DIY Coconut Milk

First I have to warn you that this post gets serious and it ain’t all pretty, but there is a really handy recipe at the end, if you want to skip straight to that.

I’ve been thinking about non-dairy milk a lot lately.  I’ve been on a simple detox program where I’ve cut out caffeine and dairy products.  Surprisingly, the coffee was a lot easier to let go of than the dairy products; good thing I save the grain detox for next week because there is a lot adjust to around here.

You may be wondering if I have allergies, or why else would I be denying myself my beloved morning cup of java and bowl of yogurt & muesli?  There are several reasons, but among them are these:  I find if I don’t have coffee right away in the morning, I suffer from withdrawal symptoms such as headaches, grogginess and fuzziness.  I don’t like that.  So I’m taking control back by going on a detox.  A little over a week in, I’m happily enjoying cups of herbal tea and no symptoms, though I definitely miss the ritual and flavor of coffee. I don’t plan to give up coffee because I really love a good cup of java, but will reduce it once I start drinking it again. So there’s that.

The reason I’m eliminating dairy and grains for a while is because I want to experiment how it is that a person with lactose, gluten or grain allergies can make good, healthy food at home without relying on store-bought products which are poorly labeled and may or may not be as healthy as they appear to be.  Furthermore, there have been days where my stomach has not been happy with something I’ve eaten, but it’s been difficult to pinpoint.  So I’d like to know more about what I’m eating and what is in everything, if possible.

Take milk and milk-subsitutes:  Mostly I’ve been making almond milk and oat milk and using them as substitutes for dairy, which has worked really well.  In the meantime, I also started reading about how healthy these products are (or are not in some cases) and came across multiple references to a natural additive that exists in many “health” products, carrageenen.

First, it’s important to know what it is and why carrageenan exists in so many products.  According to Wikipedia, “Carrageenan is an extract from red edible seaweeds, and is used widely in the food industry for it’s gelling, thickening and stabilizing properties.”  Basically what this means is that it makes the food feel smoother and thicker in your mouth, so when you buy almond milk, oat milk, soy milk or yes, even coconut milk, it helps to stabilize the product and give it the smooth, silky texture we associate with dairy milk drinks and instinctively hope for in dairy milk substitutes. Incidentally, carrageenan is also used in dairy and meat products too, because it binds really well with proteins.  That means it has a good chance of being in your ice cream, cottage cheese, deli meats, canned soups, or in your non-fat yogurt, too.

So what’s the problem?  A natural product that improves the texture without adding off flavors should be good, right?  Well, according to research, this may not be true.  Joanne K Tobacman, MD has studied carrageenen for two decades and believes it should be banned from food in the U.S. “Tobacman says that carrageenan, whether food grade or degraded, predictably causes inflammation because of its chemical structure and says thousands of studies over several decades have demonstrated this effect.  She adds that acidic conditions in the human digestive system likely will cause food-grade carrageenans to degrade in the body.”(source: todaysdietician.com).

What does this inflammation actually do to you?  One thing we know, according to Dr. Andrew Weil,  is that chronic inflammation is the root cause of heart disease, cancer, Parkinsons and Alzheimers, to name a few.  At this point, the studies have only been done on animals and on in vitro cell tissues or cultural models in labs, for the reason that, given the strong indication of negative impact, Dr. Tobacman believes it wrong to run the tests using humans.  As we already know, “natural” doesn’t necessarily mean “safe”.  In 2008, Tobacman presented her findings to the FDA along with a citizen petition requesting that the substance be banned from foods.

The FDA disagrees with Tobacman’s findings, while other scientists and doctors support it.  Still others are cautious, advising patients with gut problems to avoid carrageenan, but don’t necessarily encourage that carrageenan be banned.  There are watch groups such as Cornucopia Institute raising the red flag and warning consumers to steer clear.  The discussion continues, with the US and European officials differing on the safety of carrageenan; the US allows its use in baby formula while the EU does not.

