Coconut milk: an ingredient high on our Love List. It's creamy-rich. It's nutty. It's lightly sweet. And it provides lusciously full body to sauces, soups, and curries.
But fresh coconut milk—with its off-the-tree freshness, natural sweetness, delicate aroma, and yummy nuttiness—is a whole other hairy ball. And short of travel or residence in Southeast Asia, West Africa, or the Caribbean, most people have never tasted it.
For those of you outside the tropics, here's one way to get the fresh stuff: Do It Yourself.
Like this:
- Buy a couple of coconuts.
- Yes, easier said than done.
- When you find a store that sells them, look for a nut that that is uncracked, unmoldy, and heavy with juice.
- If you see cracks and mold, head to another store. (Pretend that there's more than one.)
- Crack the nuts open. Here's how.
- Inside the nut, the flesh should be white, not yellow. Yellow = spoiled = compost.
- That wet stuff? Is the coconut water. Drink it!
- Scoop out the coconut meat and grate it finely.
- Steep the grated coconut in hot water (enough to cover the meat) and let it cool.
- Press the meat through a cheesecloth, catching the liquid in a pot.
- Let the liquid sit. The coconut cream will rise to the top, perfect for curries or desserts. Or whisk the cream and milk together for soups and sauces.
We recommend using the sweet stuff immediately, but you can store it covered in the refrigerator for a couple of days, too.
And if coconuts never, ever come your way, the canned stuff
is pretty good, too.