Outdoor Cooking : Cooking Rice Inside Coconut

If you got stranded in a tropical place without any cooking utensils, you can very easily cook your food inside coconuts and bamboos.

In this instructable let us see how can we cook Rice inside a coconut

Step 1: Items

• A large sized, husked coconut
• About 100 grams of Rice
• About 25 to 30 grams of Jaggery. It is optional.I have added jaggery for the rice to be more tasteful

Step 2: Soak Rice

• Before cooking Rice inside coconut, soak in water till the rice grains are soft
• Drain out water and place it on a wet cotton cloth so that the rice grains remain moist and soft

Step 3: Make a Plug From a Stick

• Cut a 2 ft long stick from a tree which is not toxic. Here I have cut a stick from a Guava tree
• Sharpen one end for about 2 inches as shown in the picture
• Remove the bark from the stick if possible

Step 4: Mix Rice With Jaggery

• The jaggery we have is a large one weighing about 300 grams.
• Scrap out about 25 to 30 grams of jaggery from the large piece
• Transfer the moist rice to a plate and add powdered jaggery to it and mix well

Step 5: Open the Coconut

• After removing all the fibre from the coconut, you can see 3 eyes on one end
• With the help of a knife, open up the eye at the center and make a hole. You can do it with the sharpened stick also

Step 6: Put Rice Mix Inside Coconut

• Make a small funnel with a piece of paper and place it over the hole
• Place small amounts of rice mix in the funnel and push with a stick inside. Alternately, you can take small amount of mix in your fingers and push it inside the coconut

Step 7: Plug the Hole

• Matured coconuts have some empty space and water inside. If you find that you can not put all rice inside due to the water, drain out a little and keep rest inside
• Once the rice mix is filled inside coconut, plug the hole tightly with the sharpened edge of stick we made earlier
• The 2 ft long stick will also help us in rotating the coconut in fire

Step 8: Make Fire

• Dig a small hole in an open area
• Collect dried pieces of sticks and branches from surrounding area
• Break sticks in small lengths and fill the trench
• Using some old news paper or dried leaves, start fire

Step 9: Place Coconut With Stick in Fire

• Once the fire is started, place the rice-filled coconut with stick on fire and keep the fire going
• You need to keep the fire going for more than half an hour for the rice to cook
• From time to time keep rotating the coconut in fire using the long handle
• The outer shell of the coconut will be completely burned and the outer surface of the coconut meat will also come in contact with fire
• Do not worry about that and keep the fire going. The fire will burn and blacken only the outer surface of the coconut meat and the inside will remain white

Step 10:

• After half an hour remove burned coconut from fire
• Push the stick inside and take out. It will come with few grains of rice.
• Check whether the rice is properly cooked or not and water is still inside.
• If not keep the coconut on fire for some more time
• Once the rice is cooked, take out the coconut from fire and allow to cool
• Put out the fire and fill the hole with the removed earth from it

Step 11: Scrap Out Burned Surface

• Once the coconut is cooled, remove the stick
• Using a knife remove burned shell still attached to the surface
• Scrap out burned outer surface of coconut meat as much as possible

Step 12: Cut Open and Eat Rice With Coconut

• Cut open the coconut. Inside you will find the cooked rice as well as the cooked coconut meat
• The rice in my case is 3/4th done and edible
• Eat the cooked rice with chunks of coconut

Enjoy your Lunch and have fun...