So what should you do?  That’s entirely up to you, of course.  Take a look at articles like this one for clear coverage on carrageenan and both sides of the story.  Read your labels so you know what is in your food.  As for me, I try to keep my diet as healthy as possible.  I believe that our best bet is to eat real, whole foods that are made using ingredients that are as natural as possible.  While I have the occasional indulgence in really great dessert, I want it made with real butter or a healthy oil (hello chocolate cake!). I try to steer clear of ingredients that are known to have harmful effects.  This holds true for industrial trans fats (no thanks, margarine & shortening), artificial sweeteners (saccharine, aspartame and the like), and go for products that contain ingredients I recognize and which I could feasibly make at home.

Which is what lead me to blogging about carrageenan in the first place.

I needed coconut milk, and learned that this was another place where carrageenen lurks.  Not to mention the fact that most coconut milks are full of the E-codes I’d rather not consume (if you have an iPhone, here’s a link to a handy app to help you figure out what’s good and what’s bad with E-codes).

You may be delighted to know that coconut milk is simple and quick to make and requires only two ingredients, one of which you already have on hand and the other readily obtainable: Water and unsweetened coconut flakes.

Coconut Milk

1.5 cups / 3 dl unsweetened coconut flakes
4 cups hot water, just under the boil point.

Pour the coconut into a heatproof glass or stainless steel container.  Pour the hot water over the top and let the coconut steep for 20 minutes.  If you have a hand-held immersion blender (Bamix in Finland) you can use this; otherwise pour the mixture into your upright blender.  Blend for about 1 minute.  Strain through a fine-mesh sieve into a glass jar.  Squeeze the coconut pulp to extract all of that lovely milk.

Note 1:  Don’t throw away the leftover coconut pulp!  Save it to add to your homemade granola, smoothies, muffins, or other baked goods, or to sprinkle over the top of a coconut curry.

Note 2:  You can refrigerate for 3-4 days or freeze for up to three months.  Once cold, the coconut fat will float to the top of the mixture and solidify.  Don’t worry – this is completely normal.  If you are using the milk in soup, you can simply break through the layer and pour the coconut fat and liquid in together and heat it up.  If using it in bakery or smoothies, you may want to bring the coconut milk to room temperature first, and then shake to redistribute the mixture before using.

Roasted Red Pepper Hummus snack plate

The rain was really coming down outside, beating and splatting against the windows, with a gust of wind every now and again causing a whistling howl against the window pane.  Even though only mid-afternoon, it was clear that this was going to be a day to stay In.  The type of day when it’s tempting to light all the candles in the house, curl up on the couch with a warm blanket over your lap, a good book in your hand, and a comfort snack by your side.

When days like these come my way, I always find my way to the kitchen at some point, and I usually end up making something sweet and something savory.  This time sweet came in the form of Teddie’s Apple Cake, found on Food52, created by an unknown author a long time ago, and loved by nearly all of the people who commented there.  It seemed the perfect recipe to use up a few more of my apples and to attempt a gluten-free conversion, something I’ve been playing with lately.

So as the Autumn rain pounded the windows, I stirred sugar, olive oil and eggs, vanilla & cinnamon; gluten-free flour mix and crisp, sweet-tart apples and poured them all into a bundt pan mold.  It wasn’t long before the cozy scent of baking cinnamon and apple filled the kitchen and wound its way around the corner into the living room by the chair where J, who was enjoying an afternoon read, perked up and realized that there were good things coming his way. (Side note: the cake was excellent, even made without the raisins, of which I am not a fan.  However, I would substitute applesauce for part of the oil and reduce the sugar by 1/3 next time).

Roasted Red Pepper Hummus with Life-Changing Loaf of Bread

As the cake baked, I moved onto Snack B, a Roasted Red Pepper Hummus that I created using the Preserved Red Peppers I found on Hank Shaw’s blog Hunter Angler Gardener Cook and chickpeas I soaked overnight and had boiled that morning.  On the counter sat the remaining half of a loaf of Sarah B’s Life-Changing Loaf of Bread, waiting to be slathered with something delectable. (If you haven’t made your own preserved red peppers, no problem: they are readily available in jars at your local grocery store).

