Didn’t I tell you last time that we hardly use fresh coconuts on Curacao? I just got a call from a lady that makes coconut oil from fresh coconuts! The best news is that she is going to be one of the participants at the Farmers Market on February 27th!

In my previous post I showed you an easy way to open a coconut and fetch the lovely fresh coconut water. So far so good. But how do we clean a coconut and get the sweet white flesh out off its shell?

The chefs in Trinidad used a paring knife, but it seemed a bit tricky. So I did some research. There are quite a few ways to clean a coconut: freeze them whole and bash up the shell until you are left with a white coconut ball, freeze half a nut for 1 hour then scoop ut the flesh with a knife,  or toast half a nut in a flame for a couple of minutes and scoop out the flesh. I tried them all, but it didn’t really work for me. Except one:

You will need a linoleum (or curved) knife for this, which you can buy at a hardware store. They’re cheap and a good investment if you want to start working with fresh coconuts. Once you have your coconut halves, put one half  on a cutting board.  Hold it with one hand and use (the bottom part of) the knife to make a cut through the white flesh. Pull and turn the knife towards you and the flesh will pop loose. After this first piece, it will be quite easy to remove the rest of the flesh.

That’s all there is to it. I hope it works for you too.

Next time, a recipe for fresh coconut milk. So stay tuned!