Homemade Coconut Milk

First, acquire a few coconuts, preferably dried and de-husked. (The brown coconuts most are
familiar which have already been de-husked).

Find the part of the coconut with three soft holes (almost like indentations). Take a knife or nail
and twist a hole in one of the indentations. Drain the coconut. This will be the “coconut water”.

Next, use a hammer or an axe to crack open the coconut (or Belizean's use a machete).

Continue hammering the coconut until you have more manageable sized pieces.

Once the pieces are small enough, then shuck the coconut meat from the shell using a butter
knife. It should easily detach once you have a good knife hold under the coconut meat.

With a blender, puree a handful of coconut chucks in water until the mixture has a milk-like
consistency.

Then, take a strainer and place over a pot. Pour the pureed mixture over/through the strainer.
Squeeze the pulp until dry. This separates the liquid from the solid.

Re-use the coconut pulp several times in the blender (along with more water) to extract the
maximum amount of milk.

Repeat process until coconut chucks are gone.

Once all milk has been extracted and strained into the pot, place pot on stove and bring to a boil.
This will pasteurize the coconut milk. Set aside to cool. And then place in container of your
choice in the refrigerator.

Finally, enjoy!

A special thanks to Dawn Bell for teaching volunteer staff how to make coconut milk.