Extracting coconut from the shell

Coconut is one of my favourite flavours, as either creamy coconut milk or freshly grated (shredded) or toasted flesh. You can buy desiccated (shredded) coconut from shops, but if you are in a more adventurous mood, I suggest you attempt to prepare your own grated fresh coconut – it’s infinitely better! The hard part is getting the flesh from the shell but it’s not impossible. Select a coconut that feels heavy – if it’s light then chances are the flesh may have deteriorated and dried out. In most countries apart from Asia, you’ll be buying a coconut with a hard brown shell – either hairy or, if trimmed, smooth. Hold the coconut firmly in one hand, or rest it on a towel on the work-top, and hit it firmly with a pestle, a hammer, or the back of a meat cleaver in the centre (think of the centre as you would the equator on a globe), rotating it a few degrees after every hit. Eventually, after it’s been rotated completely once or twice, you should hear it pop open. This will cause the liquid inside to drizzle or gush out – depending on how hard you’ve been hitting it. You can strain this liquid and drink it as long as it smells good. (Occasionally, I have opened a coconut only to discover the flesh has begun to rot a little – it smells very soapy – and have had to throw it away, which is very frustrating after all that effort.) The flesh should be white and firm with no trace of rot or discoloration. Once the coconut has popped, you’ll need to prise the two sides apart – a large blunt knife, screwdriver or oyster knife is good for this. To make it easier to remove the white flesh from the brown shell, you can place the two halves on a baking sheet in an oven set to 170°C (350°F/Gas mark 4) and bake until the flesh begins to shrink back from the shell a little, about 15 minutes. Using either the knife, screwdriver or oyster knife, you need to prise the flesh away fully from the shell. It may come away in one piece but usually it’ll break apart as you do so. Be careful though: it can be hard work and you don’t want your knife to slip and cut you. Once you have the flesh out, you can then grate it or peel it into strips using a potato peeler, then eat it as it is or toast it on a baking sheet at 160°C (325°F/Gas mark 3) until golden. Turn it frequently to ensure that it cooks evenly.