For me, I have begun eating healthier, because I need to. I have a liver condition, among other things, caused by years of being out of control. Anyway, I love milk, and meat, but I do know that when I don't eat any animal products, I feel much better. It's just hard to give up meat or animal products after a lifetime of eating them.
I read somewhere on the internet about coconut milk, and I went to buy some, but my Doctor told me to read the ingredients. If I can't pronounce it, don't eat it. I also gave myself this rule: If it can't be made outside of a lab, don't eat it. When I read the ingredients in so called healthy or organic milk, I was floored. Carageenan, xantham gum, guar gum, among other things. Carageenan is NOT good for you! It might not be lethal, but I don't want nonsense going in my body when I buy something "organic", or all natural! I also don't like it when companies use trickery and word play to make their products seem more natural. They can say all natural 100% juice, by simply putting "evaporated cane juice" on the ingredients list. I bet you can all very easily figure out what "evaporated cane juice" really is right? SUGAR!! Pure, simple, sugar!! Why not just say what it really is, instead of treating us like idiots, or trying to trick us into thinking we're eating healthy, when we're not. I hate hate hate when companies use wordplay and what they think are clever tricks to get around legalities, or just to seem like they're being honest, when they're not.
So, end of rant. I made my own coconut milk. I looked around for several recipes online, and eventually just went with what I thought was right. The trick here is to use FRESH ripe coconuts. Why not the dried kind you buy for baking? It has sulphites in it. That's bad. (I haven't researched why, but it's bad.) So, fresh is best. (Bob's Red Mill dried coconut would work, it's 100% coconut, nothing else, no sulphites.)
I will describe in another post how to pick out a fresh ripe, non rancid coconut, but I still haven't perfected this yet myself.
Anyway here is the recipe:
2 ripe coconuts. (If you know coconuts, pick the young ones, if not, pick the brown husked ones you normally see)
4 cups of filtered or otherwise pure water. I use natural spring water.
1 awesomely powerful blender, such as the Ninja Blender, or a regular blender.
You need to shell or dehusk the coconuts. (I'm not sure of the proper term). My Husband drills three holes in it for me. I drain out the water, and drink it, because it's awesome, and it called Natures Gatorade.
Then you use a hammer to break the shell open along the "equator" of the shell. Imagine it was a globe, and go from east to west or west to east, but not North to South. Consider the North side of the coconut the side with the "eyes" that you poke the holes through.
Then, you use a BUTTERknife to pry the coconut away from the shell. If it comes off too easily, it's probably a bad coconut. You will see a brown skin still attached. You can use a knife, or potato peeler to remove this. You can leave it on, but I really don't recommend it. It won't hurt you if you leave it on though, but it's not pleasant to chew if you end up eating the coconut after.
If you don't have a powerful blender, once you have the coconut peeled, you need to grate it. This helps to get it smaller for your blender. If you have a Ninja 1000+ watt blender, or a VitaMix, (Totally unaffordable for me), then you can use throw the coconut in without grating it.
Put the 4 cups of water, and the two shredded coconuts in the blender, and blend on high for 3-4 minutes. If you have a blender than is cheaper, make sure you feel around where the motor is, (NOT the blades), and if it gets hot before 4 minutes are up, then turn it off, come back in about an hour, and go again for the remainder of the time.
Use a nut milk bag, a new unused set of panty hose, or something similar to strain the milk. You want to remove as much pulp as possible, to have the consistency of traditional milk.If you live in Newfoundland, you can use a pease/bread/raisin pudding bag, I'm pretty confident this is the same material a nut milk bag is made from. In any case, it's what works for me, and is MUCH cheaper than a nut milk bag, and stronger than panty hose.
Once you have squeezed out as much milk as possible, try a sip! Don't throw the pulp away though, you can freeze it, and use it in desserts or smoothies, or anything your imagination comes up with. If you have a dehydrator, you can make your own coconut flour with this pulp! YAY!
Also, you will likely get some white creamy substance stuck to the side of your blender once you've poured out your milk. This stuff is coconut oil I think. It's good in smoothies, desserts, etc. This is good for you, because it is a certain kind of fat that is great for your body, and easy for your body to break down, so don't throw it away. It's good good good fat!! :)
Anyway, refridgerate your milk for up to 4 days, but make sure you shake it before you use it. I store mine in a mason jar. :) I also added some vanilla, and drank it straight. MMMMMMMM yummy!! If you want even better coconut milk, use younger coconuts, though they are hard to find, and you can also warm your water a bit. Don't make it hot, it changes the taste of the milk too much, but if you use warm water, and pour it over the coconut meat and let it sit for about 10-15 minutes, and blend it while it's still luke warm, you will have the most amazing coconut milk you've ever tried in your whole entire life, ever!!
Love,
Me
Coconuts in plastic.
Coconut Cream/Butter/Oil that's separated from the milk and stuck to the sides of the blender.
The coconut milk, "fat free" because of the separation that happens in the blender.
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