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Coconut milk - tinned

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Coconut milk - tinned

Postby jeral » Sat Oct 31, 2020 1:44 pm

When opened, the cream is usually sitting at the top and the remainder is very watery (proportions depend on brand I find). Most often I shake the tin to disperse the cream.

Are there recipes which use either the cream or the watery "whey"? Ta.

Blocks of solid coconut cream used to be around, that you'd cut or grate off and that melted in a frying pan for stir fries. Not sure if still around. That melted into fat rather than cream though so might not be the same as that at the top of a tin.

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Re: Coconut milk - tinned

Postby KeenCook2 » Sat Oct 31, 2020 2:05 pm

jeral wrote:Blocks of solid coconut cream used to be around, that you'd cut or grate off and that melted in a frying pan for stir fries. Not sure if still around. That melted into fat rather than cream though so might not be the same as that at the top of a tin.

Yes, they're definitely still around and pretty widely available - in as much as the little Tesco and Sainsbury at the end of the road almost always have (had, when I last went there) it on the shelves.

On the other hand, that could be because there is also a student residence with loads of oriental students at the end of the road and so the local shops cater for them.

I've forgotten where you live, jeral, so it might not be as easily available where you are although you could probably get it online.

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Re: Coconut milk - tinned

Postby Sakkarin » Sat Oct 31, 2020 2:09 pm

There are emulsifiers in canned coconut milk, it's not a "natural" dispersion of solids and liquid like you'd get if you were making it properly from scratch, so in my view the question doesn't arise (although I'm sure you'll find instances where people/recipes say otherwise).

I almost bought a special offer can of Caribbean Choice coconut milk from Tesco recently, but on checking the label, saw that it only contained 20% "coconut extract", whereas their slightly more expensive own brand contained 51%, so I went for that. I've since added a "percentage coconut" to my coconut milk comparison chart that I've been keeping for many years, and although you can ignore the bottom half, all the figures in red are current, it's quite an eye-opener.

Lidl come out top at 82%!!! You may say "well they're including the water", but the second ingredient on their label is water.

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Re: Coconut milk - tinned

Postby scullion » Sat Oct 31, 2020 2:09 pm

use the thick top in a thai curry and the watery stuff in a piña colada.

i use lidl - by far the best i've come across although at the beginning of the last lockdown they had a different brand that was not so good. i bought an awful one from tesco a year or two ago that was like a delicately coconut flavoured, watery slime. it may well have been the one that sakkarin mentioned.

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Re: Coconut milk - tinned

Postby Stokey Sue » Sat Oct 31, 2020 3:05 pm

Charmaine Solomons, the Australian writer on Asian cookery makes the point that good canned coconut milk is rich, if you are making a recipe written for home-made Coconut milk dilute by half, and she grew up in Sri Lanka so she should know. So, read the recipe carefully!

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Re: Coconut milk - tinned

Postby ZeroCook » Sat Oct 31, 2020 7:00 pm

.

Re: table: are the fat grams per 100g? And if the tin doesn't say coconut content am guessing there's no way to know or calculate ...?

.

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Re: Coconut milk - tinned

Postby herbidacious » Sat Oct 31, 2020 7:32 pm

You can buy cocounut cream in a carton (bought some for an Ottolenghi recipe the other week) and also the block stuff, which I bought last week.

The Ottolenghi recipe was the tray bake ragu. He uses it in a few recipes though in the Flavour book. e.g. lime, potato and coconut gratin.

https://www.theguardian.com/food/2018/d ... as-recipes

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Re: Coconut milk - tinned

Postby Stokey Sue » Sat Oct 31, 2020 7:34 pm

The Chaokoh Thai coconut milk seems to be the most common one round here, and my latest tin has the details on it - 52% coconut extract, and a stonking 17% fat

It is nice, and pretty rich

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Re: Coconut milk - tinned

Postby Gillthepainter » Sat Oct 31, 2020 10:06 pm

Way back when Greg used to host Saturday Kitchen, there was regular instruction on cooking with coconut tinned milk.
Correct me if I mis-remember, but you cook the solid first. High, until it splits.

Only then when split do you add the liquid. It was verboten to mix the lot together and them heat it all.

I should google and confirm the method of cooking tinned coconut milk.

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Re: Coconut milk - tinned

Postby MagicMarmite » Sat Oct 31, 2020 10:36 pm

I always have in tinned, block and powdered.

