Why doesn't my coconut sauce have a strong coconut flavor similar to what is served in Thai restaurants? Do they use real coconut or coconut essence or coconut oil? I use a can of coconut.
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4By "a can of coconut", do you mean unsweetened coconut milk? Without getting into extracts or essences, unsweetened coconut milk is about as strongly flavored of coconut as anything you'll be able to find. Unsweetened coconut milk is the basis for the coconut flavor in every sauce recipe I could find in ten minutes of looking.– Jolenealaska ♦May 25, 2014 at 3:18
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1A recipe would be very helpful. Could you share with us the ingredients for your sauce?– PrestonMay 25, 2014 at 6:06
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2It has been my experience that the flavour of coconut dissipates if you boil the dish at all, and is more or less altogether gone after about forty-five minutes to an hour. If you want a clear flavour, you should add the coconut milk as late as possible in the cooking.– razumnyMay 25, 2014 at 13:12
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1Sorry, but yes, I did mean unsweetened cocount milk. I ocassionally make different kinds of sauces, so there is no particular recipe that I have in mind. I went to a Thai restaurant recently and had coconut-curried veggie stir fry, and the coconut was difinitely stronger tasting that what I have made. This is not the first time that I have noticed that my coconut flavor is weak as compared to eating out.– donnaMay 28, 2014 at 1:11
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3 Answers
Canned coconut milk is the base of the majority of savory coconut sauces, Thai or otherwise. It tastes of coconut, but it isn't strongly flavored. If your coconut milk separates (some do, some don't; added emulsifiers inhibit this separation) the thicker layer that rises to the top is coconut cream. Basically coconut cream is coconut milk with less water and more fat. The cream is somewhat more intensely flavored of coconut than the milk, but alone it may be too thick for a lot of sauces.
Coconut milk is made by cooking the meat of the coconut (usually in water, sometimes in dairy milk) and then straining the coconut meat. It is not coconut water, coconut water is the juice that flows out of a just cracked coconut.
Do not confuse coconut milk or coconut cream with cream of coconut, which is usually sweetened. That ingredient is often called for in desserts, but not for savory cooking. Think Pina Coladas. This is a source of some confusion as different countries use different terminologies. Wiki certainly is not the best possible source, but if the language I am using here differs from your understanding of the terms, read this from wiki. Those are the definitions I am using in this answer.
The quality of canned coconut milk varies. It also is available in a "light" formulation, which tastes less strongly of coconut than non-light versions.
One traditional method seen especially in Thai cooking involves "cracking" the cream. Choose a non-light canned coconut milk without added emulsifiers (check the label). Refrigerating the can overnight can sometimes help separate the cream, figure about the top third of the settled contents of the can. Simmer that cream on the stove until the oil separates, it may take as long as ten minutes. The oil separation is the "cracking". Now you can fry the spices of the sauce (curry paste especially) in the oil (no need to remove the non-oil solids). Add the rest of the can of milk and simmer for a while to reduce the sauce to your desired thickness. Some meat can be cooked in the sauce, vegetables are usually par-cooked separately.
[EDIT: This video shows Cracking Coconut Cream at 2:20 --- This video shows an alternative, for those that have difficultly getting their cream to separate at 4:10]
Beyond that, to get more coconut flavor you can add coconut powder (which is dried coconut milk) or coconut extract (here's a fun recipe from Alton Brown) but neither of those additions would be traditional.
answered May 25, 2014 at 14:17
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1I've never heard of cream of coconut, but I have used creamed coconut before, which is not sweetened. It is a solid block of coconut meat and very coconutty.en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creamed_coconut May 25, 2014 at 17:31
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1@ElendilTheTall That is almost unheard of here. Side by side in a sauce, I bet it would be similar in intesity to coconut powder. The different names for coconut products get confusing, especially across international borders.– Jolenealaska ♦May 25, 2014 at 17:41
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It's an imported product here for sure, found in Asian supermarkets and occasionally in regular supermarkets. May 25, 2014 at 18:44
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"Cream of coconut" is actually the same thing as Coconut Cream. They are both the same product which is full of emulsifiers and sugars and used in desserts and drinks. As @ElendilTheTall says, there is a different product called "creamed coconut" which is the dehydrated meat. But I wouldn't refer to the thick part of the milk as coconut cream, unless you want to confuse people; that's still definitely coconut milk.– AaronutMay 25, 2014 at 22:32
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1@Aaronut Funny I read those great answers yesterday. I know that the terms are not universal, that's why I made a point of explaining the terms I was using. I added further clarification in the text of the answer, but beyond that I don't know what more I can do.– Jolenealaska ♦May 26, 2014 at 0:26
Assuming they do it the traditional way (or the same way the Indians and Sri Lankans do) - they almost certainly squeeze it fresh.
Basically you want the dehusked "older" coconuts not the green ones, or grated (not dried) coconut. Add a tiny bit of water, blend it, and squeeze (by hand). This is the good stuff - and what you'd either add at the end (if you don't want it split), or heat up to split out the oil.
You can actually extract a second run with more water, for things that don't need the higher creaminess factor or when you don't need to seperate out the oil
We do occasionally use coconut cream - and as I understand it, its supposed to be the meat of green coconuts just blended . I'm unsure if these will separate into oil if we heat it.
The brand we tend to use (sparingly, since its pretty thick) -kara tends to list young coconut extract and stabilizer. If you can get it, it works well, but in smaller quantities than actual coconut milk.
I'd also (from entirely cultural bias!) suggest adding the coconut milk at the end, after taking it out of the heat, unless you need it to seperate. 'Heated' coconut milk has a very different flavour, especially if the fat separates.
Interestingly I've never heard of coconut cream being a product that floats to the top of coconut milk until today, and the extraction methods in Joelene's answers are significantly different from mine, and one way of doing things may work better in specific situations than others.
Omg I have the same problem. I don’t eat a lot of dairy so I use coconut cream for everything and by coconut cream I mean the thick white stuff you scoop off the top of a can of coconut milk. If you haven’t tried just using the thick fatty part maybe try that. What you do is refrigerate a can overnight in the coldest part of your fridge and then when you go to open the can you flip it upside down and drain the watery liquid off the top and at the bottom should be a thick white cream. If you can’t open the can from the bottom then just scoop the white part off the top trying not yo mix the 2. Thai kitchen is my favorite brand I buy the straight up coconut cream with the purple label bc it has more fat. For me that still doesn’t taste coconutty even eating it straight as coco whip. For me the only way to add a coconut taste is to use extra virgin coconut oil. That stuff tastes about as coconutty as it gets aside from using coconut extract which I just bought and am going to try for coconut ice cream bars. Good luck!
