So....lately I've been experimenting with coconuts. By experimenting I mean eating them like it is my job.
I don't really know why it hadn't occurred to me that coconuts are cheap here.
The story goes as follows.
I go through food stages. There was the quinoa stage, then the almond milk stage, the ice cream stage...that one was a good one....and of course the avocado stage. I'm currently on a everything-is-better-with-coconut stage and honestly who can blame me when coconuts are so.de.lish.
I used to buy bottled coconut water from the supermarket and even though the one we can get here is really fresh something deep inside me told me that there was some added sugar in my drink <= what? I mean healthy-living sacrilege ;)
I couldn't really tell because the bottle doesn't come with a nutrition facts label but I could tell because sometimes it was way too sweet for my taste.
One day I was going to the yoga studio and as I walked past a fruit store that is right below the studio I thought....could I, just maybe, be able to get coconuts here?
I went in and I asked. Not only were they able to sell me coconuts but they would "peel" them so I would only get the white flesh with the water inside. Intact.
And so it began...a true love story with coconuts. Oh yes and they are only .40 cents each.
It all started with the water but it has evolved into a quest...what else can I do with this white piece of heaven?
Coconut milk.
I've found two ways of making it, there's the yummy one and then there's the yummiest one.
For the Yummy coconut milk I use:
- 1 coconut or 1/2 a coconut (if it's a big one)
- 2 cups of warm water
For the Yummiest I use:
- 1 coconut or 1/2 a coconut (if it's a big one)
- Water from one coconut...or more if I'm feeling naughty.
Instructions are the same for both of them. Mix everything together in a blender, drain either with a cheesecloth or a fine mesh strainer (I find the cheesecloth works better because you can squeeze it harder) and then drink.
The taste of fresh coconut milk is indescribable. It's so much lighter than almond and just as rich.
Now, the things you can do with this milk, as the french say...oh la la la la.
There are basic things like adding it to your coffee, making chai tea with it, mixing it with oats...and then there are the awesome things like making sorbet, vegan "cheesecake" and coconut oil!
Not to mention the things you can do with the shredded coconut that's left. I'm talking about coconut butter here!!!!!
Oh...the advantages of living in this tropical paradise which I now proclaim to be my very own coconut heaven.