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Coconut Essay - page 2

You can make your coconut milk thicker or thinner depending on your preference--just add more or less water. If using it for sauces or curries, you might want thicker milk. For use in smoothies or as a beverage ingredient, you might want thinner milk. For cooking, coconut milk is a versatile ingredient, offering creaminess without dairy. Coconut milk is the backbone of "creamy" dishes without the cream and is used in sweet and savory dishes. It is heated as a fast dessert sauce in Vietnamese cuisine, used as a basis for Puerto Rican "tembleque," or coconut pudding, in Caribbean rice and bean soups and stews, and to finish curries in Thailand and India.

It can be a thickener, used instead of heavy cream, used as a substitute for water in both stews and puddings, used to deglaze a pan, or as a cooking liquid for veggies (try corn) or for noodles. It can be frozen with a small amount of sweetener to make a sorbet.

As far as fat is concerned, there is no such thing as a lean coconut product; keep in mind that 30% of daily calories can come from fat in the diet of a healthy person. Coconut can be a portion of those calories. Coconut juice has the lowest amount of fat calories, about two grams of fat in eight ounces. Coconut milk is relatively high, with about 40 grams of fat in eight ounces of liquid, but coconut meat and cream of coconut are the winners for high fat content with about 50 grams of fat per eight ounces of fluid. On the positive side, coconut has a small amount of folic acid and moderate amounts of potassium, phosphorus, and magnesium; raw coconut has about five grams of dietary fiber per one-ounce serving. If fat calories concern you, cut coconut milk with water or vegetable broth. There are also "lite" varieties of coconut milk readily available. There is no getting around the fact that coconut of any type is high in saturated fat and calories, but it may be a "healthier" type of fat than manufactured fats, such as hydrogenated margarines.

If you are going for fresh coconut, try young coconut, brown coconut, and coquito nuts, depending on the time of year. Select a coconut that "sloshes" when it is shaken and has firm, dry eyes. An untapped coconut can be stored in a cool, dark, dry place for up to three months. Young coconut (often with a white husk) can be used for its coconut juice and for its slightly sweet pulp. Drink the juice as is or add to other fruit juices, such as mango nectar, or pineapple or orange juice. Use the pulp as an addition to rice or grains (coconut-raisin couscous--yum!), grated into veggies, such as carrots or green beans, chopped into hot or cold cereal, or shredded into muffins and quick breads (how about coconut-carrot-pineapple bread?). More mature coconuts have sweeter juice and pulp, so adjust your seasoning accordingly. Coquito nuts are baby coconuts, cultivated largely from Chilean palm trees. (If you can't find them, you can log on to <www.friedas.com>, a specialty produce house based in Los Alamitos, California.) Coquitos are only the size of a large marble and look like smooth-skinned brown coconuts. You can eat the whole thing for a really luxurious snack or toss them into salads, pastas, or fruit dishes.

If you have the time, you can start with fresh coconut: roast it whole, shell it, grate the meat, and then roast it again if you want dried coconut pulp to create coconut milk or to use in cooked dishes.

Fresh coconut is worth the work, as its flavor is more milky and texture more creamy than the processed type. To get to the good stuff, pierce the eyes of the coconut with a pointed instrument (we have found that a sanitized Phillips head screwdriver works well) and drain off the juice (save this as a reward for later or use to replace all or some of the cooking liquid for vegetables, grains, rice, or puddings). Break the husk with a hammer to get to the pulp. If your coconut is particularly hard, you can heat the drained coconut in a 400-degree oven for 20 minutes and then crack it. Scrape out the pulp, which can be eaten as is, added to salads, curries or rice, or baked with sweetener and cinnamon for a fast snack ingredient (you can use the baked pulp in cookies, muffins, puddings, and on cereals).

If purchasing coconut milk, choose the thick variety--you can always thin it. When you open the can, there may be a layer of coconut cream--just shake or stir to incorporate, or skim to remove some of the calories. Coconut milk is perishable, so refrigerate it and use it within 3 days. If purchasing grated coconut, select the unsweetened variety--you can sweeten it to your taste or use it, as is, in savory dishes, such as a lentil pilaf, brown rice, onion, and coconut casserole or a tofu-tomato curry.

Allergy alert: Most canned coconut is preserved with potassium metabisulfite (a sulfite, like the substance used in dried fruit). Some people are allergic to sulfite. The only other ingredients should be coconut and water.

Quick tip: Canned coconut milk heated with a few Tablespoons of Thai or Indian curry paste makes a "hot" soup, or simmered with veggies and served over rice makes a fast entree.