Fresh coconut milk

You will need

• 1 Coconut

• 1 Hammer

How to make it?

Punch a hole in the top of the coconut where there the softer part of the shell is. Drain the coconut water out. Freeze the whole coconut in the freezer overnight, then place in the fridge. You should notice the shell has cracked around the coconut. Leave the coconut in the fridge overnight.

Hammer the coconut on the cracks and it will break open. You can continue to hammer the coconut to manageable size pieces. Use a butter knife to slide between the coconut and the shell. It will be very easy to start peeling the flesh away from the shell.

Cut the brown skin off the coconut flesh, process until it is finely chopped. Add water, approx three times the weight of the coconut, so for example I had 300g of coconut and added approx 900g water. Bring that to the boil and simmer for 20 min. I cooked mine in the Thermomix and cooked it on 100, speed 1 for 20min.

Strain the milk through a nutmilk bag and squeeze all the excess juice. You may need to allow the pulp to cool a little to give it a really good squeeze. The coconut milk is now ready to use. With the left over pulp please see my desiccated coconut recipe.

Using whole coconuts is really a budget saver, out of one coconut you get coconut water, milk and either desiccated coconut or coconut flour.