There's a video that shows how to open a coconut in 30 seconds. Except the prep time is 12 hours! Needless to say, this was my first attempt. I put the coconut in the freezer for 12 hours, took it out, whacked it with the hammer and nothing happened.
Back into the fridge it went for thawing.
Then, I took a philips screwdriver and a hammer and pierced the coconut's eyes. Draining the coconut of its water yielded almost a cup of coconut water. I hear it has a lot of potassium and electrolytes.
After that, I used the Alton Brown method and preheated the oven to 375 degrees F, then baked the coconut for 15 minutes. The coconut isn't that hot out of the oven, but you'll still want to wear an oven mitt because of the chaff of the outer husk. Give the coconut a few good whacks with the hammer and the shell will start to crack and come off. Use a vegetable peeler to peel off the stubborn inner skin.
What you should have left is a whole coconut, minus the outer hard shell. At least I didn't have to pry the meat out of the shell with a paring knife and scrape off the inner brown skin.
 |
| A peeled coconut, ready for use |
