Coconut Recipes

Coconut is the fruit of the coconut palm (Cocos Nucifera). The origin of coconut plant is unknown. Most claims the home of the coconut is South Asia, while others claim South America. Regardless of its origin, the coconut has spread across much of the tropics, probably aided in many cases by sea-faring peoples. The fruit is light and buoyant and presumably spread significant distances by marine currents. Some coconuts have been collected from the sea as far as Norway.

The coconut palm thrives on sandy soils and is highly tolerant of salinity. For optimum growth, coconuts need high humidity and prefer warm areas with abundant sunlight and regular rainfall, like shorelines of the tropics.

Botanically, a coconut is a simple dry nut known as a fibrous drupe. It is not fruit. The shell of the coconut has three pores that are clearly visible on the outside surface of the shell. Adhering to the inside wall of the shell is “the coconut meat”, the white and fleshy edible part of the seed.

Coconut meat contains less fat than other dry nuts such as peanuts and almonds. It is noted for its high amount of saturated fat, as approximately 90% of the fat found in coconut meat is saturated. Coconut meat also contains less sugar and more protein than popular fruits such as bananas, apples and oranges, and it is relatively high in minerals such as iron, phosphorus and zinc.

The coconut shell is hollow inside, filled with a liquid known as coconut water. Coconut water from the unripe coconut can be drunk fresh as a refreshing drink. It’s refreshingly sweet and very popular in tropical areas such as Hawaii, Caribbean or Southeast Asia. When the coconut is still green, the “meat” inside is thin and often eaten as a snack. The main reason to pick the green nut is to drink its water, as a big ones can contains up to one litre. The meat in a young coconut is softer and more like gelatine than a mature coconut and sometimes it’s refers as coconut jelly. The water and meat from young coconuts is used as opposed to the meat of older coconuts which tends to be very hard and typically have less water (if any).

Besides being highly nutritious, young coconuts also have medicinal qualities for heart, liver and kidney disorders. In fact, the coconut has recently been reported to reduce the viral load of HIV. Coconuts are a great blood purifier as the coconut water is identical to human blood plasma. Plasma makes up 55% of human blood. Drinking coconuts water it’s like an instant blood transfusion.

In a commercial sense the greatest value of the coconut is in the coconut oil, extracted out of the dried kernels. Coconut when ripe is prone to spoil or become rancid. For that reason coconuts are broken open, the flesh is dried and exported under the name of copra. The oil content of copra varies from 50% to 70%, depending upon the method of drying.