Coconuts play an vital position in Parsi cooking and are symbolic of prosperity and life in Zoroastrian tradition and faith. At most meals markets in India, there are stalls devoted to cracking, peeling, and grating coconuts, which makes life simpler. In the event you’re primarily based someplace with out this luxurious, it’s a helpful and rewarding talent to learn to crack a coconut.
Earlier than we will crack our coconut, we should first have a coconut to crack! There are tell-tale indicators for good and unhealthy coconuts and upon getting them memorized, it is possible for you to to inform an ideal coconut from a dud in seconds.
First, look for many recent fibers on the coconut—the older the coconut, the drier the fibers; search for ones which are lush and nearly damp. Second, decide up the coconut and really feel the burden—there ought to be a reassuring heft to the coconut. If it feels mild for its measurement, it’s most likely previous and dried out. Examine the floor of the coconut for any cracks which will have let air in and spoiled the flesh. That is no good. Lastly, place that coconut as much as your ear and provides it a superb shake—there ought to be a beneficiant quantity of sloshing of coconut water happening inside that shell. The extra water, the much less time it’s been hanging round drying out.
To start cracking, take away as a lot of the dried husk from the shell as potential, as this solely will get in the way in which and dampens the blows. Go exterior and discover a laborious piece of concrete, a brick, or the same floor. Have subsequent to you a bowl to gather the coconut water and a sturdy, pointed knife to pry the shell open.
Crouch down and, with a agency grip in your coconut, begin giving it sharp blows on the bottom round its equator. On this second, I prefer to image myself as one of many apes within the opening sequence of 2001: A House Odyssey as I strike the blows.
After each strike, flip the coconut a number of centimeters round and strike a special space alongside its equator—you aren’t seeking to smash the coconut to smithereens, solely to strike with sufficient power to crack the shell open a bit of and will let you slip the knife in. Quickly sufficient the sharp cracking sound will flip to a uninteresting thud. This implies the power discipline has been breached!
Discover the spot with the crack and provides it a number of quick, sharp faucets to open that crack up. Stick your knife gently into the hole and, holding the coconut over the bowl, twist the knife to open the shell and empty out the coconut water. When you’ve drained all of the coconut water, a number of extra blows across the coconut ought to be adequate to interrupt it in half. Now you can use a butter knife to rigorously pry the flesh away from the shell.
Style the water earlier than you employ it—generally it will possibly flip bitter contained in the shell, though this isn’t at all times a mirrored image of how the flesh will style. In the event you can resist ingesting all of the water in a single go, you need to use the remaining for cooking.
Excerpted from Parsi: From Persia to Bombay: Recipes & Tales from the Historic Tradition. Used with the permission of the writer, Bloomsbury. Copyright © 2022 by Farokh Talati.
