Homemade Coconut Milk and Coconut cream with strawberries and rhubarb (no sugar, dairy free, paleo)

I think everyone that is familiar with this blog knows that I have the biggest sweet tooth. And I am going to guess that most people’s first experience in the kitchen is around a sweet recipe. Who here has never helped their mum or grandma growing up by separating eggs or greasing a cake tin? Back home from the moment I was able to use the oven unsupervised I would religiously make a chocolate cake every Saturday, always the same recipe. The only changeable factor was that I would sometimes make marbled cake rather than a chocolate one.

With time I grew in confidence and started to experiment with tarts, pies and mousses, but in my early stages of cooking I mostly made sweet recipes. Savoury and mains is a side of cooking that started much later for me. So does that prove my point that I am just a little bit partial to dessert?

I am in the middle of a hard core paleo diet and there are a lot of restrictions around sweets which is not always fun but it does motivate me to cook recipes that are healthy and still appease my sweet tooth.

We already use a lot of coconut milk in my house so I simply decided to make my own one day! The major plus of doing this is that you are in total control of the consistency which I think is important for different recipes, for instance a thinner consistency is a lot better to use in smoothies.

I loved the results of the homemade coconut milk. I used it in a simple dessert recipe – which I am also sharing today – and there’s no problem in substituting the homemade version with shop bought coconut milk, but to be very honest, when it comes to flavour, the shop-bought version has nothing on homemade coconut milk.

Coconut milk

1 coconut

500ml warm water

Method:

1. Open the coconut and if there is water inside set aside. The best way to open the coconut is to use a screwdriver. There are 3 holes on the top of the coconut, one of them is really soft. Tip that over a glass to drain the coconut water. Then with a small hammer hit the coconut all over and it will start to crack and open. Remove the flesh, cut it into chunks and set it aside.

2. You need 500ml of liquid for this recipe so take away warm water and use the coconut water to make up the 500ml. Blitz the liquid and coconut flesh in a blender for at least 5 minutes. Strain using a muslin cloth and the coconut milk is ready. It will keep it in the fridge for up to 4 days.

Coconut cream with strawberries and rhubarb

500ml coconut milk

6 gelatine leaves

75ml maple syrup or honey

200g strawberries

150g rhubarb

Chopped almonds

Method:

1. Prepare the fruit by washing and cutting the rhubarb into 1cm pieces and cutting the top off the strawberries. Mix the fruit with 2 tbsp of water in a pan and cook in low heat, once it starts to bubble cover and let it simmer for 15-20 minutes or until the mixture becomes thicker like a sauce with chunky fruit bits.

2. Prepare the gelatine leaves by following package instructions. Using a blender mix the coconut milk and maple syrup. Add the gelatine slowly to the coconut mixture always beating it.

3. Divide the cream into serving cups leaving a little space on top for the fruit sauce. Take it to the fridge and wait for the cream to set. Top it off with the fruit sauce and sprinkle the almonds on top.