Coconut cream

corblimey

Ok, can someone explain coconut cream to me? I bought a packet for a recipe (that I can't find online at the moment), which called for 250ml of coconut cream. I found some "creamed coconut" in the same section of Tesco's as the Asian foods and whatnot. There was 250g of it. I get it home, open it up and it's basically a solid hunk of coconut.

The only instructions on the pack are to add water to make coconut milk, but the recipe calls for me to 'whisk the coconut cream until it's smooth'. Best I could do was grate it into a bowl and get rid of all the chunks. The whisk did nothing, and my definition of 'smooth' is not the same as 'grated'.

Online, the only things I could find using coconut cream involved hot curries and the like where you add it (in sliced form, I assume) as you're cooking. This recipe involves no cooking. The result is sitting in my fridge right now so I won't know if it's worked until tomorrow, but it just didn't feel right. So did I buy the wrong thing? Am I supposed to add something to it to make it 'creamy'?

(Just in case it makes a diff, the recipe calls for smooth coconut cream, add honey, then peanut butter than rolled oats - it's supposed to make a sort of breakfastty bar thing)

rubadub

seems they are different things

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coconut_cream
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creamed_coconut

By adding warm water it can be made into coconut milk or coconut cream

Coconut oil is solid at room temps in Ireland, only on really hot days does it go liquid. I imagine it will only need a gentle heating to get yours to mix.

Triceratops Ballet

Any time I've used coconut cream(I use it instead of dairy cream as I'm lactose intolerant) I buy one of the coconut milks in the can. You need to get a perticular one that will seperate you then put it upside down in the fridge. As it cools the cream and water seperate and the cream rises to the top. U turn it right side up then, open and pour off the liquid and are left with the yummy cream!
It's hard to find coconut milk that separates properly as most supermarkets only sell main brands, forget blue dragon or amoy they are useless. I got a blue can in tesco extra that i think is called Pride coconut milk its only 99 c a can. It separates beautifully, but I've only seen it in the tesco extra in Naas. I drive down from Crumlin specifically for it!! if you're not near a tesco extra you could try the Asian shops, but it can be trial and error to find one that will seperate

Gloomtastic!

dottie_lottie wrote: »

Any time I've used coconut cream(I use it instead of dairy cream as I'm lactose intolerant) I buy one of the coconut milks in the can. You need to get a perticular one that will seperate you then put it upside down in the fridge. As it cools the cream and water seperate and the cream rises to the top. U turn it right side up then, open and pour off the liquid and are left with the yummy cream!
It's hard to find coconut milk that separates properly as most supermarkets only sell main brands, forget blue dragon or amoy they are useless. I got a blue can in tesco extra that i think is called Pride coconut milk its only 99 c a can. It separates beautifully, but I've only seen it in the tesco extra in Naas. I drive down from Crumlin specifically for it!! if you're not near a tesco extra you could try the Asian shops, but it can be trial and error to find one that will seperate

Blimey. You should try some of the Asian shops in town. Might save you some petrol money!

Triceratops Ballet

Gloomtastic! wrote:

Blimey. You should try some of the Asian shops in town. Might save you some petrol money!

I tried a few and had no joy, I dont go that often tbh and I buy a good few cans when I do, I get a few funny looks with a stack of coconut milk in my trolley!!

corblimey

rubadub wrote: »

seems they are different things

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coconut_cream
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creamed_coconut



Coconut oil is solid at room temps in Ireland, only on really hot days does it go liquid. I imagine it will only need a gentle heating to get yours to mix.

Ah thanks, that explains it. According to this, I should have mixed

1 part Creamed Coconut + 2.5 parts water = Coconut Cream

So to get my 250ml of coconut cream I'd mix 70g of creamed coconut with 180ml of water. Good to know.

I can't wait to see what sort of concoction comes out of my fridge tomorrow now :D

Tks for the tip on separating coconut cream from quality coconut milk - bit more trouble than I'm willing to go for, particularly on the trial and error side of things, but if the above scientific formula doesn't fly, I might give it a go.

Tree

You might want to heat/melt the coconut cream in the future, unless the recipe calls for it to be grated. It can be mushed up into a cream homogenous goop when warmed.

fro9etb8j5qsl2

The cans of coconut milk they sell in aldi always separate (and I always forget to shake before opening )

nc6000

My local Tesco is a normal one and they have it in their ingredients section.