Gui’s a lovely Brazilian chap. We bumped into him in Laos. He showed us that it’s perfectly acceptable to eat slithers of fresh coconut with soy sauce. In fact, beyond acceptable, it’s mighty fine. Thanks for the tip, Gui.
Fast forward five months and we’re back in Asia after an Australasian hiatus. There’s coconuts and soya all over the place. We’d better make a salad in honour of Gui. Fast!
Serves 2 (per coconut)
Ingredients:
1 old coconut (shake it to make sure it’s watery)
2 tomatoes – diced
1/4 cucumber – diced
a handful of local greens – chopped
a handful of beansprouts
soy sauce
Tools:
hammer
Phillips screwdriver (or use your own if Phillip
narrow julienne or citrus scraper
Melamine soy serving dish x 2
Method
1. Halve your coconut. What, you ask? It’s really easy. We promise. Knock the screwdriver through the eyes of the coconut to drain and save the water. Then, holding the coconut in your hand, knock the outer shell of the coconut with the hammer around the equator whilst constantly rolling the coconut in your hand. After a while, a small hairline crack will start to appear on the equator and from there it’s plain sailing. Be reasonably firm and patient.
2. Using a narrow julienne or citrus scraper, tease away some of the interior of the coconut flesh into the bowl of the coconut. As much as you want. This is a real treat.
3. Mix the tomato, cucumber and greens together and roll with the scraped coconut inside your coconut.
4. Place some beansprouts on top.
5. Use one Melamine soy dish for serving soy sauce. The other will is for upturning and using to mount your coconut. Voila.
If you wanted to wangle some peanuts or toasted green bean seeds on top of this salad no one would begrudge you. Go for it. We’ve served ours here using the coconut water with some juiced turmeric root. Enjoy.
We’ll be serving half-coconut salads at our Art De Vivre yoga retreat in Bali in May. It would be lovely to have you with us.
