Question about recipes using coconut milk or coconut cream?

[uart]

I often cook curries with meat and vegetables. At different times I use a variety of premixed curry pastes or curry powder, and basically just about any meats or veggies seem to work ok in these meals. Now however I want to use coconut milk/cream in the mix, and I'm just wondering if there are any big DOs or DON'Ts when using this ingredient.

The thing is, I hate following recipes. So I'm usually going on intuition to work out "what is going to work well in that" when I'm cooking. I just realized now that I really don't have much intuition about coconut milk/cream. So I'm looking for tips on what type of ingredients work best in a coconut based curry. Things like what type of paste (red/green/orange) or powder work best, as well as if there are any veggies to avoid that might clash with the flavour etc.

Are there any chef extraordinaires here that can give me some tips?

 

[DeejayR]

I use coconut milk freely without a problem but you'll have to test for yourself. I use half a can (200g?) per 2-person curry. Total 1.5 carbs.
I also mix my own curry spices because it's fun and I'm in control. My fave coconut curry is chicken with crumbled cauliflower and I think fish might be nice too. If I can make the base the day before and keep it in the fridge before reheating with cooked chicken (piping hot, mind!) or to cook the fish, it tastes better. You could try whizzing the base curry to make a sort of dahl?

 

[AndBreathe]

I often cook curries with meat and vegetables. At different times I use a variety of premixed curry pastes or curry powder, and basically just about any meats or veggies seem to work ok in these meals. Now however I want to use coconut milk/cream in the mix, and I'm just wondering if there are any big DOs or DON'Ts when using this ingredient.

The thing is, I hate following recipes. So I'm usually going on intuition to work out "what is going to work well in that" when I'm cooking. I just realized now that I really don't have much intuition about coconut milk/cream. So I'm looking for tips on what type of ingredients work best in a coconut based curry. Things like what type of paste (red/green/orange) or powder work best, as well as if there are any veggies to avoid that might clash with the flavour etc.

Are there any chef extraordinaires here that can give me some tips?

I can appreciate you don't like following recipes; I have had some "interesting" in every sense creations from a frdige clear or just a "I fancy eat v, y and z tonight, but what I quite often do is do an internet search and see what that throws up. You don't have to follow Chef Google slavishly, or even at all, but surely, that's a decent way to gauge what flavours, textures and concepts might go with coconut milk/cream? Once you are comfortable that coco milk/cream is great in Thai, of Cajun cooking, for example, you can probably just overlay the knowledge you already have.

Once in a while, it makes sense to follow a recipe to "prove" how something works, in a "traditional" way.

Good luck with it.

p.s. The Planet Breate Beef Rendang, using Merrilees Parker's recipe is quite stupendous: http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/beefrendang_78767 . There are a lot of ingredients, and if you don't like mixing your own spices, then Tom Yum and Tamarind Paste can certainly be used to cut down the prep time.

 

[JTL]

Make a curry as usual as hot or as mild as you fancy I like mid if it's a creamy one and toward the end put in some creamed coconut a dash of cream yoghurt to taste a little sweetenr or sugar a dash of rice vinegar or whatever vinegar you have at hand.
When I lived in Manchester I got to see a West Indian family do a lot of cooking and most sauce type thing had salt sugar vinegar in them which at the time was new to me.
They said go read a food label of something you like that's in a tin or packet and you'll see they all do it too.
Sure enough salt sugar and citric or acetic acid is there and really boosts the flavour.
If I'm cooking a curry knowing friends/family are coming round to eat I go out of my way to cook it the day before.
Then add the coconut cream and maybe some slices of grilled or fried banana right at the end.
I leave it in a pan with a lid on not in the fridge.

 

[Celeriac]

Coconut milk has a thinner consistency and I find that I can chuck coconut oil, and a 160ml tin of organic coconut cream in frying pan with veggies and spices and let it gently simmer until the veggies are soft without them being drowned in liquid.

 

[Brunneria]

I get the Maagi powdered coconut milk (yellow box) from the supermarket.

If I'm making a curry that i want to be creamy, i just throw in powdered coconut milk, and stir.

The box instructions tell you to phaff with it in a jug, with water. Nonsense. Just scatter the powder on top of your curry, and stir. The powder dissolves, the curry turns coconutty and creamy, and you haven't diluted any of the flavours by adding extra water.

 

[DeejayR]

Reprising this, I accidentally made an alternative curry and coconut base with peanut butter today by adding baked butternut squash, which produces a yummy thick dahl-ish mixture. I stuck 4 metal skewers in the squash to make sure it was done all through.
B squash is carby so caution is the watchword but ALL the seeds I sowed on the allotment came up so I will be toting bags of them to the charity shop.

 

[Celeriac]

I chuck in Waitrose Cooks ingredients coconut cream, but also use Sainsbury's organic desiccated coconut or Daylesford organic coconut chips.

 

[Southbeds]

I get the Maagi powdered coconut milk (yellow box) from the supermarket.

If I'm making a curry that i want to be creamy, i just throw in powdered coconut milk, and stir.

The box instructions tell you to phaff with it in a jug, with water. Nonsense. Just scatter the powder on top of your curry, and stir. The powder dissolves, the curry turns coconutty and creamy, and you haven't diluted any of the flavours by adding extra water.

Never tried powdered coconut,can you tell my how many tablespoons for a curry made for 2

 

[Brunneria]

Never tried powdered coconut,can you tell my how many tablespoons for a curry made for 2

It will say on the packet.
My packets give different amounts of powder to mix up coconut milk, or coconut cream.

But, as i said, i never pre mix it, i just scatter the powder over the food and stir, until it is the desired flavour or texture.

 

[Southbeds]

It will say on the packet.
My packets give different amounts of powder to mix up coconut milk, or coconut cream.

But, as i said, i never pre mix it, i just scatter the powder over the food and stir, until it is the desired flavour or texture.

Thanks