Food | Silot (Fresh Coconut Water + Coconut Meat) - This is How We Do It (recipe)

Silot - a Waray-Waray word which refers to the young fruit of the coconut palm tree. It also refers to a popular drink that is derived from the said fruit.

Manilot - a Waray-Waray term which means picking young coconut fruits.

Although in Tagalog the term "Buko Juice" is widely used to refer to coconut water this particular version that I'm about to share doesn't have a special name. This is actually a drink made from coconut water and We simply call it here as "Silot."

Today, I will show you how we prepare our Silot. Traditionally, people here enjoy coconut water by simply drinking it straight from the fruit. My mom prefers it this way and I think it's actually the most refreshing way to have it (when you're in a tropical country like ours).

I'm not so sure if it's the same way with others though. Most of the time, we prepare ours like what I'm about to show you. We do this when we have picked a lot of young coconuts. If they're only few, we drink them straight from the fruit itself. How refreshing! This is definitely perfect for this hot and dry season. This recipe is good for 4-6 people.

What you'll need:

2 young coconuts with coconut water

1 pitcher 

1 pack of soda crackers (I prefer using SkyFlakes brand but it wasn't available that time so I used Rebisco instead)

Sugar for added taste (you can skip this of course)

Milk (I used powdered milk for it's readily available. You can use evaporated milk but skip adding sugar if you'll use this kind of milk 'cos this is already sweet)

Crushed ice

A coconut meat scraper (which looks like this.) We don't have one available, so I simply scrape it  off using a spoon.

A laddle for mixing

I bought my coconuts from a local peddler for Php15.00 apiece. I think it was cheap though mom thinks it's not because we do have some coconut trees at my mom's hometown. But it's a more than 2 hours commute from here so...

Usually the peddler will open the coconut(s) for you. so you can drink from it right away using a straw. They will also ask you if you want them to crack it open in half, or you can ask them to do it for you if they did not bother asking about this.

Now, preparing this is very easy.

1. Prepare all ingredients and tools that you'll be needing.

2. Pour all of the coconut water to a pitcher. Set aside.

3. Work on scraping the coconut meat using a scraper. Set aside.

4. Now with the coconut water in the pitcher, add the sugar (optional), milk and ice. Make sure the it's now overflowing.

5. Lastly, add the soda cracker. You can crush it before adding it into the mixture but it easily softens, so you don't really have to.

6. Serve and enjoy!