Say hello to Seken… When we came to Madang he had already been at our home keeping watch before we arrived. Seken is a highlander. His village is close to Mt. Hagen in the middle of Papua New Guinea. He works in Madang as a security guard at a local lumber yard close to the airport. Seken is also our point man for guards at our house. He brings family members from his tribe in Mt. Hagen and they cycle between our house and their tribe every six weeks. He has shown himself to be an invaluable friend to our family since we arrived in Madang. He is a professing Catholic and lives a honorable life but I have not had opportunity to dig into what he means when he says he is a Christian. I am looking forward to acquiring more language so I can minister to this man’s soul with the gospel – Lord willing he is already saved.
New Guineans do many things well. One of those things is using coconuts (kokonus in Tok Pisin) in daily cooking. Seken recently made us our own coconut scraper which is used to remove all the white flesh inside a coconut. I thought it would be nice to have Seken teach everyone back home the noteworthy skill of opening and scraping a coconut. If you do not have a coconut scraper lying around you can always cut the meat out and eat it as a snack.
Step one: Using a narrow tipped knife, bore out the mouth and one eye (if you prefer) of the coconut. The eye’s of the coconut will be close together while the mouth will seem to be by itself.
Step two: Drain the coconut water into a cup and save it for later use.
Step three: Hold the coconut with the eyes to the side and strike the coconut on the middle with a medium sized bush knife. After each strike (hit hard) rotate the coconut in the direction you are striking it. Continue turning until the crack is completely around the coconut. Note: You can use the backside of a Chef’s knife if you don’t have a bush knife lying around.
Step four: When the coconut is fully cracked it will separate evenly in two halves.
Step five: Sit down on your coconut scraper and assume a comfortable, solid stance. Place a large bowl under the scraper blade to catch the scraped coconut that will be falling down. Now you can put one half of the coconut to the scraper.
Step six: Continue scraping the coconut until all the white flesh has been removed from the coconut.
How to make coconut milk: Combine the water from the coconut with the grated flesh. You can add some fresh water to the mix if there is not much water in the coconut. Make sure your hands are washed. Grab a handful of the grated coconut and squeeze. The coconut water mixed with the flesh falls into the container and turns creamy white. Continue doing this until all the grated coconut has been squeezed at least 5 times. Discard the grated coconut, strain the liquid and you have fresh coconut milk – enjoy!
So… the next time someone says, “How do you open a coconut and not loose all the water?” You will know exactly how to answer. This is a GREAT activity for you and your kids – just make sure an adult is operating the knives :-). A special thanks to Seken on this blog post, he was not feeling well when the photos were taken, but he was excited to do it!
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