The Coconut Trial

I was at Bi-Lo the other day shopping and while in with the fruits and veggies, I spied a coconut.  I had never messed with a whole coconut, so on a whim, I bought it.  Time to put it on trial.

Before I tell the rest of the story, let me let you in on a secret of James' mind.  My concept of coconut, comes from Gilligan's Island, and the coconut that is in Mounds / Almond Joy candy bars.  That's where I started from.

Last evening, I went online to see how to get into this thing.  Screwdriver to the eye, nice.  Not my eye, the coconut's (it had three).  I drained the water from the inside and strained it through some cloth.  Sip....not what I was expecting.  Not gross, but not like the liquid coconut cream pie I was expecting.

Next, I took a hammer to it and cracked off the outer husk.  Not so hard, the surface is scored to make it easier to crack.  The flesh was bright white, but still had some brown skin on the outside.  I peeled that off with a vegetable peeler and rinsed it off.  First taste....again, not what I was expecting.  Not sweet at all.  At this point, I'm pretty sure I won't be doing all this work again any time soon.  I finished peeling the pieces I had and went back to the internet for some ideas.

Toasted.  I peeled off a bunch of slivers and put them on a baking sheet with a little salt.  Toasted them in the over until they were golden brown.  Tasted pretty good.  Sweet, salty, coconutty...Very edible.

I put some in a bullet blender with some sugar and milk and proceeded to blend away.  What I got was like a coconut smoothy.  Not bad, but not worth the effort.

I was done with the coconut trial. 

Verdict:  I'm glad I learned how to get one open, and did it myself.  I was a little disappointed with the taste, but I'm sure that is from my unrealistic expectation.  I won't do it again any time soon, but I can't say I never will.