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Re: Coconut milk - tinned

Postby Stokey Sue » Sat Oct 31, 2020 11:45 pm

I don’t remember that Gill - I do whatever it says in the recipe, which usually seems to be to mix, after all that’s how you’d use freshly made

Kay Plunkett Hogge in Baan, a reliable Thai cookbook, tends to
mix the milk then add it in two parts to minimisesplitting, in Thai food generally they seem to take care not to split the milk

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Re: Coconut milk - tinned

Postby halfateabag » Sun Nov 01, 2020 12:07 am

I'm a bit of an Imelda when it comes to coconut products, I love the stuff. I have blocks, tins, and powdered stuff and also coconut oil, think I should have been born in the Caribbean ! I even do a caribbean version of coleslaw which has decimated coconut in it.

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Re: Coconut milk - tinned

Postby Stokey Sue » Sun Nov 01, 2020 12:30 am

I was taught to use block coconut cream for making rice and peas

You cook the red beans with aromatics, dissolve the block coconut in the stock and use that liquid to cook the rice and beans together. Must make some again

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Re: Coconut milk - tinned

Postby Badger's Mate » Sun Nov 01, 2020 1:34 am

I even do a caribbean version of coleslaw which has decimated coconut in it.


May I trouble you for the recipe please? I make a fair bit of coleslaw, red or white and happen to have a surfeit of cabbage. Have also got a packet of desecrated coconut that could do with being used up. It sounds like it might make a nice change.

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Re: Coconut milk - tinned

Postby halfateabag » Sun Nov 01, 2020 8:52 am

Badger, my basic slaw is a mix of red or white finely sliced (I do mine with a potato peeler) cabbage, grated carrot, diced eating apple, spring onion, diced celery, sultanas or raisins but for this caribbean one I use sliced dried or semi dried apricots, a sprinkling of nigella, sesame and sunflower seeds, sometimes add poppy seeds if I have them. Then ordinary decimated coconut not the sweetened stuff, a teaspoon of lime juice. Some mayo and some salad cream, a teaspoon of curry paste, I use a mild one. Sometimes if I have some creme fraiche I'll put a spoonful in. S&P to taste. The quantities of veg I could not tell you, we just make enough for about 6/8 portions leave it in the fridge so that the apricots & coconut take on the juice from the slaw. It's better after 8 hours in the fridge.

On other slaws, I sometimes add mustard (dijon) or a sweet german one, it depends what is in the cupboard.

Good Luck, let us know if you experiment !

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Re: Coconut milk - tinned

Postby Badger's Mate » Sun Nov 01, 2020 10:35 am

Thanks for that, Zosh.

Mine are fairly basic, red or white cabbage, carrot, onion (red, yellow, white or spring, at the mo I'm using up Welsh) and mayo, but I add salad cream it there is any. The apple and celery combo is a classic one that could be made from our own produce but I hadn't thought of :roll:

I will ring a few changes. There are some apricots in the cupboard. Perhaps the thyme, allspice and chilli combo would work. Asda used to do one with jalapeños that was OK.

This has reminded me that there are several slaw recipes in the original Sarah Brown BBC book. I must check those out too.

Mrs B is fonder of red cabbage in slaw than she ever was when it was served braised or pickled.

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Re: Coconut milk - tinned

Postby Gillthepainter » Sun Nov 01, 2020 10:36 am

Sue, this is what I mean, after a quick google

Yes, if you have bought quality coconut milk. Use the thick part to fry curry paste, then thin it out with the rest of the can. Cheap brands are homogenize and filled with stabilizers.


But I cannot even remember who always used to say to do this, it was so long ago.


Some lovely sounding breakfast things on this link: https://www.myrecipes.com/ingredients/h ... conut-milk

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Re: Coconut milk - tinned

Postby Stokey Sue » Sun Nov 01, 2020 1:30 pm

Ah I see I’ve never done that - and it kind of ties in to the points I was making, as it would only work with canned, not with coconut milk made on the spot from fresh coconut, which would be less oily and wouldn’t be kept long enough to separate

So recipes like Kay’s or Vatch’s which are using canned coconut milt + a bit of water as a direct sub for fresh won’t describe this process, but recipes developed by people who regularly use canned will have evolved to use the milk differently

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Re: Coconut milk - tinned

Postby karadekoolaid » Sun Nov 01, 2020 4:27 pm

Whilst I can occasionally find tinned coconut milk here, it´s usually very expensive and imported. A quick trip to the local fruit merchant, however, and I can get the coconuts fresh, right off the palm, or I can buy the brown coconuts where the "meat" inside has thickened.
Soooo, I usually make my own coconut milk because it´s cheaper, and then freeze the resulting "milk" . There´s always a thick crust of coconut fat on top and water underneath. The water gets used first, because it evaporates faster, and the "cream" on top is added towards the end to enhance the flavour

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