Cracking a coconut is easy!

I did it!! I cracked a coconut for the very first time, all by myself. Ok, with a little help from this wonderful youtube video..
So if you want an easy way to crack a coconut, just watch the movie and try it. It's so easy, you'll be amazed.

It had crossed my mind a number of times already; shall I buy a coconut? They look so tropical and delicious.. But I'd seen my dad crack one in our backyard a few years back, and I wasn't so sure I would be able to do it.
Today I bought one and wanted to crack it tomorrow, but I couldn't resist waiting any longer. I started by reading online how to do it. Apparently I needed a huge butcher's knife, which I didn't have. So I just smacked it with a hammer a few times. Maybe it's because I won't start doing Crossfit until next Tuesday, but it didn't work.

I figured there might be some videos on Youtube as well, so I had a look. The first one I watched, was the right one. I just had to poke a hole in the soft eye of the coconut (apparently, a coconut always has 1 soft eye), the first eye I tried was the soft one. Of course I didn't believe I'd found the right one already, so I tried the other ones too, but there only was 1 soft eye.
Poking it was really easy, I went right through. Next, I shaked the coconut water out, into a glass and tasted it, like the video said. Luckily, mine tasted pretty good!

   

Next, I put the whole thing into the oven, at 200 degrees Celsius. I'm not sure if this will negatively affect the nutrients, but it made it a lot easier to get the meat out. I'd rather have cracked it when still raw though.
While my coconut was in the oven, I enjoyed a cup of tea. After just 10 minutes there was a big crack in my coconut already, so I took it out.

   

I simply put it on a tea towel and smacked it with a hammer a few times. It cracked really easily and I had the hard scalp off in a matter of minutes. The last thing to do was get the brown skin off the white flesh. The video said it would be best to use a vegetable peeler. I also tried using a knife, but the peeler worked best indeed, although this was the most time consuming part of the cracking process. And I also cut myself with the peeler, so I had to build in a small pause to get a bandage.
I ended up with a plate full of yummy coconut, and a glass of coconut water in my fridge.
I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do with all of that though..

So if anyone has any ideas on how to use fresh coconut and coconut water, please let me know!