Coconut Milk and Cream

• Coconut milk isn't the thin watery liquid from the center of the nut -- itself, a popular and refreshing beverage -- but a thicker substance made from the flesh of the coconut. It's startlingly like dairy milk in its components, combining water, fats, minerals, sugars and proteins. The end result is milky, too, and can be used as a milk substitute in baking, desserts or steamed espresso drinks. That makes coconut milk and coconut cream a boon for vegetarians, the lactose-intolerant or anyone else wanting to avoid dairy products.

Meeting the Meat

• The first step in making your own coconut milk is opening the coconut and extracting the meat. Crack the coconut by wrapping it in a kitchen towel to catch any spray, then strike it sharply with a hammer or the back edge of a heavy kitchen cleaver. Carefully hold it upright, remove the top half, and pour out the watery liquid from inside. Alternatively you can drain the liquid first, then simply hurl your coconut to the ground. Once it's halved, heat the nut in your oven at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 20 minutes. After it cools, you can easily pry out the meat with a butter knife or similar implement.

Making the Milk

• Use a vegetable peeler to strip the brown skin from the coconut's meat, then shred it finely on a box grater or pulverize it in your food processor. Pour 2 cups of boiling water over the coconut, along with the coconut water if you've reserved it. Process the coconut to a pasty pulp in the food processor or with a "stick" immersion blender, to increase the richness of the coconut milk. Let it infuse for five to 10 minutes, then line a fine-mesh strainer with several layers of cheesecloth and pour in the coconut mixture. Gather up the ends, twist the bundle of coconut and squeeze out every last drop you can.

Separating the Cream

• As with dairy milk that hasn't been homogenized, the coconut milk's fat will separate from the liquid and begin to rise to the top. This extra-rich portion of the milk becomes the coconut cream. Each medium-sized coconut will give you 2 to 2 1/2 cups of coconut milk, depending how moist it was, and roughly 1 cup of that becomes cream. To separate yours, pour the coconut milk into a sterilized canning jar and leave it in the refrigerator for several hours or overnight. Ladle the separated cream into a second jar and use it immediately, or store it for three to four days in the refrigerator.