Indian Curry

Have I ever mentioned that I *LOVE* curry? This is a love that has grown since I first experienced it in college. An ex-boyfriend who served his mission in the West Indies (think deep Caribbean Islands) took me to some Indian Restaurant in Provo. And hence, a love was born (between me and the curry- not him.)

This love deepened on my mission when I lived (for six months) with a lovely landlady named Annie. Annie was married to John, who was from India. Naturally, Annie learned how to cook the most amazing Indian food to appease her ill-tempered husband. So my love, and knowledge of how to cook Indian curry grew. And I continue to learn new little things. I'm not a fabulous cook- I leave that to Ryan. But every once in a while I get it right.

Like last night! I decided to make some curry for a few reasons. They mostly include the fact that it doesn't take very long and we had all of the ingredients on hand. Or so I thought...

For me, I like curry best with some coconut milk in it. And after a thorough search of the cupboards yielded zero cans of this rich and delectable (most important) ingredient, I began to brain storm.

Hmmm, I live in Hawaii. I have at least three coconut trees in MY yard and many more in the surrounding neighbor's yards. Hmmm, friendly neighbor, Adam just cut down a whole bunch of his coconuts the other day and said we were welcome to them... Hmmm, I did go to the Polynesian Cultural Center and learn how to *make milk* from the presentation in Samoa... And so the wheels kept turning.

I finally asked Adam if he would be so kind to hack open a coconut for me because I was going to *make milk.* (And he has a MACHETE, I don't.) So he graciously did so and told me how he did it. He claimed to have figured out the modern way to *make milk*. Because as I learned at the PCC it's only water when you open it. It's milk after you scrap out the insides against a razor sharp blade and then put the scrapings into the (coconut) husk and then squeeze it tight until the *milk* flows out! Easy enough, right? Uhhh, yeah right!

So I tried Adam's method and it is as follows... =)

And yes, it worked.

First you get your coconuts! Thanks, Adam. Aren't they beautiful?

Next, you take a butter knife and dig the heck out of the coconut. You separate it from the shell and throw it in the blender. Then you blend it while slowly adding water to create a very, very fine mixture that isn't too dry. If you don't add the water you will just have a bunch of dry coconut chunks so the water is imperative.

Next you take your coconut goodness and dump it onto a clean, thin kitchen towel. Can you guess what happens next? This is the Samoan part...

You wring it out over your pot of curry yumminess!! So wringing it out allows the *milk* to be extracted from the coconut. Sweet huh? Actually it was kind of sweet! Oh yeah, and my hands aren't disproportionate-- that is Gabriella's little hand on the right. She was sooooo excited to help!

You can really see how the milk was flowing. If I'd had both hands to squeeze you'd see it pour out! It was really cool.

And there you have it! A beautiful coconut curry! I hadn't added the chicken or anything else yet. I was just playing around with the actual curry base which is why it looks boring in this pic. But when it was done... whew! It was D-lish!

This is what you have left over in the towel after all of the moisture has been squeezed out of it. This is very fine coconut. Kind of like the consistency of sand. Adam also said that you can add sugar to this and then use it as a topping on cakes or ice cream or whatever. But ours is still sitting in the fridge, in this cute little, yellow bowl until I decide what I want to do with it. Any suggestions?

So that was my fun little experiment with dinner last night. It turned out soooo well. It really was the BEST curry I've ever made. But like most things, when you put a little extra love into what you're making (or doing) you seem to appreciate the end result a little more.