How to properly cut a coconut at home
To enjoy fresh coconut, you need to suffer a little with it. This often scares buyers in the fruit department and makes them leave this exotic and continue to lie in the window. But, if you know a few secrets of how to properly reveal this fruit, then everything looks not so difficult.
The first step is to get coconut milk. It is a sweet liquid that is secreted by ripe pulp.
How to cut a coconut: get a hammer and a screwdriver ready
In this difficult matter, it is important to know some secrets:
- Find 3 eyes on the surface of the coconut. One of them should open, the other two can be poked with a screwdriver or drilled. After finding a real peephole, pierce it with the edge of a knife. It’s good if you can expand it as much as possible.
- Drain the coconut milk through the hole. If it comes out poorly and too slowly, make additional holes in the other pseudo-eyes.
- Once completely drained, you can drink it or freeze it in a plastic bag – you can then use it to make sweet pastries or exotic salads. If you want to drink the juice right away, it’s easy to do with a straw – just insert it into the open hole.
You can also go directly to the second stage without preliminary manipulations, and drain the liquid after opening the nut, if, of course, you have time to do this.
How to get coconut pulp at home
Now let’s try to get to the middle:
- Look at the surface of the nut – it has a continuous line around the circumference, resembling the equator. Hold it over the sink and tap directly on this strip with a hammer – the fruit should open.
- If it doesn’t work, draw a crack with a knife. Do not press too hard, after such a procedure, the nut will definitely split in half.
- If you missed the first stage with milk extraction, now is the time to do it. After opening, substitute a glass or cup and collect the liquid.
- To prevent shell fragments from remaining on the pulp, rinse both halves under running water.
To remove the pulp, cut it into strips with a knife. After that, you can also use a spoon.
You can simply eat it neat, add it to a fruit salad, or make shavings and bake cookies with it – just grate it.
If suddenly, after long efforts and applying all the forces, the nut did not manage to open, use a life hack. Preheat oven to 200 degrees and place the coconut in there. Wait 15 minutes. Remove and cool. Now it has become softer and opens easily.