young coconut

[torakris]

I was in the supermarket today and there right in the entrance was a pile of young coconut for 100 yen (90 cents) each. It seemed to good a deal to pass up.

Now that I am home I have no idea what to do with it!

help!!

Is is round and white and about the size of a softball, I am not even sure how to open it!

There were a pile of durian right next to it, but I left those there!

[Stone]

Roxannes, the no-cook restaurant in Marin makes a young coconut pad thai. (It's basically a salad, it doesn't have much in common with pad thai.) The long shreds of young coconut are very noodle like, a cross between a fat rice noodle and maybe ubon. We had no idea what it was until we asked. The dish I had was very good.

[torakris]

Roxannes, the no-cook restaurant in Marin makes a young coconut pad thai.  (It's basically a salad, it doesn't have much in common with pad thai.)  The long shreds of young coconut are very noodle like, a cross between a fat rice noodle and maybe ubon.  We had no idea what it was until we asked.  The dish I had was very good.

I just saw a picture of this the other day in a magazine (Fine Cooking or Eating Well) it was Trotter and somebody getting together for a book? Called something like "Raw", I have to go back and find that.

Edited April 16, 2003 by torakris (log)

[nightscotsman]

Just lop the top off with a big chefs knife or a cleaver. The inner shell is much thinner and softer than a mature coconut. Also, there is much more liquid inside so watch out for spillage. The liquid is very light and fresh tasting and the meat is very soft and almost gelatinous in texture. I really like it, but it's very different from what most people think of as "coconut".

[Jinmyo]

The restaurant is called Roxanne's.

edit:

There are several threads about it on the California board.

Edited April 16, 2003 by Jinmyo (log)

[indiagirl]

Like nightsctosman said - lop of the top. Stick a straw in it and drink the lovely, lovely milk. I would keep it in the refrigerator for a bit since I like the milk cold. Using the lopped of top, scoop out the oh-so-tender, quivering, white meat inside. Enjoy. Pretend you are on a tropical beach.

Seriously, I have never heard of a recipe using the meat of tender coconut but I imagine it would make a lovely amuse guele with a little sweet miso based sauce and basil. Or in a fresh (not fried) spring roll. The flavor of the meat is pretty delicate and fragile so I think they won't be able to stand up to much.

What a treat.

[davidscooking]

I've eaten immature coconuts in exactly the same way nightscotsman describes.

In Jamaica, such coconuts are called "jellies" and are considered a treat. They're sold at roadside stands. The vendor takes one up, still inside its outer husk, sets it on a flat surface and decapitates it with a machete. The inner shell is easily removed. One then drinks the coconut water and scrapes up the sweet, gooey "meat" with a spoon or a fragment of a shell.

Never seen any recipes calling for jellies.

[Monica Bhide]

I love tender coconuts and just eat the "jellies" as they are. Incidentally, I was reading a while ago that coconut water (the clear liquid inside the coconut) is quickly becoming the leading competitor against other sports drinks. Coconut water is wonderful as is, even better to help an upset stomach. In India they will often give it to you in place of electrolytes or plain water when you are recovering from any illness

[mamster]

I had a wonderful som tam of young coconut at a riverside restaurant in Bangkok. Som tam is usually shredded green papaya, but many other shredded vegetables work (the name just means something like "sour mash," now that I think of it). Pound shreds of the coconut meat with dried shrimp, lime juice, palm sugar, chiles, garlic, peanuts, and tomato. Mmmm.

[nightscotsman]

I also remember Alton Brown talking about coconuts on the "castaway" episode if Good Eats. He said that young coconut milk is so pure that during World War II, medics used to inject it directly into the veins of injured solders when they ran out of saline and plasma. Anybody know if this is true?

[mamster]

They should have injected fish sauce!

[torakris]

I also remember Alton Brown talking about coconuts on the "castaway" episode if Good Eats. He said that young coconut milk is so pure that during World War II, medics used to inject it directly into the veins of injured solders when they ran out of saline and plasma.  Anybody know if this is true?

I don't know about WWII but I saw Jackie Chan do it in a movie once!

Thanks for all the suggestions!

[torakris]

Last night I made a baby corn,young coconut, shiitake mushroom soup from Thai Food using both the juice and the flesh (I drank half of the juice first though!). It was unbelievably easy and the husband and all 3 kids loved it!