How to make coconut milk ?

Making our own fresh coconut milk at home gives much satisfaction than any other version. It creates a good nostalgia for anyone like me who has enjoyed watching their mothers extracting this flavorful milk on a Sunday morning , while cooking the appam on a pan. But somehow I was always for readymade coconut milks.  For many years I have been using a can of coconut milk or coconut milk powder, until I brought my super extractor mixie jar from India. Without knowing the importance of a juicer, some years ago, I had brought only the other jars while we came to USA for the first time and this juicer jar was in our house for  a long time :). Though  I agree that I love the convenience of  readymade milks, I made 2 cups of fresh coconut milk last weekend to serve along with Kerala appam. Hubby dear appreciated this fresh coconut milk with every piece of the appam I made. I was running from kitchen to dining table to meet his appam requirements :) and now I am very sure we will be having fresh coconut milk and appam most of our weekends:).
I am sure most of my blog friends are experts in preparing everything from scratch, but I am just sharing my joy about my coconut milk :) Hope you all like it !

Homemade coconut milk

extracting coconut milk using Super extractor jar.

Coconut milk served with aappam

Ingredients:
Sliced coconut - 1 1/2 cup
(or) shredded coconut - 1 cup
warm water - 2 cups

Common mixie method :
Grind the sliced coconut in a mixer. Add 1/2 cup warm water and squeeze out the milk. Filter it using a fresh cloth. This is the thick milk , which is used in many gravies.
After that grind again and extract milk just like the above three time. Combine all the milks together or keep the thick and thin milks separate as per need.

Using a Super extractor / juicer mixie:
If using a  juicer / super extractor jar from Preethi Mixie, there will not be any need of strainer.
Fix the juicing blade, Fit the filter mesh to the juicer jar.
Put the sliced or shredded coconut directly inside the jar  touching the blade(not in the space outside the filter).
Add 1/2 cup water.
Put the safety lid and close the lid.
Run the mixie in full speed for 30 seconds. The coconut milk will collect in the space between filter and outer jar compartment.
We can pour out the coconut milk straightly out of the jar. This is the thick milk.
After that we can repeat two or three more times to extract all the milk using 1/2 cup water each time.
(I used sliced frozen coconut, which I bought from Indian grocery shop, but fresh coconuts would be excellent).

coconut milk using bare hands:
Add 1/2 cup warm water to the shredded coconut and squeeze the first thick milk using our hands and filter. Then in the same way extract milk thrice.

Uses of coconut milk:
The extracted milk can stay good for at least 3 days in fridge.
Coconut milk can be served with appam, idiyappam.
To thicken curries and gravies in Indian cuisine.
To make biriyani, pulav, coconut milk rice and various rice varieties.
Used in making some kind of kheer like paal kozhukattai.