Coconut Milk

Coconut milk is really easy to make, and so much better than buying canned stuff. Be wary of the coconuts that are wrapped in plastic, though, because the plastic traps moisture and causes them to mold.

Ingredients

• 1 Coconut
• Water
• Cheesecloth

Directions

Poke a hole through 2-3 of the eyes and drain the water into a bowl (NOT down the drain cuz you need it for the milk).

Place the coconut in a plastic grocery bag, twist the top, and throw it as hard as you can at your patio outside. Hopefully this will crack it open enough for you to be able to get to all the meat inside. If not, use a hammer.

Remove all the meat from the shell. There will be a brown coating on the back of the meat where it separates from the shell. Leave it - it's fine.

Rinse the meat and break or cut it into pieces that will fit easily in your blender. Pour the coconut water through a fine strainer into the blender, and then fill with more water until the water line reaches the top of the coconut pieces (it's important to make sure your coconut pieces aren't too big because that will artificially inflate how much additional water you will need). Now blend (depending on the power of your blender, you may need to do this in two batches).

When well blended (your coconut pieces should be pretty shredded), strain through cheesecloth into a bowl or storage container. Do this a bit at a time, and squeeze out any and all milk that you can. My coconut is usually pretty dry following the squeezing process.

Store the coconut shreds in the freezer and the milk in the fridge. Use the milk within a few days, and the coconut shreds too if you are storing them in the fridge. You can use the shreds to make Granola-Free Granola Bars or Macaroons (recipe to come), and the milk to make Smoothies or Ice Cream.

If you can get your hands on a Thai young coconut (the white kind), you can use the water out of them in place of the additional water needed to make the milk. It adds a richer coconut flavor. They don't have much meat, though, and what meat they do have is kind of like jello. We use it for puddings and stuff when we can get them.