How to cut and eat coconut at home

Coconut is a dream tree. But not everyone knows what to cook from a coconut tree. Construction, weaving, fuel material; in addition, its fruits can not only be eaten, but also drunk. And how much usefulness is contained in this very coke pit (which everyone called a nut)? Fully full:

• Fats (clean blood vessels from cholesterol).
• The pulp is the best food for vegetarians and athletes.
• A natural vitamin-mineral complex with vitamins and minerals is simply a storehouse of health and beauty.

A real oriental miracle. No wonder Asian women are so elegant and graceful. And today we will look at what to cook from coconut, and what dishes will help you and your loved ones to always be in shape, but never go hungry.

Homemade recipes

How to make coconut milk?
There are 2 main methods: from fresh crushed pulp or from dried shavings.

The cooking process involves the use of a blender.

Unfortunately, it is very difficult to prepare a drink without a blender - you will need a wooden masher and a lot of time and effort.

In addition to this kitchen device, you will need a deep bowl, a sieve and gauze folded in several layers.

Method for producing milk from coconut flakes

Coconut shavings are widely available - they can be found on the shelf of any store, it does not have to be a large supermarket.

Cooking process step by step:

1. First of all, you need to fill the chips with hot boiled water. If there are not so many shavings, take a different amount, proportions: for 1 part of shavings you need 2 parts of water.
2. The chips poured with boiling water should be left for half an hour, covered with a lid. During this time, it will swell and begin to “share” essential oils and particles of pulp with water.
3. Using a blender, “punch” the steamed coconut flakes, turning them into a paste.
4. Place the resulting mass in cheesecloth placed on a sieve. Roll up the gauze and carefully squeeze out the milk by hand.

Recipe with fresh coconut

Milk made from fresh ripe coconut meat tastes better than milk made from dry shavings.
It is richer and thicker, more cream flakes off as it cools, and the texture is butterier and creamier.

It is very important to choose a quality coconut!

And to be honest, this is difficult to do.

It happens that all the rules seem to be followed, but the nut tastes “soapy” - this is a spoiled fruit.

There are several factors to consider when purchasing fresh coconut:

• appearance: the nut must be intact, without cracks, holes or other damage;
• splash of water: before buying, it is better to shake the coconut over your ear to make sure that there is liquid inside;
• weight: a ripe coconut feels dense and quite weighty to the touch.

We prepare in several stages:

1. Before you begin extracting the milk, you need to prepare the nuts themselves. The shell needs to be broken, the pulp carefully removed and the brown crust cut off, although this is optional - it does not particularly affect the taste.
2. Grate the pulp on a fine grater or use a food processor to chop. The smaller the chips, the more flavor (cream and butter) the nut will give off!
3. Pour boiling water over the grated coconut, the proportions are slightly different from those given in the previous recipe. For 1 part fresh pulp there are 1.5 parts hot water.
4. Cover the resulting mass with a lid and leave on the table until it cools completely. On average, this process takes 2-2.5 hours.
5. Beat the swollen pulp with a blender until it becomes a porridge.
6. Strain through a sieve or cheesecloth, using clean hands or a spoon.

Fresh milk is not stored for long - a maximum of 2 days, in extreme cases, about 3 days, if the container is sterilized and hermetically sealed. If you freeze, the shelf life is extended to several months! The pulp soaked in water will last the same amount of time in the refrigerator, but an opened nut is best consumed within two days.

How to drink coconut

As mentioned above, the liquid can be drained through the holes made or drunk directly through a straw. Everyone is used to calling it coconut milk. Actually this is not true. It needs to be cooked. This is done very simply: coconut shavings are poured with boiling water (ratio one to two). Leave the mixture for about half an hour. After which the mass is whipped using a blender and squeezed out with gauze or a bandage. Sauces, cocktails and soups are prepared on its basis. For example, Thai coconut chicken soup. It cooks very quickly, turns out tasty and healthy.

Drink and eat the contents the same day. Do not store opened coconut in the refrigerator, it will quickly spoil.

Required components:

• liter of chicken broth;
• two hundred grams of fillet;
• one chili (cut in half, completely remove seeds);
• a few lime leaves;
• ginger root;
• seven and a half sticks of lemongrass;
• eight green onions;
• salt, spices to taste;
• one fourth tablespoon of chili puree;
• one hundred twenty milliliters of coconut milk.

