How to Buy, Open and, Prepare a Coconut

Before buying a coconut, shake it to make sure it is full of liquid. The more there is, the fresher the coconut. Coconuts without liquid, or those with moldy or wet eyes," are likely to be spoiled. Though the coconuts available in the United States may range from 1 to as many as 3 pounds, the average one weighs about 1 1/2 pounds and will yield from 3 to 4 cups of chopped or grated meat.

TO OPEN THE COCONUT:

Puncture 2 of the 3 smooth, dark eyes of the coconut by hammering the sharp tip of an ice pick or screwdriver through them. Drain and discard all of the coconut water.

Loosen the meat inside the shell by holding the coconut in one hand and tapping around the outside in a dozen or so different places with the blunt edge of a cleaver, a kitchen mallet or even a hammer. When the shell begins to split, give the coconut one or two sharp blows with the implement to break it. The meat should fall away from the shell in large sections. If not, rap the outside of each piece to loosen the meat further and then cut it out with a small knife.

TO GRATE COCONUT:

With a swivel-type peeler or small, sharp knife, pare off the brown outer skin of the coconut meat. Then grate the meat, piece by piece, with a hand grater.

TO MAKE COCONUT MILK:

Pare off the brown skin and chop or break the meat of the coconut into small chunks. For each cup of milk needed, drop one cup of chopped meat into the jar of an electric blender and add one cup of hot, not boiling, water and blend at high speed for 1 minute. Stop the machine and scrape down the sides of the jar with a rubber spatula. Then blend again until the coconut is reduced to fairly smooth pur6e. (To make the coconut milk by hand, grate the peeled coconut, piece by piece, into a bowl. Stir into each cup used an equal amount of hot, not boiling, water.)

Scrape the entire contents of the jar or bowl into a fine sieve lined with a double thickness of dampened cheesecloth and set it over a deep bowl. With a wooden spoon, press down hard on the coconut to extract as much liquid as possible. Bring the ends of the cheesecloth together, to enclose the pulp, and wring the ends vigorously to squeeze out the remaining liquid. Discard the pulp. One cup of coarsely chopped coconut meat combined with one cup of water should produce one cup of coconut milk.

Tightly covered, coconut milk can be safely kept in the refrigerator for 2 or 3 days or in the freezer for several months.