Step 1: Go to the market, buy coconuts.
We stopped by the plaza de mercado near our house and picked up a couple of coconuts. Remember, coconuts are a pain in the ass to cut open. So we asked the muchacho in the tienda to cut them open for us with his machete, which he did free of charge, of course. Each coconut was about $1 each.
Step 2: Mmmm. Meat.
Take out the meat, the white part, of the coconut. There will be a thin brown layer attached to the white part; that's A-OK. To make it easier to take out the coconut meat, you should score it a few times while it's in the hard outer shell. The knife might bend as you pry out the meat.
Cut these large chunks into smaller pieces, roughly one inch squared. That's not a hard and fast rule, just make sure the pieces are smallish.
Step 3: Washing tons. Of coconut.
Rinse off the coconut pieces.
Step 4: Blend it up.
Fill the blender half-full with water. Put the top on the blender, but leave the center hole open. Turn the blender on with only the water inside. Drop in the coconut, piece by piece as it grinds up and blends with the water. Continue dropping coconut pieces in until the blender is almost full, or until it cannot blend the coconut efficiently.
Step 5: Sieve I care.
Filter the water/coconut concoction through a fine mesh sieve into a pitcher. Most instructions we found online recommended filtering the water/coconut concoction through a clean cloth towel. Turns out we didn't have any clean cloth towels around the house, but a sieve seemed to work out fine.
Step 6: Repeat. Kind of.
You should still have some coconut pieces leftover. Pour the coconut milk you've already made back into the blender until it is half-full. Repeat the process of slowly dropping in coconut chunks. Depending on how much coconut you have, you may repeat this process several times.
Step 7: Sieve again.
Strain the coconut milk concoction again. Now you're ready to go!
You can use your coconut milk for all sorts of things - we used ours to make a green curry chicken & veggie dish. We had a little bit leftover and poured it into some homemade pineapple juice. Yum. Check out how happy Jerry is to be cooking with his homemade green curry paste and coconut milk.
Step 9: Eat & Enjoy.
We won't be buying canned coconut milk anymore... at least while we're unemployed and have the time to make it fresh.
AWEsome :)
ReplyDeleteThe only addition I would say, is that there is already some coconut milk in the coconut... so before you get him to cut it open with a machete, you could use a nail and hammer three holes into it, like a bowling ball (one to pour, and two to let the air out) ... and that way you could save that milk, too.
Sounds like you guys are having a blast! I'm still looking at ways to visit.
HUGS,
M.
Ah, Mary, but that is where you are mistaken. The liquid inside the coconut is coconut water, not coconut milk. I didn't know there was a difference til we started looking up how to make coconut milk!
ReplyDeleteThough, you are right, and I meant to put in my post - I think next time I'll ask them to reserve the coconut water and use that for the original blending instead of tap water.