Foodie Friday..

Do I have a post for you!!! Accompanied by about a million pictures so prepare yourself.

I hear that this particular product is all the rage in the states and since I have local access to some of these things, my fellow partner in 'natural living' crime said she'd play too.

Coconut Oil. "Hey, I live in the land of coconuts! I can be really green and buy them locally and make my own!", says the ditzy brunette. Then drags her friend and her family along for the ride....

The saga....

We found them in the market - after much searching and a bit of praying because frankly, we were all hyped to do it NOW.

Then the production began...and what a production it was.

Power tools.

No cooking project is complete without them. Did you know that this was the. very. first. time. Jamie had EVER used a power tool? She worked it like a pro. QVC, she's ready anytime.

Of course laughing hysterically and power tools can be a bit of a scary combination...

...so us girls moved on to another job and we let Alan keep his tools intact and well managed.

Draining off the 'water' after the hole is drilled.



Busting into the drained coconut so we can get the meat out. WHACK!!

TA-DA!!!!

Then chipping away the 'meat' from the shell. No sharp knives were used. Remember what I said about laughing and power tools. I consider sharp knives a power tool these days.



These two kept getting great big chunks of coconut out with one swipe. I got shards. Really though, it evened out in the end.


Even Riley got in on the action.


See??? Riley is very impressed.

Now take all those chunks/shards of coconut meat, mix them with some of the coconut water and throw it into your best power tool of all that you can use laughing or not...the VITA MIX. It did an amazing job. Shameless plug. I LOVE my VitaMix. Blend those things 'till it's all combined and no large bits of coconut remain.

Strain -

Strain REALLY well with little strainer.

Then realize there is more than one way to skin a cat and grab the new, never been washed in local water with local soap flour sack dishtowel and squeeze the rest of the cream out.

Many hands make the work load lighter. And get all the cream out...



Here's some of the pulp we were left with. This will be added into granola, cereals, breads...whatever. It's not bad tasting and there's good fiber in there....right?

Coconut CREAM!!!! 10 coconuts worth right there. YUM - and if I'd realized what would happen later we'd have stopped here but...live and learn. It's a good motto to have.

Cooking it stage one....

a good 10 minutes later....

Then another 10 minutes (ish) it burned. Badly. Nasty -and for all that we got about 2 Tablespoons of burned coconut oil. Gol dernit.

So we googled a bit more and found the 'unrefined' way to do it. Put it in a jar and wait for it to separate and the oil to rise to the top. MUCH easier.

Day 1 - late evening...


Day 2 it's looking scarier and still no oil.


Day 3 morning right before....

I threw it out. Eeeeewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww..............

COCONUT OIL????!!!!! WHERE ARE YOU????

Your new Spanish word for the day. Guacala = GROSS.

We've now found a place we can buy it for a fraction of the.....mess. At least we had a good time in the process and found a great way to make coconut cream.

'till next time...

Faith