Make Your Own Coconut Milk

I saw a video on Tropical Traditions website and then saw a blog post on Elana's pantry blog site about making your own coconut milk. I had purchased a very large bag of shredded coconut and needed to find a use for it. So I figured what did I have to lose. It looked easy enough. So here's what I did.

Tools Needed:

1 - Blender - I used a Blendtec (purchased a demo unit on eBay for under $300)
1 - Cheese cloth - (Bed Bath & Beyond )
1 - 1/2 gallon mason jar with lid
1 - Funnel for a wide mouth jar.
8 - cups filtered water
6 - cups shredded coconut

Heat up water to a very warm temp. I did my blending / straining in several smaller batches - about 2 cups at a time to 3 cups of water so my water amount is an estimate. There isn't a right or wrong way just try to keep about 2 parts coconut to 1 part water.

1. Place the water and coconut in the blender and blend until very smooth.
2. Place the mixture in the cheese cloth and twist the top of the cloth and squeeze the liquid out of it.
3. Put the pulp back in the blender jar with another 1 - 1/2 cups of very warm water, blend and squeeze out the liquid. After this round discard the pulp.
4. Repeat the steps above with more fresh coconut and water.

I added a little vanilla and sweetener to my coconut milk (to taste)

The milk is great to drink immediately but you will probably want to put it over ice. I put the jar in the refrigerator and the next morning it had separated - there was a large layer of coconut cream. This thrilled me because I love this part the best in the canned coconut. I put it on top of warm oatmeal.

To get it back to the milk return it to the blender and lightly blend. Don't blend too long or it will whip up like whipped cream and become very thick.

Enjoy!

Gluten Free Walrus Bread

What on earth is Walrus Bread you ask? Well, I didn't know. I only knew that I found it on Bob's Red Mill site and that it had garbanzo bean flour which I have an over abundance of. So I figured - why not?

I didn't finish this blog entry the other day because my computer locked up and the only thing it would let me do is publish the blog entry. So now I am adding the picture and will comment that this bread tasted really good, rose well but when it was done backing I had this funny very high, weird shaped bread. Not sure what causes this. But I will be trying this again. I like that there is protein instead of starch as the main ingredient.

Ingredients
1 cup Garbanzo Bean Flour
1-1/2 cups White or Brown Rice Flour
1/2 cup cornstarch or potato starch
3 tsp Xanthan Gum
1 tsp Salt
2 Tb Sugar
1 Tb Yeast, Active Dry
2 Eggs, room temperature
2 Tb Vegetable Oil
1-3/4 cups Water, room temperature
1 tsp. Vinegar, room temperature


Directions (for oven instructions click on the link above to BRM site)
In a large bowl mix the first 7 ingredients together (garbanzo bean flour through yeast).

In another bowl blend together the water, eggs, oil and vinegar. Add wet ingredients to the dry mixture; blend well. Spoon bread dough into the breadmaker bucket.

Set control for basic white bread and start.
Finished loaf should be about 5 inches high.
Yield: 1-1/2 lb. loaf

Number of Servings: 12

Nutritional Info
Servings Per Recipe: 12
Amount Per Serving
Calories: 175.0
Total Fat: 4.3 g
Cholesterol: 35.4 mg
Sodium: 226.4 mg
Total Carbs: 29.3 g
Dietary Fiber: 3.6 g
Protein: 4.8 g