[Scotty H]How to open a young thai coconut and FoodTraining U notes

Scotty H has posted a new item, 'How to open a young thai coconut and FoodTraining U notes'

We had a great time at our official Class #1 of FoodTraining U. We had several people in attendance that learned all about coconuts. We also shared some great recipes (all of which had coconut as an ingredient). We are talking about fresh young Thai coconuts. There’s only one coconut, it is just sold in many different forms (young, water, milk, dried, oil, syrup, vinegar, flour, amino acids, sugar) I’m probably forgetting something else, but you get the point.

When a coconut is on the tree it looks like this.

Fresh young Thai coconuts can be purchased at most health food stores or Asian markets. Unfortunately it is expensive to ship them to yourself if they are unavailable to you. Try asking the produce manager at your local market to find them if they are not regularly stocked. Young coconuts have less meat and more water. You don’t want the older dark dry shell coconuts, unless specified in a recipe. The water and the meat in the young coconuts are much sweeter. When you purchase young coconuts they look like this:

If you want to lose weight, eat coconut! If you are fighting an illness (diabetes, infections, dry scalp, just to name a few), eat coconut! If your skin is dry, put coconut oil on it! Get the point? For years coconut was thought to be bad because it is so high in saturated fat. Research has showed that yes, coconut is high in saturated fat, BUT it is also one of the few oils that is composed of Medium Chain Fatty Acids (MCFA’s) The longer the chain the worse the oil. All vegetable oils (Corn, canola, sunflower, safflower, etc.) are composed of Long Chain Fatty Acids (LCFA’s). Those are the facts in a nut (coconut) shell . If you want to look into fatty acids more, go here: Fats, Fish Oil and Omega-3-Fatty Acids . These facts make Coconut oil a much better choice for consumption. If you replace all other oils in your kitchen with this ONE oil, you will be healthier, lose weight and feel great! Use it in ALL of your recipes!!! I also use the oil as a suncreen. It is said to have an SPF of 15. The only time I burned this year was because I was out too long and didn’t reapply the oil. It makes my skin very smooth and smells good too!
Bruce Fife is an expert in Coconut nutrition and has written several books on the subject (even a cookbook). Please do your own research, but believe me, this nut is amazing!

Since eating a healthier diet we have been consuming major amounts of coconut oil. I was unaware that this IS one of the reasons I was losing weight and keeping it off. While doing my research for our FoodTraining U class, I found multiple sources that confirm that coconut oil is the best alternative. I read 3 of Bruce Fife’s books this weekend and he also confirmed, it’s true. Coconut in almost any form is a healthy addition to any diet. We purchase our coconut oil by the GALLON! Can you believe that? Who buys a gallon of oil? We’ve used almost 3 gallons in the past year. That’s a lot of oil! And we are losing weight? Not only is the oil good, but we like the water and the meat also. We have a great health food store in town that regularly carries young Thai coconuts. If we order them by the case we receive a 10% discount! 

Have you ever opened a young Thai coconut? It took me along time to get comfortable. Damon is much better than I am, so I only have to open them when he is busy. Luckily.

Here’s a video of Damon opening a young Thai coconut. If you look up other videos everyone has their own style. We find the following style to be very effective.

As you can see the water went flying! We all laughed and quickly cleaned the camera. That was a raw food blooper! Luckily at our first FoodTraining U class the coconut water did not go flying, nor hit any unsuspecting cameras or persons in the audience.  
Most nuts are full of wonderful water. If you are dehydrated, drink it to bring up your electrolytes. We tend to stay away from packaged coconut waters and milks. After learning that nearly all cans contain BPA, we simply don’t purchase them anymore. If you only need the water for a recipe, scrape the meat from the inside with a soft spatula and save it in the freezer for later use. Though we do not like the fact that coconuts have such a high carbon footprint being an imported product, we are currently researching what we can do to reduce that. If you are lucky enough to live on the east coast you can purchase or order coconuts from Florida, shipping rates prevent us from that so we use Thai coconuts for the time being. Does anyone have an idea for localizing the amazing coconut?

Watch our blog for recipes using coconut. We use it whenever possible!

You may view the latest post at
http://blog.wewantraw.com/2010/09/09/official-class-1-food-training-u-coconut-research-and-great-food.aspx?ref=rss