It was a comical sight, I'll bet, if you'd seen me and Karsten in the kitchen yesterday with a young Thai coconut, trying to get it open without a cleaver or machete. I'd watched several videos that demonstrate various techniques, but none of them seemed to be working until Karsten dealt the final thwap that cracked the shell and sent coconut water spilling out onto the counter.
We didn't lose so much of the water, though, that I couldn't throw it into the blender with the coconut meat and produce a rich, creamy coconut milk.
The point of all that effort was to make this butternut squash soup recipe, which I was craving, despite it being 80-some degrees outside. I guess when your internal clock tells you it's fall, it's fall.
It came out great, by the way, and I chose to omit the banana, so it's a pretty versatile recipe. This is the kind of thing that, when I make it, I keep thinking how much easier it would be if I had a high-powered blender. My $30 blender struggled a bit to puree the squash chunks. So when I finally DO get a high-powered blender, I have a feeling I'm going to be eating a lot of soups and smoothies. Fun!
What about you: are you craving soups yet?
Coconuts and craving soup