On Monday afternoon, I developed a serious craving for coconut. Not shredded coconut, mind you, but big hunks of fresh coconut meat. There’s a juice bar around the corner from my office that normally sells it just like this:
With this image of coconuts past burning in my memory, I headed out on a mission. I arrived at the juice bar … and did not see any coconut. I looked up at the lady in the takeout window pleadingly. Hay coco hoy?? No, no hay. Now, it is quite rare that I have a craving and actually set out on a mission to honor it with a purchase. I’m just not into spending money. This was obviously a serious need. I combed the blocks of East Harlem searching for fresh coconut meat with no luck. Finally, in a moment of pure desperation, I caved and bought a whole coconut from the grocery store next door to work:
Clearly, there was nothing I could do with this thing while at work, so I decided to wait out the craving until I got home and could smash the coconut against a cinderblock in the privacy of my home instead of in front of my coworkers, many of whom grew up with coconut trees in their backyards.
Before I left work, Nydia tipped me off that step one would be to use a knife to gouge holes in the “eyes” so that I could drain the coconut water:
So far, so good:
Nature’s best hydrator:
Once the water was drained, I pulled out the biggest knife I could find and went to town:
Things got pretty loud as bits of shells were flying around my kitchen … and the coconut seemed no closer to allowing me entry. My roommate Brigitte came out to inspect. Is everything ok here? I explained to her that I needed coconut and that I was trying, very unsuccessfully, to access the meat inside the shell. Brig suggested that I look up proper coconut cracking procedure. That didn’t seem as fun as my if-i-just-hack-at-it-enough-times-it-will-open approach, but I was desperate and gave in to google.
Apparently, the trick is to hold the coconut in the palm of your hand like so and simply use the back of a knife to tap it all the way around its middle until it just magically splits in two. Suuuuuuuuuuure, this will work.
(As you can see, I had already removed my top layer of clothing as a defensive maneuver in case of accidental explosion.)
Lo and behold, those little taps made the darn thing split in half like it was born to do it!
The next order of business was to remove the shell. I had a vision for this coconut half, so there was going to be no cheating like shredding the coconut directly out of the shell. I found directions that told me to heat the whole, drained coconut for 15 minutes in a 450 degree oven to loosen the shell, so I put the halves back together and did what I was told. It was still pretty snug after the heating, but I decided to proceed with a screwdriver and a hammer:
Things were rough in the beginning and fingers were harmed:
But it was all smooth sailing once I got the first big chunk off:
Throughout this loooong torturous process, a vision of something earth-shattering had been taking shape in my mind.
I pulled a frozen banana out of the freezer — can you see where this is going?? — and blended up some green tea cinnamon banana soft-serve. I served the ice cream in the coconut shell topped with a bit of peanut butter and a hazelnut dark chocolate from Gina:
Earth-shattering indeed!! I would drain, crack, and shell coconuts all day long just for the chance to eat this every night. In fact, maybe that is what I should do. Career change alert!
Eating that ice-cream coated coconut bowl at the end made me sooooooo happy. And that best part is that I still have half the coconut left so that I can repeat 😀
Have you earned any meals recently?
Tales of Expansion: Baby Butternut Edition 
DAMN you went through a lot, haha – you’re a trooper!! 😀
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Haha, this made my day brighter and made me laugh. I definitely would have chopped off my finger if I had attempted that! Chris and I made our first pizza on our pizza stone after getting our oven fixed and defrosting the frozen dough for days. And it turns out that rolling out pizza dough is a craft that needs to be mastered, but we earned that pizza when it was all done!
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What an amazing end result, though!
Glad you love the soft serve. And let’s get you a young coconut next time! They’re a mite easier 🙂
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When I was in Florida I was craving a fresh coconut. We kept seeing them at the store but we never purchased one because they only way we knew how to open it was to through it on a hard surface. That being said, thanks for the tips!! Now I want a coconut…but I don’t think they sell them around here! Ugh. Perhaps I can find one at Whole Foods? Either way, I need to get my hands on one. I LOVE your coconut ice cream bowl, very clever. Have you ever tried coconut ice cream? If not, try to search for some because it’s amazing.
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LOL – you crack me up! 🙂 Basically – your description of the whole coconut event is so something I would do! 🙂
LOVE LOVE LOVE the idea how to eat it at the end – you are a genius my love!
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Wow! I have never had fresh coconut before! I don’t even know if I could find one here in the boonies of Michigan! What a great idea to put the “ice cream” in it! (Bonus, you got your workout for the day in while opening the coconut!)
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Brilliant! I think trying to eat crab legs is pretty hard work..but sooo worth it!
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LOVE THE COMBINATION!! IT LOOKED GREAT!!!
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now I’m craving coconut!
http://eatventures.wordpress.com
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Wow–I bet you burned more calories working for that coconut than you consumed!
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I want a coconut bowl!!! The end result looks amazingly delicious. Btw, I’m having a giveaway at my blog, check it out!
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AMAZING! Well earned indeed, though it does seem like you went through an awful lot for that result. At least it’ll be easier when you use the other half! As Gena pointed out, I’ve heard that young coconuts are easier to deal with, though scary sounding. Apparently involves putting one hand behind your back and delivering one blow to the top so that you get a hole. You wouldn’t get your 2 bowl halves, but it’s easy access meat! One of these days Imma try it.
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Hee hee – you looked scary with that knife!! I’m impressed! It looked like a lot of work but the end result sure looks tasty 🙂
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Holy sh!t!!! That edible bowl of banana ice cream looks incredible!!!! Best thing I have seen on the blog world all day!!!!!!
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What a fabulous idea! Definitely a unique dessert. I love coconut,
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wow what a fabbbbbb end result!
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You must have enjoyed it a lot for all what you went through to finally savor it! 😀
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Oh goodness that looks like heaven! 😀
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Although you could switch to organic (a really suggested choice), the option could be
pricey and may possibly not be easy for all create, depending on in which you reside
and what is accessible in your neighborhood.
When our body p – H ( becomes more and more acidic it starts to set up defense mechanisms to keep the
damaging acid from entering our vital organs.
When you give your body a daily dose of these super foods it’s like renovating your body the way someone would renovate an old house that has seen better days.
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