My new favorite snack - Salted coconut

This has to be the easiest recipe since boiled water. Take a husked coconut, pierce the 'eyes' of the coconut and drain off the water. Put the coconut in the oven or toaster oven on 300 degrees F. and bake for 20 minutes. Take it out, let it cool to room temp. Strike the coconut shell with the back of a cleaver until it cracks into pieces. The baking will have separated the coconut meat from the shell somewhat. Push a spoon between the mean and the shell and pop the meat free.

Slice the coconut meat into 1/4" - 3/8" wide slices. Put on a cookie sheet and salt. Onion salt is often a no-go. Garlic salt is nasty, take my word for it. Seasoning salt works. Plain salt is best. When the coconut meat bakes, the sweetness becomes more prevalent. Salt + sweet = yum. It sorta tastes like theater popcorn that has been slathered with salt and "butter flavoring". ewg.

Long ago I worked in a famous theatre in downtown Hollywood. They served popcorn with "butter flavoring" that came in a 5-gallon bucket and was a solid at room temperature. It was salty, yellow grease and it tasted wonderful. This snack is wholesome, nutritious and much tastier and yet healthier than the theater popcorn.

Of late, I've taken to carrying this snack when I'm on a trike ride, hike on the bluff, or rowing in the sea. It's like pemmican lite. Good stuff. try it!

Hey I'm always down for snack ideas! I was just about to head to the store, so I will add this to my list.
Thanks for the suggestion, sounds delicious!

peace,
spec

...gosh, thats sounds REALLY good...

...when you're baking it, does the hull have a woody smell?...

reply to post by Wyn Hawks


The first time I made this, I peeled off the brown exterior. I actually like it better with the exterior, and yes, it has a nice, mildly sweet smell when baking. Go easy with the salt.

If you eat the skins of potatoes, you'll probably like the brown skin of the coconut. Looks better that way too. If you slice the pieces 1/8 of an inch, they curl into little rings when you bake them. Bake until they just begin to turn a very light brown.

It was coco-delicious! I drizzled a very tiny bit of honey over em' too, because I love honey. Incidentally, the produce gal told me that her dog loves coconuts and they make a terrific chewing treat. My dog loved a coconut half, and it kept her busy for about 45 minutes, much longer than a rawhide. She just gnawed all the good stuff out and left the shell. So now I have reason to make coconuts a permanent item for my grocery list. Thanks again!

spec

I haven't had coconuts in a while and never baked them. Really, I never thought of it. It sounds tasty, though. I ought to try it. Maybe put chocolate on it. Does baking it also make the shell easier to break?

reply to post by Skid Mark


Yes, that's the purpose of baking it briefly in-shell -- it makes the shell easier to break, and also separates the meat from the inside of the shell. Coconut and chocolate??? weeeeee! Can't miss, right? How about toasted coconut, peanut butter and chocolate? Tasty snack either way you do it.

I got thinking about this because my Bride came home with chocolate pretzels. I hadn't considered how yummy sweet/salt mixes are, so we fired up the oven and made these things. A healthy snack. Who would've thunk it?

reply to post by speculativeoptimist


Sounds messy, but then we don't really care about messy if it makes our fur-friends happy, right? Our cat will eat toasted coconut, but not raw.

reply to post by argentus


Adding almonds to the mix sounds good, too. You could even make a sort of trail mix by adding other nuts, coconut, dried fruit or berries, or M&Ms. The last probably wouldn't be very healthy but it sounds good. Considering how much you get at the store when buying the items separately, it would probably be cheaper making your own in the long run.

That sounds good to me, and I don't even particularly like coconut. It's probably better if you can shake them out of your own tree, but I might snag one from the grocer and give this a try. If it can be compared to popcorn, I'm all over it.

reply to post by argentus


It's really not messy(for the dog), I don't put honey on hers, just a raw coconut half, and she chews the good stuff out and leaves no mess, just an empty shell.

spec

reply to post by yeahright


I'm with you, for the most part -- coconut flavored anything......... yuch. Raw, toasted coconut? mmmmmmyum. SHAKE from your own tree? Sounds like a natural-selection device to me The tree tells you when they're ready and they fall on their own.

If you pick one from the store, make sure it has water inside. Drain and drink the water. Be careful with coconut initially, until your system acclimates to it -- it's full of fiber and a natural laxative, especially the water. If it becomes part of your daily diet as it has mine, you can take more without *cough* repercussions. We cook with coconut milk (rice n' peas [beans]), coconut-dipped fish, make coconut oil (very nice) and occasionally make our own soap from the oil. It takes a LOT of coconuts to make oil and even more to make soap.

Even after Hurricane Paloma snapped more than a dozen of ours like carrots, we still have at least 20 that produce well. People come for miles around to gather from our trees. Coconut dinner -- a local favorite -- coconut with salt beef and fish in a white sauce and sea pie (a flat tasteless dumpling). I don't care for it. Beef or fish, fine, don't mix them.

reply to post by Skid Mark


Good point......... you have nuts, berries, and chocolate? Sounds healthy to me. I don't have any problem with M&Ms....... they're a survival staple If you rolled some fat in there and formed them into balls, you'd have a decent pemmican.

Originally posted by argentus
SHAKE from your own tree? Sounds like a natural-selection device to me

The tree tells you when they're ready and they fall on their own.

Hey, what do I know? I'm a midwestern boy. I impressed myself for even knowing they come from a tree.

Actually, I was more referencing how nice it must be to live in an area where you have beaches and coconuts. We have apples and corn fields. And snow.

falalalala...

Originally posted by argentus
reply to post by Skid Mark

 

Good point......... you have nuts, berries, and chocolate? Sounds healthy to me. I don't have any problem with M&Ms....... they're a survival staple

If you rolled some fat in there and formed them into balls, you'd have a decent pemmican.

Lol now you're talking. Just thinking about it makes me stomach rumble.

Oh yeah I'm tryin it! YUMM-O Count me IN! I love coconut