dsilva wrote on 14 May 2007 in rec.food.cooking

> > First, peel the husk off the coconut,
> > and open the eye that is easy to open.
> > There are three eyes -- the one which
> > is further away from the other two is
> > the thin one which is easily opened
> > with a paring knife. Pry off the shell
> > over the eye and enlarge the hole through
> > the coconut meat.
>

Since a young coconut is white-ish and more or less shaped something like
a jewish top (I forget it's true name... drezel perhaps?); I find with a
clever it is relatively easy to cut a 'V' notch in the pointed end to
allow for easy juice removal. Then with the cleaver and a rubber mallet it
is again easy to totaly remove the pointed end cleanly and levely. Leaving
you with a tumbler or drinking glass shaped coconut shell. Which sits
reasonably well on a table.

Punching a hole in the 'coconut eye' doesn't allow for fast juice removal.
As the hole usually isn't large enough. And requires the last dregs to
drip out.

Since the flesh of young coconuts is not as firm as in mature coconuts and
it is also fairly thin it can be scraped out readily using just a
tablespoon. It is a little slimey in texture but quite tasty to eat.

A young coconut also has way more juice than a mature coconut. You get
almost a cup of juice or more from a young coconut.

After juice & flesh removal you can reuse the young coconut as your
drinking vessel.

There is no need to remove the outer covering or look for eyes in any
case.

If you don't have a cleaver... an electric drill or a large nail (even a
srewdriver) and a hack saw would fill your needs almost as well. But I
find the cleaver method puts less crumbs/dust/crud in the juice.

I find a cleaver very handy in the kitchen for things like this or even
large squash cutting. And a rubber mallet is easy on the cleaver and
allows for more precise cutting. Using the heel of your hand to strike the
cleaver can lead to bruising.

I have 2 cleavers a smallish 8 inch for general veggie chopping and a
larger thicker 12 inch one for heavier tasks, I use my cleavers more than
I use my chef's knife.