How to make coconut milk

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By Roland Barker
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We know how healthy coconut milk is, but do we have to buy it in a can? Not at all! It's easy to make yourself, and there's a world of difference in the flavor.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

2 Brown Coconuts
Blender
bowl with spout
heavy linen or cotton napkin
jar
tea strainer
pure water
table knife
hammer or machete

Step 1

Get 1 or 2 brown coconuts. Where I live this is easy, we get it from our tree, but most of us will be getting this at the supermarket. Inspect the shell: any kind of crack is a reject, also dark discolorations on the shell. You should hear the water inside when you shake it. Two coconuts will make 4-6 cups of milk.
Step 2

We've split the coconut into three sections.

Open the coconuts. Over the sink (or outdoors) knock on the coconut with your hammer until a crack forms keep knocking the crack as it goes around the nut until it comes open. The water can be saved, but it's not necessary. Here in Hawaii, our coconuts are still in the husk, so we use an axe or machete to chop the coconut into 3 pieces.
Step 3

By working the knife around the edge, the meat will pop out.

Remove the meat. We like to use a stainless table knife because it's strong and not sharp enough to cause serious injury when it slips. You may want to dedicate one for this purpose as it will bend the blade.

First, we score the meat so that it will pop out in pieces because the curve of the shell will hold it in if we try to get too big a piece out at once. This is cutting the meat into sections in the shell. Two or threes sections is enough.

Then we want to get the knife between the hard shell and the meat. The meat has a brown layer of it's own, so we are going between the shell and the brown layer on the meat. The technique I use to keep from stabbing myself with the knife is to insert the blade, then turn the whole thing over and knock the handle of the blade on a solid surface (like concrete), tapping it into the gap between the meat and shell. I only need to go in about an inch or two. It's important to set the blade such that it is separating the meat from the shell and not cutting into it. Do this a few times around the shell and the meat will begin to pop out. (I suppose you could also use the hammer) Just pushing on the knife will result in slipping and stabbing, I guarantee.
Step 4

The meat from two coconuts

OK, you have the meat out of the shell, it's got a brown, woody layer on one side. Don't worry about the brown layer. Wash the meat and cut into 1-2 inch chunks and set aside.
Step 5

Here we are:all set up to blend the milk

Prepare your work area: Half-fill the blender jar with pure water. Put on the lid. Put the napkin in the spouted bowl so the edges are draped over the side. You will be pouring the blended milk into this napkin and then squeezing it out.
Step 6

One cunk at a time. If one gets lodged, turn off the blender, then on again to dislodge it.

Start the blender with the water only, then pull the center plug on the lid (or just crack open the lid if it doesn't have the plug) and drop in the pieces-one at a time-as each one gets pulverized. When the blender is full, or it's so thick it can't pulverize each chunk efficiently, pour the blender contents into the napkin-lined bowl.
Step 7

Slowly squeeze out the milk.

Wrap the puree in the napkin and squeeze out the milk. It can take some effort to get all the liquid out, but the more, the better. This is why you need a strong piece of fabric to do the straining. You don't want it to rip under the strain.
Discard the fiber. Pour enough of the milk into the blender to half-fill it. The rest goes through the tea strainer into the jar.
Step 8

When you taste this, you will be convinced homemeade is superior.

Go back to the blender, start it up, and continue feeding chunks until it needs to be strained again. You'll probably have enough coconut still for a third blending. You can use water or strained milk for this.
Try your milk: it will have a fresh, coconutty taste that will unfortunately spoil you for the canned stuff. Oh, well.
Refrigerate the milk. It will keep for 5-7 days.