Coconut milk adds a light, delicate flavor to curries, soups and other dishes.
Want to see how it's done? Here are photo instructions on how to extract coconut milk.
Difficulty: Average
Time Required: 30 minutes
Here's How:
Pierce the three black eyes at the top of the coconut with a sharp instrument. (I use a corkscrew).
Drain the watery juice out of the eyes - this is not the coconut milk.
Tap around the middle of the coconut with a sharp instrument to crack it open. (I use the non-chopping edge of the cleaver).
Remove the white meat from inside the two halves of the coconut. (I use a sharp paring knife).
Test a small piece of the meat. If it tastes bad, don't bother making the milk.
Chop up any pieces of coconut meat that are noticeably larger than the others.
Place half the coconut meat in the blender with about 1 ½ cups hot water. (Vary the amount of water to produce thicker or thinner milk).
Process for thirty seconds.
Place a few layers of cheesecloth over a bowl and strain the milk through the cloth. Squeeze the cloth to get all the milk out.
Repeat the process with the other half of the coconut meat.
Tips:
When extracting the meat (a time consuming task), you may want to wear plastic gloves to keep hairs from the brown outer layer from getting mixed in.
When cooking with coconut milk do not cover the pan, as this may cause it to curdle.
Coconut milk does not last long â€" refrigerate and use within two days at most.
Coconut milk can be frozen. A handy trick that I also use with stock is to pour the milk into ice cube trays to freeze. One cube is the equivalent of about one ounce.
Sometimes coconuts can carry misleading labels suggesting all you need to do is pierce the three eyes at the top. You always need to process the meat to get the milk.
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