Tuesday, April 02, 2013

Coco-nutty

Coconut vendor at Camichin de Juaja, Mexico
I enjoy a wide variety of natural foods but there are a few that I have disliked since childhood. I think many of my "dislikes" were texture related rather than taste related. One dislike was coconut which is often served in a desiccated and stale form in cakes, cookies and candy bars. Last year I read about the health benefits of coconut oil and bought some in the health food section of our grocery store. It was delicious and I have used it as a spread or in pie crust and homemade granola. We have also become accustomed to coconut milk in our curries and soups.

This January my dad directed my brother and I to a man who sells coconuts from the back of his pickup truck in the nearby village. He husked the nut, opened the top and poured the water into a bag with a straw. He then scraped out the coconut meat and put it in another bag with freshly squeezed lime juice, dried chili and coarse salt. It was nothing like the dry, stale coconut in plastic bags in the baking aisle. It took me two days to eat all the coconut meat but it was so tasty, especially after it had marinated in the salt, chili and lime overnight!


I found some young coconuts in our local grocery store in Canada and decided to see if I could open one myself. There are several You Tube videos which demonstrate how to open a coconut with a kitchen knife if you don't happen to own a machete. It really was quite easy and the resulting taste was very rewarding.

That makes my list of disliked foods shorter by one.

3 comments:

  1. I love coconut and was fortunate enough to have my mom feed us fresh coconut when I was young. I love it in all it's forms, toasted, dried, fresh, etc. and I love the "water" which we called milk when I was young. I now use coconut milk in my granola, which makes it taste just great, and I use the coconut creamer in my coffee. I have not tried the coconut oil yet. That is next on my list! Glad you finally found a way to like it!

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  2. I remember that stale desiccated coconut when we were kids, but loved it when my Dad would bring home a whole coconut from the grocery store. He would hammer nails into the holes and pour out the milk for us to drink. Then somehow he'd smash open the coconut (maybe with a hammer) and we kids would pry out the meat. That was delicious!

    I haven't tried the coconut oil yet - I'm wondering if it's just another fad. We'll see....

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  3. Anonymous9:03 pm GMT-4

    I, too, have lived with a bit of a dislike for coconut. Maybe it is because I haven't tried the "fresh" coconut you describe. Will have to give it a try.

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