There is nothing better than to have meals made from scratch, imagine making all of your sauces from scratch, all of your condiments, meats, all made custom. But, like I said many times in this day and age who has the time to really make any meal from scratch, when time is really a serious matter. Do we whip up our own mayonnaise? Probably not, even some great chefs use ready made ones in their high end restaurants. Do we brew ripened tomatoes to make ketchup? No, probably not, we just buy a bottle. You get my drift? So when we talk about Southern Thai cooking, one of the main ingredients is coconut milk. No, it's not utilized in all of the dishes, but it is a vital part of some of the dishes.
Coconut milk can be bought in cans, and are not too expensive, and even the finest of Thai chefs use canned coconut milk, so don't feel bad if you got a friend that picks his own and makes his own coconut milk, to me it's just ridiculous, because canned coconut milk is good enough.
When you buy canned coconut milk, look at the date on the can. If it has been expired, do not use it. If there are dents do not use it. Rust? Never use it. Use cans that are still valid, without any dents, or bad printing on the labels.
Coconut milk is not coconut water, or coconut juice. Coconut juice is coconut water with some kind of fruit juice added in for flavor. Hence lime coconut, orange coconut etc. Coconut water is the water that is in the coconuts itself. It's the meat of the coconut that is grated and mixed in with water and strained several times, mature coconuts are generally used.
Some chefs want the rich thicker creamier coconut milks for richer sauces, or soups. Thinner coconut milk is utilized by most chefs, if they want it thicker, they'll add a thickening agent to it such as cornstarch and water, or flour and butter (roux).
So without any recipes, try this for an exercise, heat up a small saucepan over medium high heat. Note: If you are cooking on someone else's stove, get used to the model of stove, because I am used to using gas, and the last time I used a friend's induction flat top, I had a hard time getting the right heat, I actually got frustrated!
So do this, heat up the sauce pan, add a tbsp. of vegetable oil, and a tsp. of minced ginger, heat that up for about 30 seconds. Then add in 2 tsp. of Nam Pla (Thai fish sauce), heat that up for about 30 seconds. Now add in a can of coconut milk. Bring this to a boil, then immediately low it down to a simmer. Cook this for about 15 minutes, it should thicken slightly, the longer you cook it it will reduce in volume and get thicker. You can season this with minced lemongrass, some cilantro, basil and mix it into a beef stir fry, creating a coconut beef stir fry, Thai style.
Sorry no pics.
Good Luck!
Coconut milk can be bought in cans, and are not too expensive, and even the finest of Thai chefs use canned coconut milk, so don't feel bad if you got a friend that picks his own and makes his own coconut milk, to me it's just ridiculous, because canned coconut milk is good enough.
When you buy canned coconut milk, look at the date on the can. If it has been expired, do not use it. If there are dents do not use it. Rust? Never use it. Use cans that are still valid, without any dents, or bad printing on the labels.
Coconut milk is not coconut water, or coconut juice. Coconut juice is coconut water with some kind of fruit juice added in for flavor. Hence lime coconut, orange coconut etc. Coconut water is the water that is in the coconuts itself. It's the meat of the coconut that is grated and mixed in with water and strained several times, mature coconuts are generally used.
Some chefs want the rich thicker creamier coconut milks for richer sauces, or soups. Thinner coconut milk is utilized by most chefs, if they want it thicker, they'll add a thickening agent to it such as cornstarch and water, or flour and butter (roux).
So without any recipes, try this for an exercise, heat up a small saucepan over medium high heat. Note: If you are cooking on someone else's stove, get used to the model of stove, because I am used to using gas, and the last time I used a friend's induction flat top, I had a hard time getting the right heat, I actually got frustrated!
So do this, heat up the sauce pan, add a tbsp. of vegetable oil, and a tsp. of minced ginger, heat that up for about 30 seconds. Then add in 2 tsp. of Nam Pla (Thai fish sauce), heat that up for about 30 seconds. Now add in a can of coconut milk. Bring this to a boil, then immediately low it down to a simmer. Cook this for about 15 minutes, it should thicken slightly, the longer you cook it it will reduce in volume and get thicker. You can season this with minced lemongrass, some cilantro, basil and mix it into a beef stir fry, creating a coconut beef stir fry, Thai style.
Sorry no pics.
Good Luck!
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