Coconut Milk: A Caribbean Favourite

Coconut milk is an important ingredient in many of our Caribbean dishes. From desserts to meat to rice dishes and even drinks, we use this amazingly delicious liquid that is squeeze out of the coconut husk once mixed with water. In this post,  I’ll be showing you all how to make coconut milk.

Now, husking a coconut is not easy. I did show you all how this is done in a previous post. Once this is done, the coconut meat is remove from the shell. Once you have this done you are ready to make coconut milk.

How to Make Coconut Milk

After husking the coconut, you now have the nut to make coconut milk. Coconut milk is used in many of the Trini recipes I have posted such, as our favourite pelau or ochro rice. As you will notice, you can either chop the coconut meat or grate it. However, grating in the traditional way using a reliable grater, though a simple task in itself, is very time consuming.

Today, making coconut milk is a snap because of blenders which makes the process much, much easier. You could actually make coconut milk in less than 10 minutes using a blender. Both methods will be explain below. Here’s coconut milk.

Coconut Milk Recipe

4 dried coconuts
12 cups water

Start by cracking the coconut then remove the shell.

 

Note: As you would notice I use the back of a chinese cleaver to crack the coconut but a simple smash on the ground would do just the same.

When removing the shell insert the knife between the coconut and the shell. Wag the knife along and the coconut should separate easily. Note also, do not use a sharp knife if this your first time doing this.

The knife shown is my preferred knife to use because it has a dull point and the short length gives me better leverage.

Next, grate the coconut.

 

Note: To keep the process traditional we used a grater as shown above. However, a blender would do a this quickly.

Add 3 cups of water to the grated coconut and pick up handfuls of the coconut meal and squeeze.

Place the squeezed coconut into another bowl. Do this process 4 times ( = 12 cups)
Use immediately or freeze for later use.

Note: You can pour the  milk into ice trays to freeze for easy use. When you want just take out a few blocks from the tray.

 

I hope you enjoyed this little post on making coconut milk. More recipes to come.

Some Coconut Milk Recipes You Should Try

There are many local dishes that use coconut milk. Here are five coconut milk recipes you can prepare.

1. Coconut Drops
2. Coconut Jelly
3. Coconut Banana Bread
4. Broccoli in Coconut Cheese Sauce
5. Spicy Coconut Rice

You will find more recipes on this website. You are welcome to browse our recipe index and try some of our recipes.

Tell us if you tried any of these recipes above and what you enjoyed about our recipes. We always find joy hearing from you.

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Coconut Milk

Course Drink

Cuisine creole

Prep Time 52 minutes minutes

Total Time 52 minutes minutes

Servings 12 cups

Author Felix

Ingredients

• 4 coconut
• 12 cups water

Instructions

• Start by cracking the coconut then remove the shell. When removing the shell insert the knife between the coconut and the shell. Wag the knife along and the coconut should separate easily. Note also, do not use a sharp knife if this your first time doing this.
• Grate the coconut. Note: To keep the process traditional we used a grater, but the blender would do a fast job of this.
• Add 3 cups of water to the grated coconut and pick up handfuls of the coconut meal and squeeze. Place the squeezed coconut into another bowl.
• Do this process 4 times ( = 12 cups). Use immediately or freeze for later use.