Cracking coconut cream

[sushigirlie]

I made a Thai green curry for the first time today. The recipe called for cracking the coconut cream--that is, simmering the coconut cream until the water evaporates and the oil separates from the solids. I used coconut cream out of a box.

I encountered a problem: no oil ever separated out. I continued to simmer the coconut cream until parts of the thick coconut mass started to brown every so slightly, yet still no oil separated out. At that point I decided to remove it from the heat and add a bit of grapeseed oil for frying the curry paste.

The recipe still came out delicious. If you have thoughts on what went wrong, I'd love to hear them. There isn't much good information on this subject online.

[biggreenmatt]

Cracking coconut cream seems like a pain in the ass. Rather than go through the rigmarole, can you not just cut out the middleman and just use good coconut oil?

[chefj]

That's what I said above, it works fine for me.

[biggreenmatt]

Thanks. I'm starting to play with Thompson's book. It's quite the trip.

[chefj]

Who is Thompson?

[biggreenmatt]

Sorry, mate.

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/669671

Difficult stuff but magnificent. The pad thai I made tonight beats anything we have in Toronto, hands down- which is as much a commentary of how good Thompson is as it is how bad Thai food is in Toronto.

[chefj]

I do not know the why only that I have the same problem with canned Coconut milk. I just use coconut oil to saute my curry paste and it gets that nice toasty coconut smell that is the whole point of using the coconut cream.

[scubadoo97]

When I use coconut milk for a Thai curry I make sure I don't shake the can. When you open it the thick cream will be on the top. this is scooped out and used to fry the curry spices. The liquid is then added after the curry has cooked in the cream.

[chefj]

Yes I know but the cream never breaks for me.

[sushigirlie]

I have a feeling my problem was due to the "stabilizers" in the box I used.

[chefj]

May be the same with canned coconut milk. But the Coconut oil solution has worked great for me.

[Quine]

Sounds like the end product worked well by both methods and they are simpler, faster and less energy use. Win-Win.

[wew]

Aroy-D Coconut Milk Box is made and packaged without additives. The cream, which is about half the contents of the coconut milk container, settles out on top making it easy to harvest. I have found this to be the easiest to crack. Goya coconut milk cracks even better but has a dull smell and taste.
Thai kitchen makes the most fragrant coconut milk but only cracks when I add 2 tbs of oil, and even then the non oil is weirdly gummy.
Most important to me is when I use the non additive cream from the coconut milk the final curry has separation, oil on top water on bottom and when I use a stabilized coconut milk product coconut the result is emulsified, towards a thin mayo consistency.
A suggestion, don't be afraid if the amount of liquid in the wok is very, very small and allow for a small bit of darkening towards the middle of the process.