How to Open a Young Thai Coconut

Learning how to open a young Thai coconut takes a little bit of practice, but once you get the hang of it, you'll be cracking away in no time!!! Since these photos were taken, I started using a cleaver, however, as you can see, it's not absolutely necessary. 

DIRECTIONS
Lay coconut on side (I'm holding knife in wrong hand to take the photo, but you get the idea). Slice the the white husk off the coconut towards the point of the coconut, leaving the hard, brown shell visible. 

Using the heel of the knife, gently poke, feeling for a soft spot.  Raising the knife up, come down fast and hard, aiming the heel edge of the knife (as seen in photo), towards the soft spot, breaking the inner shell. (Make sure your other hand is out of the way!) If you do this right, you will only need to do this once! It really does work - most of the time! If it's an older, thicker coconut, you may have to repeat this step 2-3 time until you can get your knife/cleaver in to pry shell back.

Wedge cleaver/knife heal into the opening you just made. The shell should crack into a nice circle. Carefully pry it up and off, exposing the lovely coconut water and meat. Pour coconut water into a glass or container. 

Using handle edge of spoon, wedge it between the shell and the meat.  If you have the Viatmix flexible spatula, this tool works GREAT for removing coconut meat. In a circular motion, working your way around the inside of the coconut, separate the meat from the shell. 

Your coconut is now ready to use. For delicious coconut milk, simply blend the coconut water and meat together. You can add a medjool date to sweeten and a bit of vanilla extract. Enjoy! Coconut meat can be used in a variety of desserts and dishes.  




Russell James has a great video on how to do this.