Once you’re home and have access to your toolbox, rotate the coconut until you find the three softer spots at the end. These are called the “eyes” and are a bit reminiscent of the finger hole pattern found on bowling balls. Carefully pound a thick nail (or other pointy, long object) into each eye to make a hole, then upend the coconut over a clean bowl to let the water drain out. (Rice simmered in coconut water is a nice treat; so are smoothies made with it.)
Once the coconut is empty, place it on a towel, arm yourself with a chisel and hammer, find the score-line — or notch in one to make things easier for yourself — and go to work. Remember that coconuts are fairly hard, but not rock-hard! On the plus side, since you’ve already drained it, at least it won’t make a tremendous mess if you have a heavy hammer hand and wind up splitting the coconut with more force than you’d intended. Do not, however, try doing this with a simple kitchen knife! Even butcher knives were not made to pierce a sturdy coconut husk. (I recently told a friend that he might have to use his treasured Roto-Zip tool to open the coconut. He thought I was kidding … until he started chiseling away. Then he decided that coconut-cracking –which is simply inconceivable without an array of tools and a certain amount of violence — was the vegetarian version of hunting.)
Once you’ve cracked the coconut, though, you can do any or all of the things I mentioned earlier.