02 February 2011

Two Empty Ends of Coconuts...

In a display of superior turnaround time, the pictures in this entry were taken (drum roll please...) last night!  In a widely publicized and highly anticipated experiment in the kitchen involving sharp knives, fish flanks and coconuts, I spent the better part of yesterday evening preparing a rather large helping of Coconut Fried Fish.  I took the liberty of putting together a picture compilation of the procedure as well, starting with the extraction of the coconut juice and meat:

After draining the coconut water into the container on the left,
I broke the shell into two halves by dropping it on the floor (no kidding!)

Using a rather simpleminded technique of scraping out the meat with a knife,
I managed to produce enough coconut shavings for my recipe.
Before and After of the knifing-the-meat-out method before resorting to
prying the meat off of the shell with a spoon.
The final collection of coconut meat; all of those good
coconut shavings!  I'm going to have to find another one.
The process took a little longer than I expected; getting all of the meat out of the coconut took about an hour.  And during it all I felt like quite the historian, finding myself in a situation where countless other humans thousands of years ago found themselves: upon being presented with a fruit not before experienced, having to decide how on earth to extract the delicious contents locked within.  I was pleased, therefore, to succeed in my attempts, though not without the help of a simple tool and a tile floor.  Progressing at last to the cooking portion, I populated the line in preparation of frying the fish fillets:

Dousing the fish fillets in coconut milk and egg whites before coating with
flour and a breadcrumb-coconut blend ensured superior coconut frying goodness.
The final product, after adding the flash-fried fish to a pan of fresh
vegetables simmering in coconut milk and citrus juices.
And look - a novelty cup to boot!  A souvenir from my uniquely island experience.
It was a fun experiment, though much more demanding than any of my previous cooking ventures.  Perhaps, in the future, purchasing pre-shredded sweetened coconut is the way to go?  On the other hand, I wouldn't get to add to my collection of awesome island drinkware.  I'm shooting for a set before the end!

P.S. Don't be the guy that asks, "What about the other half?  Don't you already have a set?"  It has a hole in it, silly!

4 comments:

  1. Hey Chris!
    Awesome turnaround, send me some coconuts if you can! I would love to cook with actual coconuts. So was there milk in them too? I still don't understand those things. I attended a McKesson meeting with recruiters. Might try to become an implementation analyst there. Probably don't have the gpa tho.
    Jonathan

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  2. Yeah, they call it "coconut water" here. You see the plastic container to the left of the two coconut halves? It's holding all of the coconut water contained in this one coconut (sorry I didn't think to capture a photograph of it before breaking it in half.
    I'm still only halfway through the leftovers. Thanks to David for the coconut as a birthday gift, it turned out to be quite the experience!
    Implementation analyst is a great way to get started. McKesson will prove to be very competitive though; pray hard! I guess GPA helps, too. You're absolutely going about this job search the right way, though. Keep up the good work!

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  3. Also, nobody's thoughts on the title? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHFXG3r_0B8
    I suppose it was obvious enough...

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  4. The coconut milk we bought was white, not clear. I have two interviews I'm really looking forward to: Fastenal and Sherwin-Williams. Both hire people out of college with no experience. One lead came from church, and the other from Delta Sigma Pi. Fastenal is more of a part-time sales job, but 95% of their hires are promotions within the company. I plan on moving up. With S-W, I'd go through a training program then hopefully become an assistant mngr in a store
    I haven't watched the Holy Grail in like 5 years! I need to see that again. do you have the dvd?

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