As I chopped and stirred and baked, I thought about an interview I’d watched via Facebook of comedian Aziz Ansari talking about his chef girlfriend:  “Anyone who’s single, date a chef.  They’ll say amazing things like, ‘Oh, I don’t know if you’re hungry but I just made this delicious snack’, which is the greatest sentence I’ve ever heard.”

And I thought: that is a good sentence.  And I also thought: that’s Love.  Food is love.  Making food is a way of showing that you care.  After all, you gotta feed everybody.  I’m no chef; but for me, creating food is my absolute favorite pastime, especially if I have someone around to feed it to.  Especially if it’s pouring rain outside and nobody’s going anywhere.

Do you want a snack?

Try this one.

Roasted Red Pepper Hummus

Roasted Red Pepper Hummus

If you are starting with dry chickpeas, soak 1/2 cup / 1 dl chickpeas overnight in 1.5 cups/3 dl of water. Drain the remaining water and put them in a pot with enough water to cover by 1 inch/2.5cm.  Bring to a boil, and the reduce heat to medium.  Allow to simmer, uncovered, for 55 min.  Add 1 teaspoon of salt and boil for another 5 minutes.  Remove from heat, allow the chickpeas to cool, and then drain, saving the cooking water.

In a food processor or blender, combine:

Chickpeas from recipe above; or 1 can chickpeas, drained, juices reserved
3/4 cup roasted red pepper, drained 
1.5 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon of olive oil1 tablespoon Tahini
1 garlic clove, peeled and root end removed
1 teaspoon of salt, plus more to taste

Blend until completely smooth. If the mixture is too thick, add some of the reserved liquid until it reaches your desired consistency. Taste; add more lemon juice and salt as needed.

Makes 1.5 cups / 3 dl.

Serve on crackers, toast or with sliced vegetables for a delicious snack.

Apple, Golden Beet and Savoy Cabbage Salad

Have you ever wanted to pick an apple from your own apple tree?  Me too.  I dream about it all the time. There remains just that one small problem of living in an apartment with no back yard.  Or maybe you have a back yard but no apple tree in it.  Or the apples on the tree you have are not fit for eating.  Or, or.  In Finland, there is now at least one solution to that problem.

Last week was a celebration of the Harvest season.  It started off with a trip to Råbäckin maatila, a small organic apple farm in Espoo run by an entrepreneurial farmer Rikard Korkman who sells his apples in a different sort of way.  Instead of waiting for his apples to ripen, to see what kind of yield he’ll get, and then going down to the local bulk buyers to see what kind of price they’ll offer him, he’s made the apple season much more fun and personal for those of us who don’t own apple trees.  You can buy annual “shares” of the apple farm.  Yep, that’s right:  you can “own” an apple tree on his farm  Or two.

Since this year was the first year of yield, each share, costing €40 annually, was comprised of 10 trees per share owner, and each owner received whatever yield those trees delivered.

The estimation is that you’ll get about 15 kilos (33 lbs) per share; this year the summer crops delivered in abundance with each share owner getting roughly 50 kilos (110 pounds!) of apples.  The winter apples didn’t fare quite as well due to an unusual cold spell during all of June which reduced the rate of pollination, so the average yield came in at 8-12 kilos, which the Rikard supplemented with other apple varieties to reach the 15 kilo mark.   Look at these beauties:

My apples:  Punainen Åkerö (substitute apples, left) and from my trees, Amarosa (right)

It’s an excellent deal all around:  Rikard knows he’ll sell all of his apples; in fact, they are sold before the first apple bloom blossoms on his farm each Spring.  He knows to whom he is selling his apples, so the relationship feels much more personal, for both Rikard and for consumers like me.  I love feeling like I am helping to support a local producer, and so do 131 other people/families/shareholders.  The waiting list is long too, with 90 people/families in line waiting for Rikard’s apple trees to grow in size so that they too can join in on the apple harvest.  Next year and each consecutive year afterward, as the apple trees provide a larger yield, one share will be comprised of fewer trees, with the intention of keeping the target yield per share the same.

