I use to make this every day when I worked at Aux Vivres in Montreal, a well known vegan restaurant.(the best vegan BLT's ever). This place ( the cooks) taught me a lot about vegan cooking, and is one of my major influences in my cooking style today. I was really craving this for the past few weeks, and have been googling recipes.
Lucky me, when I was at the grocery store coconuts were on sale! I have never really hacked a coconut open before, and thought this would be a fun project, and I was right.
I first popped the eye of the coconut open with a screw driver and the end of a hatchet. Then I emptied the milk out, which I got a cup worth, give or take? Leeluu and Papa drank the milk :)
Next I took the coconut into the garage and steadied it between my two feet and hacked it open with a few quick hits. I know it sounds crazy, but it was entertaining.
The problem with using fresh coconut is that you have to peel off all the inner part before you can grate it. Which is pretty time consuming. I did this once the kid was in bed :P
Once you have all the grated coconut, empty it in to a large bowl and pour the marinade over it, let it soak for 5 minutes or so. Squeeze the juice from the coconut, the dryer the better. Place on to a baking sheet and put in a 325 degree oven, every 10 minutes give it a stir do this for 30 minutes. Let cool. Store in an airtight container in the fridge.
Marinade
1/4 cup tamari
1 tbsp liquid smoke
3 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tbsp Topical Traditions Coconut Oil- melted
1/4 cup water
1/2 tsp garlic powder
4 tbsp maple syrup
2-3 tsp sea salt
