Contrary to popular belief, coconut milk isn’t the liquid inside the coconut.  Coconut milk is in fact made by squeezing the grated flesh of coconut with some hot water creating a rich white liquid that resembles cows milk.  Coconut milk is made up of its milk and cream.  Fresh and canned coconut milk, when refrigerated and not shaken separates into two layers.  The thick top layer being the cream and the thinner bottom layer the milk.  You can spoon the top layer off and use in recipes that require the cream and the bottom layer for recipes that require the milk, such as coconut rice.  Coconut milk is available in canned, frozen or powdered varieties and are generally not bad.  However, you can make the coconut milk at home and it’s a much better quality.  Here are a couple of versions to try out and don’t forget to refrigerate and use within 1 or 2 days.

A: Preparing Coconut Milk from Fresh Coconuts

Pierce the eyes of a fresh coconut, drain the liquid inside and place the coconut on a rack and bake in a 160*c (gas mark 3) pre-heated oven for about 30 minutes.  Remove the coconut from the oven, let it cool a bit and crack it with a hammer so that the shell breaks into several pieces.  Remove all the coconut meat from the shell, peel off the brown skin and cut the meat into very small cubes.  Place the meat in a blender, add hot water to just cover all of the meat and blend until finely grated.  Place a sieve covered with cheese cloth/muslin over a bowl and pour the coconut meat and water into the sieve squeezing handfuls of the coconut meat to extract as much liquid as possible into the bowl.  Discard the squeezed coconut meat and refrigerate the coconut milk that has been extracted into the bowl. Refrigerate the milk and use within 1 or 2 days.

B: Preparing Coconut Milk from Desiccated coconut.

Empty an 8 oz package of unsweetened desiccated coconut into a blender and add 1 cup boiling water.  Blend for about 30 seconds and allow the mixture to cool a bit.  Place a sieve over a bowl lined with cheese cloth.  Ladle the mixture into the cheese cloth, fold the edges over the coconut meat and twist the ends to extract as much milk as you can into the bowl.  Discard the squeezed coconut meat and refrigerate the coconut milk that has been extracted into the bowl.  Refrigerate the milk and use within 1 or 2 days.