I just bought a fresh coconut. How do I get the coconut milk out of it. Best Filipino dishes always come with coconut milk. The use of coconut milk is everywhere; from savory dishes to sweet desserts. In Philippines it is common to find fresh coconut in the market. They are normally sold in the area where you buy the ingredients for making other Filipino desserts popularly called kakanin; like banana leaves, glutinous rice, sago, gulaman and panutsa. When you buy them it is preferable you choose the big and the heavy ones. They will grate the meat for you for free. Most are using machine to do this task but they were normally grated by hand using a kudkuran. Lucky for most that ready to use coconut milk in tetra packs or can exist already. It is much simpler but of course the taste of fresh coconut milk is always the best.
Ingredients:
grated meat from 2 coconut milk
one cup of hot water
and your clean hands
Procedure:
Start by preparing a clean piece of cloth that you will use as a strainer. In a deep bowl put the grated coconut meat and add half a cup of hot water. Then with your hands work on to make the milk comes out. But you need to be careful as the water is hot. Squeeze the milk out as if you are squeezing your shirt to dry it. Once all the coconut milk have been extracted, strain the milk with the clean cloth and pour it over a pitcher. Squeeze the cloth to get all the milk resting in the strainer. This is the coconut cream “kakang gata”, this is thicker and normally added during the last part of the cooking. Put back all the coconut milk in the bowl and pour the rest of the water. Do the same procedure to extract the rest of the milk. This will be the coconut milk. This is lighter in color and in texture. This is normally added at the start of your cooking process.
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Tagged: coconut milk, kakang gata, niyog
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