Learning how to make freshly squeezed coconut milk is one of the best ways to make better Thai food.
Making your own coconut milk ensures that any Thai dish that uses coconut milk or cream will have the best taste possible.
In this authentic Thai recipe, I’ll show you step by step how to make your own coconut milk.
Ripe coconut covered with tough brown fibrous hairs
Of course, it’s easy to buy coconut milk in a can or box (and if necessary I recommend Aroy-D in the box).
But I guarantee that if you squeeze your own fresh coconut milk, whatever Thai dish you cook will taste many times better.
Coconut Cream vs. coconut milk
Just to clarify before starting this recipe on how to make coconut milk: there are two types: coconut cream and coconut milk.
Coconut cream is typically the first squeeze of mature coconut milk: it is richer and very creamy. Coconut milk is usually the second squeeze, or it can be a combination of both coconut creams with more water added.
We will learn how to make both in this recipe.
Ripe coconuts
To make coconut milk, you need mature, dense flesh of coconuts, not young coconuts to drink coconut water.
Mature coconuts have a hard, brown shell on the outside, thick white flesh on the inside, and add a depth of flavor to your cooking that canned milk can’t. In the US or Europe I have seen ripe coconuts in Asian or even Latin American supermarkets.
Opening a coconut can take a little practice, so let’s learn how to do it first.
Tools (prepared in advance)
- Sturdy knife, the cleaver works well
- Shredding tool
- 2 large bowls
- 300 ML of water at room temperature (another 300 ML for coconut milk)
- 1 medium skillet
Food ingredients
1 mature coconut – but you can repeat the process with any amount of coconut you want
Large pieces are much easier to handle when shredding a mature coconut.
Before starting:
When purchasing coconut, make sure it is mature (brown coconut), not young, fresh teal. The important thing is the pulp inside and not the water, so it must be a mature coconut with white, dense pulp.
The back edge of a sturdy knife is truly the ideal tool for this. A blunt object (such as a hammer) will not be able to cleanly break the coconut shell. This includes hitting the coconut against a hard object. This makes it much harder to shred the meat, so really try to get an even shred all the way around.
The back of a Chinese cleaver also works well.
Clean the outer hairs to prevent them from falling into the coconut milk
Instructions (how to do it)
Find a place where it’s acceptable for things to get a little wet when you open the coconut.
Most coconuts have a slight pressure inside and you will always have at least a little water leaking out when you crack the shell and pierce the interior flesh.
Don’t worry, it won’t explode… but it might spray just a little 🙂
Tear off all the husk/hairs on the outside of the coconut, you may need to use the sharp edge of your knife. (Try a cutting motion instead of sawing the hairs.) The shell is extremely hard, be careful not to let the knife go askew when cutting the hairs.
If you only make coconut milk, you won’t need the coconut water inside.
Opening the coconut using (some) caution
Using the back edge of a sturdy knife, the easiest way is to poke the coconut horizontally down the center, using short, quick cuts, rotating the coconut and creating a slit all the way around until it separates into two halves.
Don’t continue with your strike, only quick strikes will suffice.
Don’t worry about the water spilling out (definitely save it, the water is good to drink, but you don’t need it for this recipe). For coconut milk, only mature meat is used and not coconut water.
Coconut scraper in Thailand
Step 1
Take your scraping tool and 1 of the large bowls.
Place the bowl under the scraper to collect all the flakes of coconut meat. Scrape all the coconut meat from the half shell, being careful not to dig too deep into the shell.
If you see brown flakes starting to form in the bowl, move to another section of the coconut. The coconut flakes are bright white, light and airy, and pile up in a mound in the bowl.
Hand tools or a “Rabbit” scraper.
Thai coconut scrapers They have seats attached, this is the safest way to remove the meat.
In Thai they call it “Coconut Scraping Rabbit”, perhaps due to the movement similar to a rabbit’s hind legs. Cute name, but chopping coconut meat straight from the hard shell can be done in many ways. A hand tool also works well.
Airy shreds of coconut meat are what you want for this recipe
Slow and steady pace
This is an art, using the coconut shell to protect your hands, but also not pushing too hard when digging into the flesh. It works best if you can perfectly crack the coconut into two equal halves and then use both hands on the coconut shell. Doing it well takes a lot of practice.
A medium mature coconut should yield around 300g of coconut flakes.
Note: I do not recommend using a knife. I have personal experience with the dangers this can pose, and even if you succeed, cutting the meat finely enough to juice it (step 2) is time consuming.
A blender also won’t work for coconut cream (but will work for milk, although you may need to strain out the meat fibers after blending).
Step 2
Prepare 300 ml of water at room temperature and pour it over the coconut flakes (in the same large bowl). Massage the coconut meat with your hands, mixing it well with the water as you squeeze the coconut meat.
The water that has now turned white and pools at the bottom of the bowl is the coconut cream you want.
Squeeze the shredded coconut through a screen onto a cloth into a second bowl. This is your coconut cream, it should be rich and thick.
Strain the coconut cream
Step 3: Coconut Milk
To make coconut milk the Thai way and for Thai recipes, you will need separate coconut cream and coconut milk.
Then, after setting the coconut cream aside, add another 300 ML of room temperature water to the coconut pieces, mix them and massage them for a few minutes with your hands.
Once again, pour the coconut milk through a strainer into another pan and squeeze the shredded coconut to get it all out.
Pure coconut cream
You will now have a bowl of coconut cream and coconut milk. For Thai recipes it’s best to keep them separate, but for some dishes, or if you just want coconut milk, you can mix them together.
From a single mature coconut you should get around 500 – 600 ML of coconut milk and coconut cream.
Eating Thai style
Along with curry paste, fresh coconut milk is a mainstay of Thai recipes. A good dish to cook with fresh coconut milk is Thai green curry.
You could use canned or canned coconut milk and sometimes, if you’re short on time, you have to do it (if so, try the Aroy-D in the boxit’s not possible, I found out it’s the best). However, if you take the time to make your own coconut milk, it will make a huge difference and improve your entire Thai cooking.
Bon appetit and I hope you enjoyed this Thai recipe on how to make fresh coconut milk!
