Let's Go Coconuts!

Discussion in Food & Drink started by trea • Jun 13, 2017.

  1. trea

    treaNew Member

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    It seems like the coconut oil price has gone up since the wholesaler here in my area and in the next town have stopped selling it. So, I've decided that I'm going to make my homemade coconut oil since why not? Homemade is great and the coconut meat can be used to make a healthier kind of flour or as chicken feed.

    I’ve also started thinking and researching about how else to utilize coconut in other ways. Coconut spread (like olive oil spread) is one I’ve thought of.

    How about you? How do you use coconut? Recipes are welcome, too :)
     
  2. Beast_Titan

    Beast_TitanActive Member

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    I usually buy imported fresh coconuts from Thailand. The grocery had carved the sides to make it easy to open. I don't like using canned or powder coconut milk so I use fresh coconut fresh to make coconut milk. I juice them with a food processor.
     
  3. luri

    luriActive Member

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    I have used coconut oil for cooking purpose as well as hair and body massage oil. Food fried in coconut oil is tasty, however, the main drawback of using coconut oil is it makes your food too oily. You can use dried coconut on various kind of sweet dishes. You can either use in chopped form or grated form. try cooking meat with grated coconut, you will be amazed with its taste.
    sadly, I don't use coconut much. The climate in my district is not appropriate for coconut and they bring coconut from other districts. Therefore it is expensive.
     
  4. harijobs

    harijobsActive Member

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    Here in my place, we don't use coconut oil for cooking because we don't like the smell. We use it for our hair as oil. This oil we prepare in our homes along with dried hibiscus and dried Indian gooseberry. It is good for your hair and nourishes the roots and the scalp for healthy hair growth. Also, we use the oil for body massage. :)
     
  5. Shine_Spirit

    Shine_SpiritActive Member

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    I love to drink coconut water (it's refreshing, delicious and cheap). But I don't usually use it in any kind of recipe involving food, only in drinks (and the mixes always result in great drinks, according to my family, my friends and my girlfriend :D).

    Coconut water is life! ;)
     
  6. trea

    treaNew Member

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    @Beast_Titan@Beast_Titan Fresh is the best! :) A food processor? When I watched YT videos before, I never saw someone using a food processor. Is it better than using a blender?

    @luri@luri Well, our usual foods here are usually oily so no problem :D Meat with grated coconut sounds fantastic. I’ll try it with tofu since I’ve stopped eating most meat. And I’d send you some coconuts if you were just near. :3 It’s pretty cheap here.

    @harijobs@harijobs Haha I see. But the commercial coconut oil doesn’t have any smell, I think? We don’t have Indian gooseberry here but I can probably get some hibiscus and dry it. :)

    It’s interesting though. What are the benefits of mixing dried hibiscus with coconut oil? And another question for you and @luri@luri, how do you get rid of the oil from the hair completely? I tried oiling my hair before with another type of oil and my main problem then was removing it.

    @Shine_Spirit@Shine_Spirit Definitely! It’s also good for those suffering from UTI.
    Woah, nice! Care to share your favorite mixes, Boss? :)
     
  7. Shine_Spirit

    Shine_SpiritActive Member

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    @trea@trea One of my favorite mixes based on coconut water is with milk and orange juice. Besides being a refreshing and delicious drink, is super cheap to make. It's great for summer.
     
  8. Happyflowerlady

    HappyflowerladyWell-Known Member

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    We use coconut oil exclusively, except for olive oil in salads dressings, and I have experimented with the fractionated coconut oil for making salad dressing. The fractionated coconut oil does not harden like regular coconut oil; so it can actually be used in salad dressing, and it gives the dressing an interesting flavor.
    I use the unrefined coconut oil in smoothies or in my coffee, and I love the coconut aroma. For cooking, we use the partially refined coconut oil, which does not have the coconut smell or taste to it.
    I have made my own fresh coconut milk as well, and it is delicious, and just very rich and creamy. However, idoes not keep well; so it must be used right away. I make mine by cutting the fresh coconut meat into chunks, then shredding it in the food processor, and then I put it in the blender with water and blend until it is smooth and creamy.
     
  9. Alexandoy

    AlexandoyWell-Known Member

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    Here is an actual puzzle that I still have to solve about coconuts. Tomorrow, we are going to my wife's sister in the nearby province (that is 2 hours drive from our place). The coconuts there costs 7 pesos only while here in the suburbs, one piece costs 30 pesos. That's around 4 times more expensive. But the coconut here is already cut and cleaned and placed in a plastic that is ready to eat while that 7-peso coconut in the province is still in a bunch that needs cutting and cleaning and removing from the shell. In other words, the 30-peso coconut which is ready to eat versus the 7-peso coconut that requires labor. Now, what would you choose between the 2 coconuts?

    PS. 30 pesos is slightly more than 50 cents.
     
  10. Happyflowerlady

    HappyflowerladyWell-Known Member

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    That is an interesting question, @Alexandoy@Alexandoy , and I think the answer depends on what you are going to do with the coconuts once you have them . The only coconut that I have seen here is whole ones or the packages of dried and shredded coconut meat, and none that are cleaned and cut and put in plastic containers. Probably they do not sell enough coconut here to package it like that.
    I always buy the whole fresh coconut because I like to dink the coconut water, and then I take the coconut out of the shell and use the meat for whatever I want to use it for.
    When it is fresh like that, it makes delicious coconut milk; but you have to drink it almost right away because it doesn't keep very good like the processed coconut milk from the store does.
    So, if you are just going to nibble a little coconut, the packaged one would seem like the best idea; but if you want to use the whole coconut like I do, then getting the cheaper whole coconuts is much better, plus you can save them for a while as long as they are in the coconut shell.
     
  11. trea

    treaNew Member

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    @Shine_Spirit@Shine_Spirit That drink looks superb. Gotta try that one. Thanks for sharing! :)


    @Happyflowerlady@Happyflowerlady That's awesome! I don't think they sell fractionated coconut oil here, though. :/

    Your coconut milk sounds like the coconut shake I sometimes make except that instead of water, I use the coconut water I get from the coconut and I also add sugar.

    Regarding spoilage, have you tried freezing it? There was a time when I caught a cold and cannot consume the shake I made, so I just kept it in the freezer for about a week, and then when I tasted it, it was still fine.

    Also, I'm not sure if you've tried this strategy before, but I stumble upon a way to get most of the meat and remove the brown parts if you don't want them. I accidentally froze my coconut (still inside the hard shell) for 6-7 days (you can probably try freezing it for a day or two) and when I tried opening it in half, the meat separated completely from its shell forming a coconut meat ball. I looks like

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    , but mine was all covered with the part brown part that I easily removed using a knife. :D

    @Alexandoy@Alexandoy I am stingy and I know how to open a coconut (a bolo or even a butcher knife would do), so I'll definitely buy some of those dirt cheap coconuts. :cool:
     
  12. Shine_Spirit

    Shine_SpiritActive Member

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    @trea@trea Try it! I'm sure you gonna love it (and you'll not spend practically anything to do it). What could be better than that? Drinks like this one are the proof that you don't have to spend fortunes to appreciate something good.