for his children.
Extracting the 'meat'
Grating the 'meat' in the processor -
I got 3/4 pound
Making coconut 'milk' - I got 1 cup
It takes about a year for the green coconut to ripen and harden to the stage where it can be broken in pieces and grated. The brown nuts you usually see in markets have been husked.
When buying fresh ripe coconuts, make sure that there is no moisture in the eyes of the nut, that the shell is not cracked or that it emits any sour or acrid smell. It should feel heavy and you should also be able to hear the water sloshing inside when shaken. They can be stored at room temperature for a couple of weeks.
Making Coconut 'Milk'
Coconut milk is made by grating the meat across the grain or using a fine blade in a food processor (I used the regular knife blade). Add the coconut water and 1/2 cup of warm water; let stand an hour, and then squeeze through a jelly bag or several layers of cheesecloth. It may be frozen for later use.
Freezing Grated Coconut
You can freeze coconut meat, grated or in chunks, lightly sprinkled (or not) with sugar in any airtight container such as Tupperware. It can last for 1 to 2 years. Be sure to date the container.
Veggies, coconut 'milk' and chicken broth in crockpot
Curried Coconut Veggie Soup
Curried Coconut Veggie Soup
1 cup coconut 'milk' (*)
2-1/2 cups homemade chicken broth
2 medium potatoes, peeled and cut in chunks
2 carrots, peeled and sliced or diced
1 medium onion cut in chunks
3 peeled and sliced garlic cloves
5-6 pieces peeled and sliced ginger
1/4 cup scallop cut bamboo shoots
1 stalk lemon grass
Salt, freshly ground pepper and curry powder to taste
4 cherry tomatoes, quartered - added the last 30 minutes of cooking
Small bunch Thai basil, cut in slices or chiffonade - added the last 10 minutes of cooking
Place everything, except the last two ingredients in the crockpot and cook for 6 or so hours. Add the tomatoes and almost before serving, add the basil. Serve in bowls. Sprinkle grated coconut and serve.
(*)If you prefer a stronger coconut taste just add more coconut milk
Crab meat, shrimp or chicken can be added if desired.
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Sonia Martinez, Gather Food Correspondent | ||||
Sonia's column, 'Tropical Taste' is a regular twice-monthly feature of Gather Essentials: Food. Sonia is a cookbook author and freelance food writer for several publications in Hawaii, and is also a Hawaii Island Journal restaurant reviewer in partnership with her son Anthony Mathis. She lives in a beautiful rural rainforest area on the Big Island of Hawaii. You can keep up with Sonia's adventures and ongoing love affair with Hawaii by joining her network, or visiting her food & garden blog at Sonia Tastes Hawaii. | ||||
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Comments: 90
Thank you Heather...I'm glad you enjoyed it.
Angela, thanks!!!
Great essay, Sonia, and recipes!
Dorine, from the time you see the first little 'seeds' in clusters up on the tree, until they are ready it seems to take forever....about as long as the cacao pods!
Katrina, I love to eat the fresh coconut, while it is still in that jelly stage before it hardens into the white hard 'meat' most people are familiar with....at that time, the coconut also contains more water.
to not grate your knuckles, they the food processor...it was a breeze!
thanks, Joanne, I have a story about a coconut falling on my parents' car's windshield when I hit a coconut palm once......funny now but not funny at the time.....
LOL, and thank you!
Also, when we were in Fiji we learned that hundreds of people die every year from being hit in the head from a falling coconut!
Do you do anything with the rest of the tree/husk/fibers?
~devi
Thanks for writing such a quality article!
Anthony chops up the husk and fibers and adds it to the mulch pile.
I love, love, love coconut. This would be the perfect soup for a winter cold, similar to mulligatawny soup. Have you ever put it in the oven to make it easier to crack? What a good idea to freeze it. Thanks.
I have not used the oven method....I saw it demonstrated once on a Food Network show, but have never tried it myself....
There is a world of difference between the meat inside a mature coconut and a young coconut. Eating a young coconut's meat straight from the shell is paradise. Yummy!
I had an uncle whose homemade ice cream was the signature dessert of any exclusive party. His ice cream was made with freshly squeezed grated coconut... no cow's milk for this man! I have never been able to find anything like his Macapuno coconut ice cream nor his Jackfruit ice cream. Those were to die for.
Macapuno is a mutant coconut tree. It develops nuts that are slightly bigger than normal coconuts. It also has softer meat even at maturity and has thicker meat, so there is less water to be found inside the nut. It is now being developed as a regular crop in some plantations in the Philippines.
The Macapuno coconut can be found sweetened and bottled, sold in any good Asian market. This is what Filipinos use in their shaved ice dessert called Halo-Halo.
I would love to learn the recipe for your uncle's coconut ice cream - I'm not sure if we have Macapuno coconuts here, but at the agricultural extension department I'm sure they can tell me. I will check it out.
I will also look for the sweetened and bottled macapuno. Thanks for the additional info!