Classic Thai Coconut Chicken Soup, Tom Ka Gai (Kai).
Pour the broth into the pan. Add fillet, lemongrass, lime, ginger and chili. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and cook for about half an hour. Then remove the chicken and slice thinly. Strain the broth. Return it to the vessel and boil. Add coconut milk and green onions. Cook for about ten minutes. Add chili puree, salt, spices. When serving, you can garnish with coriander leaves.

Very flavorful and super quick to prepare soup with coconut milk.

Description of coconut and what they do with it

This type of nut grows on the coconut tree. Oddly enough, the tree comes from the palm family. It also has another name - areca. It is the only representative of the species of the genus Cocos. It reaches a height of thirty meters, the girth of the trunk is up to half a meter. There are no side branches, the leaves are at the very top, as if gathered in a ponytail.

The largest can be up to six meters long.

Many believed that the closest relative of the coconut is the banana. Actually this is not true. Its closest relative is the date.

The coconut tree blooms with cute panicles that are made up of small coconuts. Initially they look like small flowers with a light yellow tint. One such broom can reach a length of one meter.

During the flowering period, they hang beautifully from the top of the tree.

The palm tree on which the coconut is already ripe has a beautiful appearance. They are called drupes, not nuts, as has always been thought. This is due to the fact that this product is more similar in structure to a peach, cherry or plum, but not to a walnut or hazelnut.

Real lovers buy nuts and only then think about the question of how to open a coconut at home.

The fruit has impressive dimensions. Length from fifteen to thirty centimeters, weight reaches two and a half kilograms. The shape is divided into three types: oval, oblong and round. The top is covered with a fibrous shell with small villi, and underneath there is a hard shell. Underneath is white pulp, drenched in cloudy milk.

Coconut is used in various desserts. Most often it serves as decoration. Thanks to new technologies, the chips acquire different colors. The cake becomes brighter. It is also added to the dough. Thanks to this, it is not only aromatic, but also nourishing and tender.

It is better to buy nuts in places where they are sold in large quantities, for example, in supermarkets.

In addition to cooking, coconut is used in cosmetic oil. The skin becomes soft and elastic. It saves her from the sun's rays, her hair becomes thick and strong.

When choosing a product, you should carefully examine its peel: the color should be even and without spots.

How to eat coconut

There are many ways to eat coconut: frozen, whole, or made into milk. One of the most current options is Raffaello sweets. For them you need one hundred and fifty grams of sugar, one hundred and twenty-five grams of butter, two hundred grams of coconut flakes, two hundred and fifty grams of milk powder, one hundred milliliters of water and half a glass of walnuts.

Almost everyone likes Raffaello coconut candies.

Pour water into a saucepan, add one hundred grams of sugar to it, stir and put on fire. Gradually add oil. Boil until the mixture becomes homogeneous. Remove from stove, cool. Combine coconut flakes with dry milk. Mix all. Place in the refrigerator for four hours. Make circles from the resulting mass, place nuts inside and sprinkle with coconut shavings.

At the end, we roll the finished “Raffaello” in coconut flakes.

Another option is coconut cake. The dough requires the following ingredients:

• one hundred milliliters of water;
• a small pinch of salt;
• twenty grams of granulated sugar;
• two hundred and fifty grams of wheat flour;
• one eighth of a stick of butter.

The filling is prepared from two eggs (only the white is taken), one-fourth of a stick of butter, one hundred grams of coconut flakes, eighty grams of sugar and two tablespoons of liqueur.

Delicate, airy, simply melting coconut cake.

Take all the components intended for the test. Mix them into a homogeneous elastic mass. Place in the refrigerator for half an hour. At this time, beat the whites to strong peaks. In a separate bowl, stir together the melted butter, sugar and coconut. Pour in the liqueur and mix again. Roll out the dough, make small sides. Place it in a pan previously lined with parchment paper and greased with butter. Cover with cling film.

It’s easy to prepare and will please both you and your family.

The cake is baked for fifteen minutes in an oven preheated to one hundred and eighty degrees. Gently mix the whipped whites with the oil-coconut base. After fifteen minutes, take out the cake, remove the cling film, lay out the filling and put it back in the oven for half an hour, the temperature remains the same.

