Drying Coconut

Take coconuts from store and make your own delicious dried coconut.
We use this as a snack on its own, as a topping on yogurt, in our homemade granola and even I our curry dishes.
This coconut has nothing added. It is 100% coconut.

We like to get a coconut that you can here the milk inside swishing around. The kids get a kick out of drinking it once we are done.

This is the part where you can let out your frustrations and smash something.
I like to use my meat hammer to smash the coconuts open.
You can't be a whimp here, you must hit the coconut pretty hard. You can hit too hard, so be careful.
Be carful to watch your fingers and wear safety glasses ( needed to say that)
You will find the sweet spot once you hit it a couple times.

I alway check the coconut for cracks after each hit. This is how I get the coconut water (milk) out, through the crack.
Once you find a crack stick a butter knife in the crack and twist. The twisting will widen the crack and you should be able to pour out the water.

You get about a 1/4 cup of water out of each coconut. So 1/2 cup with two.
I always pour through a strainer to get any coconut hair out of the water.
Pour over ice or Putin fridge and cool.
Enjoy.

Ok so you now have two halves of coconut., now what.
You must pry out the 'meat'.
I seem to always use a butter knife.

You can get the knife between the shell and meat. If you are lucky you can fret it out pretty easy. Sometimes it is pretty hard to get the meat out and takes some time and patience.

Using a food processor and a grater attachment shred it.
I shred it with the brown skin on, can't even taste it.