We went down to the orchard to take a look at “our” trees (of which I sadly have no picture), and it is clear how much love and care is put into the place.  I loved seeing my name hanging on the trees, and picking a few of the apples hanging from the branches.  Walking into the barn felt like a step back in time:  as the sweet, sharp, cozy scent of apples met my nose, I was drawn back to my childhood, when Mr Block the apple farmer from Eastern Washington would show up with a huge delivery of apples for our friends, neighbors, and quite a pile for us kids to munch too.  I am already looking forward to going back to Råbäck Farms next year.  Thank you, Rikard!

On Saturday and Sunday, 4-5 October, Slow Food Vastnyland held the Slow Food Farmer’s festival in Fiskars, a lovely artisan village about 1.5 hours outside of Helsinki.  This was the second year I had visited this market, so I knew what I was looking for:  fresh, crisp, sweet Savoy cabbages; red and golden beets, dark malted rye bread from Backer’s Bakery, Butternut Squash and Uchiki Kuri Squash (I saved the seeds from both for my own garden next year); huge, red Rosamunda potatoes for making baked potatoes (though I didn’t find the Blue Congo I was hoping for), and cauliflower in purple, neon green and white.  Not to mention big jars of gorgeous, green, garlic scented olives from Ruukkikylän Herkut – my oh my, those olives are worth the trip all by themselves.

So there I was with my 15 kilos of apples and my huge bag of produce so I had to get cooking.  All week, the kitchen has smelled of apple crisp and apple cake, and the hum of the food dryer full of apple slices has been filling this house with music.  We’ve had roasted butternut squash with sautéed Savoy cabbage, flavored with Asian spices and served over soba noodles; butternut squash pancakes flavored with chili and Rosemary thanks to Jamie Oliver’s Jamie magazine and the delicious recipes found within…

…and then we’ve had salad.  Like this one.

I needed a salad fit to put the full flavors of that beautiful fall produce on display.  So I roasted a golden beet, shredded and apple, chopped some cabbage, and alongside of a small stack of butternut squash pancakes, served a salad fit for the Harvest season.

Apple, Golden Beet & Savoy Cabbage Salad served with Butternut Squash Pancakes – delish!

Apple, Golden Beet and Savoy Cabbage Salad

2 large leaves of Savoy Cabbage
1 golden beet, roasted until tender
1 large winter apple, grated on a box grater
1/2 onion, diced, rinsed under running cold water and drained
1 1/2 teaspoons olive oil
2 teaspoons lemon juice
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

If you don’t already happen to have roasted beets on hand from another project, roast them first.

Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F.  Wash the beet to remove all dirt and cut off the long root tip.  Prick holes in a few places with a knife tip, and wrap the beet in aluminum foil.  I usually cook several beets at once as they take a long time to roast, but keep well in the fridge for a few days.  Place the foil-wrapped beets on a pan in the oven and bake until they are tender when a knife is poked through:  45 – 90 minutes (seriously!) depending on the size of your beets. Remove from the oven, cool completely, and remove skin.

Now that you have your beet ready to go, slice it into thin rounds, then stack the rounds and slice the beet again to form matchsticks.

Remove the rib from the center of each cabbage leaf, cut each leaf into quarters, stack the quarters, and cut the cabbage quarters into thin slices.

Combine the beet, cabbage, apple and onion in a small mixing bowl.  Add the olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper and mix to coat the vegetables with the dressing.  Taste; and add salt and pepper as needed to your liking.

Serves 2-4.  Easily doubled or tripled to serve more hungry people.