It is necessary to let the cake stand for some time so that the chips are well saturated with the cream, becoming unusually tender.

Important! Coconut milk has a low calorie content - 19 kilocalories. The coconut itself is high in calories. It is better not to abuse it for overweight people. There are contraindications such as hyperfunction of the thyroid gland. The components it contains may affect its operation.

When cracking a coconut, you should remember to be safe, as its thick shell can break off and fly apart if hit hard.
When choosing a coconut, it is recommended to pay attention to its appearance and sound. It should be completely free of cracks and make a gurgling sound. Otherwise, the fruit is not suitable for consumption.

The process will be easier if you first immerse the fruit in boiling water for a few minutes or heat it in the oven.

Coconut crafts

Coconut is a perennial plant from the palm family. It is the only type of fruit of this type. Its name comes from the Portuguese word “soso”, which translated into Russian means monkey. It is not completely known whether the name was given because of the similarity of the spots on the nut with the face of the animal or because monkeys were repeatedly seen sitting on coconuts.

The southern part of Malaysia is considered to be the birthplace of the plant. But now coconut thickets are found in both the southern and northern hemispheres of the Earth. Naturally, climatic conditions make it possible for coconuts to grow only in countries where it is warmer, and they are closer to the equator. These include the Philippines, Malacca Island, India, Sri Lanka, the Malay Archipelago and Indonesia. It is interesting that the habitat of the coconut was spread not only by human efforts, that is, by selective artificial methods. Most of the movements took place naturally. Coconut nuts are waterproof and once in the river, they easily moved towards the ocean. Later, the latter carried them all over the world, maintaining their viability and ability to reproduce.

The fruit that is most interesting to consumers is called a drupe. It does not exceed 30 centimeters in length, round with a slightly flattened top, weight - about 2 kg

The outer shell, the exocarp, attracts attention with its hairy fibers. In science they are called coirs

The endocarp - the inner part - is equipped with three pores that lead to the seeds. They, in turn, consist of pulp (corpus) and endosperm. Endosperm, or clear, liquid coconut water, becomes thicker and yellower depending on the life of the fetus, as over time it begins to contain more coconut oil.

Coconut shells are a natural material, perfect for making extraordinary and stylish crafts. Almost everything is now made from it, from lamps and phases to miniature figurines, bracelets and stylish earrings. At first glance, that is, without close examination, it is practically impossible to determine what exactly the craft is made of. Top ideas:

• lamp;
• cup;
• aroma lamp;
• figurines;
• cup for candles;
• ear pad for headphones;
• birdhouses;
• miniature bags;
• beads, earrings, necklaces, pendants, bracelets.

Fashionistas for 5-7 years have been crazy about unusual round handbags made of coconut. They look original and are quite dense and rigid. Great for storing everyday small items, such as a mobile phone, keys, wallet, sunglasses. Having made a coconut bag with your own hands, you will be one hundred percent sure that there will be no similar options anywhere else. And by choosing an intricate design and an interesting ornament, you will ensure that the accessory will be noticed and praised even by those who know little about fashion. The manufacturing algorithm is something like this:

• the fruit is dried for several days, all moisture is removed from it;
• the husk is removed using a tool and sandpaper;
• the surface of the coconut is covered with colorless varnish;
• holes are made using an electric tool, such as a drill;
• locks and other fittings are glued to construction glue;
• painting is carried out;
• additionally secured with varnish;
• if a layer of paint or varnish is required to be fixed, it is fired in a kiln.

Of course, unique Asia Minor, African and Indian motifs are popular. To decorate the bag, bright colors in warm tones are suitable, for example, greenish, marsh, mustard, yellow, red, orange, coral. But if you have other considerations on this matter, then no one forbids you to do as you please. Don't worry about the bag getting damaged. The strength of a coconut is almost the same as that of a board.

The processing principle is clear: first the shell is dried, then sawed off, sanded, and varnished. If we are talking about the manufacture of small parts, then everything is done the same, only then the shell is additionally cut and each part is processed. At handmade fairs you can find hundreds of options for jewelry, accessories, and home decor items made from coconuts. And diagrams are often freely available on the Internet.

Coconut sugar

Coconut sugar is a rather rare product in our country. It is obtained not from the fruit, but from the inflorescences of the coconut palm tree. For thousands of years, coconut sugar has been used in South Asia as a natural, traditional sweetener. Today, coconut sugar has become a healthy substitute for cane sugar all over the world and is also widely used in confectionery.

