HOW TO GRATE COCONUT

GRATED COCONUT
































My cousin Michel loves to eat local. He finds no trouble grating coconuts to get his milk. He shares with me that he loves to eat his fish with coconut milk.

Today he came by the house to get a few coconuts and while working his routine he allowed me to take pictures.

Polynesians have different words to identify the coconut at different stages of its growth or of its existence.

OMOTO coconut is before being ripe (which is the OPA’A stage) and it has a soft flesh in the inside. The shell is green or red depending on what variety of coconut it is. OMOTO is what we pick from the tree to drink… then we eat the OMOTO (soft flesh) with a spoon cut out from the coconut shell.







OPA’A is ripe and the shell or husk is brown. You normally find it on the ground when ripe.

UTO is a coconut that has been laying down on

the ground for weeks and is starting to grow a

tiny pointed trunk. The husk is brown like the OPA’A and inside you find the UTO. UTO is

excellent to eat and makes a great healthy appetizer at parties.

To

grate coconut for milk…you will want to look for an OPA’A. You remove the husk off with the help of a strong pointed stick…then break the coconut in half…empty the water that you can drink (personally I like to drink from the OMOTO better}. Then start grating.

Put the grater on a chair and a huge bowl underneath. Sit on it as shown on the picture and start grating.

Once you have gathered all of the grated coconut…the next part is to bring two handful of coconut into a clean cloth and start squeezing the milk out. You will obtain a rich milk. Michel likes to add water with the grated coconut before squeezing…By doing it that way he is getting a lot more milk out of his one coconut plus it is just less grating for him to do. Smart!
I have tasted both ways and I am fine with either ways.

Coconut milk is used to make oil for the body (Monoi Tahiti) or for purging in between the different traditional medicine that you are undergoing. It is used as well in many other Polynesian medicine.

In a different article I will explain how to prepare the purging oil. There is so much to share with you all.

In nowadays, you can buy your grated coconut at the store. They have an electric grater. How convenient for so many.
My wish is that this tradition that Michel is still honoring will never disappear and that the knowledge will always be around for future generations.

Written by Tararaina