Monday, March 14, 2005

Co-go-nuts

When shopping for the fair trade cocktails for our youth club I got a LITTLE bit too enthusiastic about the whole Fair Trade deal and, on a tropical-island-fantasy inspired whim, purchased three fairly traded coconuts. Of course I got them to the youth club and looked at them thinking... well NOW what do I do?




There was far too much going on with the young people so we had NO coconut element to our cocktails and I was left with THREE fairly traded coconuts and NO idea how to get into them or what to do with them if I do other than drink bacardi out of them or crush it and use it in curry! Any grand ideas about using them though DOES rather depend on getting the things open!

I managed to give one to my friend Colin as a bit of a challenge for him. After many amusing "noises off" and talk of "sticking it in the microwave" while Kathryn and I ate our tea Colin successfully opened the coconut using, and I quote "a hacksaw... and a saucepan!" This did not result in two neat "I can make horsey noises like Monty Python and the Holy Grail" coconut halves so I went searching on the net.

One method, which sounds very long and arduous, involves taking off the husk and "finding the three veins".

Method number two uses a gentler but somewhat slow cooking strategy (though this might result in some useable coconut halves!)

The third way has comprehensive safety advice and tells me that I need to saw the coconut if I want neat halves - logical enough I suppose!
Any other bright ideas? I'm sure my Hawaiian readers might have a better idea than me!
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5 comments:

  1. dreaming-neko11:07 AM

    hmmm... your coconut looks like a bowling ball! :)

    we hawaiians, use coconuts for food, tropical drinks, curry, juice, coconut shells for hula dancers, bowls, birds nest, paper-weights, painted art pieces, bowling balls, etc, etc...

    you get the idea~ :)

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  2. simo11:31 AM

    I'm not sure these will help with horse sound effects or even being able to eat or drink any of the contents but here are a few suggestions in order of preference:-
    1. Hit it with a sledge hammer
    2. Hit it with an axe
    3. I think the microwave idea should fit in here nicely
    4. throw it at a wall
    5. give them away as birthday presents and let someone else deal with them.

    Hope these help!

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  3. Pete Maidment4:31 PM

    what, you hit it with a microwave?

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  4. KT9:13 PM

    if you want horsey noises then saw it in half and good luck getting all the flesh out the middle

    if not - drill holes in two of the three eyes and drain out any liquid (yummy stuff) then take a hammer to it until it's in pieces small enough that you can get the flesh off the inside with a blunt knife or your teeth.

    either way you'll have to take most of the husk off

    hope that helps - haven't done it since I was a kid (seem to remember the flesh coming out the shell with a skin on the outside that mum took a peeler to)

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  5. Anonymous8:53 AM

    Do NOT use a microwave.

    You can only use a microwave to open a coconut once.

    The microwave stops working about half a second after the coconut opens.

    You do not get neat "horsey clip clops" either. You get shrapnel.

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