How to quickly open a coconut, see the following video. Please note: when opened, a little liquid spills out of the nut - this is coconut water:

Baked pork under the fire

Along with the kebab, you should definitely try another roe deer recipe. Juicy boiled pork is a pleasure for the whole family!

In order to prepare this, you will need:

• 1 hind leg of a roe deer;
• 3 heads of garlic;
• 1 carrot;
• 2 bay leaves;
• 2 tbsp. l. vegetable oil;
• 2 tsp. black and red pepper;
• 2 tbsp. l. seasonings for meat;
• 1 tbsp. l. coriander;
• 1 tbsp. l. salt.

First prepare the marinade. To do this, mix all the spices in one bowl, finely break the bay leaf and pour it all with vegetable oil, you only need a little of it just to mix all the spices together. Using a grater or garlic press, chop and add half the garlic to the marinade. Leave the mixture for 20 minutes and work on the leg.

Rinse the meat and remove films and veins from it. Cut off the drumstick. Spread several layers of foil on the table. On it, coat the entire leg with spices, thoroughly rubbing them into the meat.

Peel the carrots and cut into thick strips, chop the garlic lengthwise into 2-3 parts. Make several cuts in the meat and stick a few pieces of garlic and carrots in there.

The boiled pork is ready for baking. It is advisable that the fire had been burning for 10 hours before this and that there was a sufficient amount of ash. Bury the meat in it and light a fire. Baked pork takes about 5 hours to prepare.

Baked pork tastes wonderful!

How to eat coconut

I don’t know what devices our ancestors used when opening a coconut, but my method is this:

• I find three dark dots in the coconut, with the help of which the coconut is attached to the palm tree.
• I pick one of them out with a knife, insert a plastic tube and pour the coconut water into a glass.
• I break a coconut with a hammer. If this cannot be done, I place it in an oven preheated to 200°C for 5 minutes. After this procedure, the shell becomes fragile.

I like to eat coconut immediately after opening. True, you won’t be able to handle the whole nut in one go. Coconut pulp can be added to baked goods, desserts, and drinks. Coconut water spoils quickly, so it is best to use it immediately.

Exotic goods attract me more and more. Because I love innovation. At least once a month I buy coconuts. My husband jokes that I’m improvising a vacation somewhere in Africa. But why I actually do this, I’ll tell you now. I don't want you to be at a loss.

Cake "Esterhazy"

Category: Desserts Cakes

Esterhazy is an almond-chocolate cake popular in Hungary, Austria and Germany. Named after Pál Antal Esterházy (1776 -1866), Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy.

The secret recipe of the ancient Hungarian Esterházy family... Only cafes/restaurants of the same name have the right to prepare and sell it, and the recipe is kept secret, and only guesses are posted online. I don’t know if this is actually true, but I still tried to cook it according to the recommendations of “Gastronom” and recommendations from A. Skripkina’s forum. Girls, all the creams and masterpieces in the form of a characteristic design for Esterhazy were made by my husband - I’m shocked. For the first time, “we” didn’t just watch TV, but actively participated…. thu-thu-thu, God willing, not the last one... and so he...

Coconut oil

Coconut oil is an ancient herbal remedy that has incomparable healing properties. It's easy enough to buy. It is used in accordance with the indications and recommendations of the doctor.

If you regularly use coconut oil, a stable protection of the skin is formed from the effects of ultraviolet rays, the formation of dermatitis, dandruff, eczema, it prevents the appearance of wrinkles, age spots, and sagging skin.

But the best part about it all is the fuzzy, brown nut itself, which has a mysterious taste that you can enjoy at home. In addition, the pattern of its use confirms the fact that there is nothing difficult in opening a coconut. How the fleshy part is eaten and under what conditions its juice is drunk is now known to everyone.

Homemade coconut milk

Category: Drinks Soft drinks

Homemade coconut milk is not only more economical, but also much more natural and healthier. The process of its preparation is very simple. Ripe coconut can be extracted into coconut milk and coconut oil. The amount of coconut oil increases with the maturity of the pulp. The nutritional value of milk and butter is very high. Along with vitamins and minerals, the oil contains lauric acid, which is believed to have “magical” properties.