Coconut Milk in my curry
I love Thai food. I love curries. And I really love coconut milk in my curry. But I hate the thought of adding fats, especially saturated fats, to my food. It was with this in mind that I began my investigation of coconut milk in a attempt to find any redeeming quality and reason for adding it to my curries. I think that I may have succeeded.
Coconut is an integral ingredient in Thai curries. In other cuisines, curry may or may not contain the milk, but a Thai curry, whether green, red or orange, will have coconut milk. Coconut milk is not the juice that is found inside the whole coconut, but a cream pressed out of the meat of the nut. Finely grated coconut from fully-ripened coconuts is steeped in hot water and then squeezed until dry. The white extract is then strained to remove all of the pulp. An average coconut may yield up to two cups of milk. It is possible to do this at home, but really! Canned milk is readily available in any grocery now. Read the labels carefully: avoid products containing thickeners such as guar gum. A good brand will have a clean white colour, and should have a thick cream layer on top, just as whole milk would if it were not homogenized. If the milk appears homogenized, and you have not just shaken the can, you can expect that there are artificial ingredients added, and the product will not have a true coconut flavour. If your recipe calls for using the cream, don=t shake the can; refrigerate it and scrape off the cream layer. This cream contains about 3 grams of fat per tbsp, and this is saturated fat. Another way of looking at this is that coconut milk is 24% fat, or even worse, one of those products with 80% of its calories coming from fat. That=s the scary news. No wonder that many low-fat diets ban the use of coconut milk at all. But don't despair, I have some good news.
Scientists and nutritionists have been busy studying what is known as the AThai Paradox. Although the Thai diet is high in saturated fats, from coconut as well as a variety of other meats, and relatively low in fibre (about four-fifths of their calories comes from polished white rice) the incidence of coronary occlusion, diabetes, and high blood pressure is significantly lower in Thai males than in American males. And even more significant, Thailand has the lowest rate of cancer, both male and female, of all the fifty countries studied by the WHO. A closer look at the Thai diet will show that there is a high consumption of fish (omega-3 fatty acids), fresh fruits and vegetables cooked by steaming which helps them retain their nutrients and a relatively low consumption of sweeteners.
But it appears that it may be the high dependence on coconut milk in the Thai diet that has given these people such a good health rating. Although the oil in coconuts is saturated, it does not contain cholesterol, nor does it have the types of fats that will turn into cholesterol in the body. The principal fatty acid of coconut milk is lauric acid, the same acid found in human mammary glands. This fat is known to promote normal brain development and contribute to healthy bones. It also has important anti-carcinogenic and anti-pathogenic properties. Lauric acid is turned into monolaurin in the body. This substance is efficient in killing parasites, yeasts, viruses and pathogenic bacteria in the gut. This would come in handy when living in Thailand, a country not known for rigid sanitary regulations. The oil also appears to strengthen the immune system and facilitates the uptake of omega-3 fatty acids into the cells. Some pro-coconut experts believe that coconut oils have been given a bad rap by the American food industry because they are not produced locally and therefore do not have local proponents. It is possible that in the near future, it will be determined that it is not saturated fats that are the health villains, but actually hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated fats. Coconut milk may turn out to be a good non-dairy substitute for milk in soups and sauces, especially for those of us who can=t tolerate the taste of soy milk.
Well, I'm ready to take the plunge, although I will dilute my coconut milk with vegetable broth. Don't waste your time and money buying low-fat canned milk; you are just paying for added water and thickeners such as guar gum. Canned milk may be stored in the fridge once opened for up to a week. You could try freezing it, but you might find that you have trouble with curdling if you bring it to a boil rapidly.
In true Thai cooking, coconut cream is first cooked over high heat to separate the oil then the curry pastes are fried in the oil.It is this procedure that brings out the brilliant colours and flavours of the curry. A Agood@ Thai curry should have a thin layer of oil floating on top of the sauce.