Thanks for the pics, information and recipes. I am starting to like coconut, altho' I disliked it for many years.
I've always liked coconut in any way, shape or form, except for any tanning, body lotion or shampoo smelling like coconut.....for some reason, I just cannot stand that smell!
Another very informative article. I remember buying a coconut when I was young. With my brother's assistance, we managed to break it open. I can't remember exactly all of the "tools" we used, but I recall asking my dad for a hammer. Of course, the coconut water located inside ran out onto the ground. We smashed the pieces of coconut onto the drive way and used the hammer to break the coconut from the shell. It's one of my fondest memories because my brother and I had so much fun with that coconut. My parents wanted nothing to do with it, but for us, it was a fun time and delicious summer adventure.
The whole time Anthony was whacking the coconut with the machete I was cringing....and praying he didn't get his fingers along with the husk!!!
You don't have to apologize to me.....I too am having a hard time finding time just to hang out in Gather!
Coconuts are amazing-all parts of the tree and fruit are used-fronds for roofs and mats, wood for bowls and such, coconut milk and meat for cooking and eating, and of course the pith for the coir industry and shells for many uses. Coir is used for making yarn for mats, floor coverings, car mats, and the pith for so many horticultural uses. Been this way as a cottage industry for over 2500 years in Kerela etc.
It is an amazing resource....!
Beth, do I detect a note of desperation....? Do you need to come to Hawaii and hang out a bit...? ;-))) Come on and hang loose for a while!
I forgot to mention in the article that I added some pieces of hot pepepr and cooked it for about 30 minutes, then fished it out, because it was suficiente caliente for us. If you like it hotter then of course, just add hot peppers and leave them!
I hope you find everything, if not....improvise! that is what I did!
I love the smell the taste and soup made with coconut milk is to rave about....this is a great time for a soup made with it ans squash fresh from the garden....wooopie
Actually, coconuts are some of the easiest palms to grow. If you leave a coconut (like the green one in the second photo above) undisturbed on the ground where it falls, it will sprout roots and grow from there. There is no need to do anything to it to grow or cultivate. They grow in richly mulched forests and they grown in bare sand by the ocean. Salt water does not bother them. In fact, there is a school of thought that coconuts propagated all over the tropics by traveling all over our oceans bobbing along until they reach land and then settle wherever they end up, root and thrive.
There are some varieties that are shorter (dwarfed) and some that are taller than the one in our yard - we have several palms coming up now from coconuts that have fallen through the years from that one and we placed around in areas where we wanted them to grow.
It takes a long time for them to get to their proper height (which ever variety they are) and sometimes 10 years or more before they produce coconuts.
I am on the hunt for a special Malay coconut palm I was told about by a friend.
Anthony and I were trying to figure out how we were going to get the rest of the coconuts down from that tree...it is quite tall and neither of us is up to 'shimming' up to the top...LOL
Maybe we should 'cause and emergency' with the phone lines..... The last time the phone company was here changing some lines (a couple of years ago) the crew used the cherry picker on their service truck and took them all down!!! We gave them most of the coconuts and we kept a few. ;-))))
There is something about coconut milk that gives foods a smoother taste than cream or milk.....even though I love working with cream also!!!
Because I am known for being stubborn and difficult at times, he nicknamed me *Coconuthead* right after he encountered all the troubles of trying to open a coconut for the first time.
I guess it's a term of endearment from a "Darnamericano". He knows I'd just laugh and do his bidding.
G'nite, Sonia!
Just don't forget, this one is a cracked pearl :-)
Had not throught about a smashing throw on the sidewalk....LOL
Thank you for reviving the wonderful memories of such a long time ago.
My son lived in PR for several years, off and on while attending the University there... his father and his father's second family were living there at the time. Anthony loved it!
I love coconut best when it is just opened and the 'meat' is still soft and gelatinous inside.....add a bit of brown sugar and scoop out of the shell with a spoon........YUM! For this you have to harvest them way before they are ready to fall, since by then the meat will be turning hard.
Thanks for inviting me to connect. I look forward to reading more of your articles.
Have you moved to Gainesville area yet???
As to your wanting to be here in my yard, not at the moment you don't.....we are in the path of a hurricane .....Looks like Hurricane Flossie wants to drop by and visit Hawaii!....those coconuts on the tree might become flying bombs and that machete might have to do duty in a personal survivor episode....;-)))
Yes, when I was growin gup in Cuba you saw people also selling them on the side of the roads.........I loved that!
No, we were not Flossed out in our area, except for rain and that we needed, thank goodness. So glad Dean spared you. Looks like it is gaining strength. I have friends in Corpus Christi, TX, who are already packing just in case
We had only boughten one fresh coconut about two years ago,(By request of my son at the grocery store) and finding a recipe to make something out of it was a task...
We had made fresh coconut cream pie,that was the only recipe I could find besides shredding it to use in different recipes.....
No, I don't have any photos of the purple sweet potatoes at the moment, but will take pics next time I get some. No, they aren't like the All Blue potatoes at all.