Suggestions, hints for cooking for one

[taxlady]

@dragnlaw just posted about buying mini cans of coconut milk in another thread. That reminded me of creamed coconut. It's great for when you just need a small amount of coconut milk, e.g., if a recipe for four calls for one can of coconut milk and you just want to make one serving. With canned coconut milk you will have 3/4 of a can left. But, you can make coconut milk from creamed coconut, since creamed coconut is just coconut milk with a lot less water. It comes in a plastic bag inside a box. If you keep it cold, you can break off chunks or grate it. If it is kept at room temperature, it tends to melt into a liquid, depending on what your room temperature is. This is what the one I like to buy looks like:

 

[lastmanstanding]

When we extract coconut milk we take the first and second milks. Second one is used for initial cooking, and first one to finish with. Canned coconut milk/cream doesn't allow that. I have used it only once, and didn't like it very much. Maybe there's better qualities I don't know. But I stick with the fresh coconuts.

 

[caseydog]

@dragnlaw just posted about buying mini cans of coconut milk in another thread. That reminded me of creamed coconut. It's great for when you just need a small amount of coconut milk, e.g., if a recipe for four calls for one can of coconut milk and you just want to make one serving. With canned coconut milk you will have 3/4 of a can left. But, you can make coconut milk from creamed coconut, since creamed coconut is just coconut milk with a lot less water. It comes in a plastic bag inside a box. If you keep it cold, you can break off chunks or grate it. If it is kept at room temperature, it tends to melt into a liquid, depending on what your room temperature is. This is what the one I like to buy looks like:

I don't like coconut, except for Coco Lopez coconut cream -- mixed with rum and pineapple juice and blended with ice.

CD

 

[caseydog]

That crawfish étouffée I make form a seasoning/roux mix is good, and makes two servings filling servings. If you can't get frozen crawfish tails, frozen shrimp will work. It is in the Fat Tuesday thread.

CD

 

[dcSaute]

cooking 'for two' is sufficiently challenging.
for one, a tall order.

first, as mentioned . . . finding quantities suitable for less than an army's needs... is a problem. I don't quite understand this - the shift in demographics as the boomers age is not really much of a secret.

that aside, I often prep stuff into small(er) batches - freezing in a bag, in a mini-pot, whatever is suitable. I dislike making 4-6 portions and putting them on the menu for everyotherday forever - so they have to go in the freezer. that spread it out over weeks.

many recipes one can 'reduce' in size - works until one gets to "one egg" - then the re-sizing tends to bottom out.
somethings are 'easy' - can make three drop biscuits with aplomb.
not three rolled biscuits tho - the amount of dough required to roll out biscuits to 0.5 inch thick....

boneless beef steaks / pork chops are a good candidate - buy fresh, slice to portion size, freeze. fish, similar. I have no hesitation asking the fish monger/supermarket counter to cut me two six ounce portions. sorry about that four foot long filet you got there . . .

we kinda' sorta' focus more on fresh stuff - one of the "issues" that comes up is "YO! we gotta' lotta' stuff in the freezer!"

it is not uncommon, for example, that I buy an eggplant, and wind up tossing some of it - because frying/cooking/prepping all of it just "wastes" even more ""food"" stuff than prepping what we can eat; tossing the excess. well - the squirrels seem to appreciate the 'tossing' . . .

eggplant, acorn squash (+other squash), sweet potatoes . . . and such come in "pick one" quantities. one can seek "smaller" - and often fail to find 'small'
but as many such 'fresh' things simply do not tolerate being cut-up and stored for days.... one is forced to accept some level of waste - and 'for one' is even more severe than 'for two'

and economics also plays a roll.... for example, I can find trays of prepped butternut squash. for the price of a 1.0-1.5-2.0 person tray, I can buy 3-4 whole butternut squash.
so . . . food prep is not often "waste friendly"

 

[taxlady]

When we extract coconut milk we take the first and second milks. Second one is used for initial cooking, and first one to finish with. Canned coconut milk/cream doesn't allow that. I have used it only once, and didn't like it very much. Maybe there's better qualities I don't know. But I stick with the fresh coconuts.

Would you "stick with fresh coconuts" if you lived where they were not available? Or would you use canned coconut milk?

 

[lastmanstanding]

Would you "stick with fresh coconuts" if you lived where they were not available? Or would you use canned coconut milk?

Obviously I would buy whatever is available. But for anything special I would try to get fresh ones.
But here I can find fresh coconuts any time, and it has the added advantage of getting the second milk too. That's why I always go for fresh ones.
The thing is we are used to coconut milk. Every meal requires it by the force of habit.

 

[Badjak]

I would love to work with fresh coconuts, but canned, creamed, descicated or powdered are what I gotta work with.
Since I freeze meals in portions I don't have left over (canned) coconut milk or cream. But if I would, I would just freeze it in ice cube trays (done it before and works for me. I used them in noodle soup)

 

[lastmanstanding]

I would love to work with fresh coconuts, but canned, creamed, descicated or powdered are what I gotta work with.
Since I freeze meals in portions I don't have left over (canned) coconut milk or cream. But if I would, I would just freeze it in ice cube trays (done it before and works for me. I used them in noodle soup)

Fresh coconut milk frozen is not bad. It splits but the taste is not different. It may not give the expected texture in a dessert probably. I use frozen coconut milk.

 

[Badjak]

Fresh coconut milk frozen is not bad. It splits but the taste is not different. It may not give the expected texture in a dessert probably. I use frozen coconut milk.

Yeah, you are right . It can split.
I just use it to cook with and splitting is not an issue in my type of cooking, mainly SE Asian

 

[taxlady]

I have never seen frozen coconut milk. I will try to remember to look for it, especially if I go to any South Asian or Asian grocery stores.

 

[dragnlaw]

If I open a regular size can for a recipe and not use it all - I freeze the balance, write the measurement on the bag. Then forget I have some there. I pretty sure I have a bag floating around in the freezer somewhere.

 

[lastmanstanding]

I bought 12 coconuts today. Someone was going to sell them to a shop, and I bought 12 at 160LKR each. Big ones, there's a lot of water too which is great.

 

[dragnlaw]

I bought 12 at 160LKR each.

One can only assume that is a great price for your area? What would you normally pay?

 

[lastmanstanding]

One can only assume that is a great price for your area? What would you normally pay?

Used to be half that. But suddenly coconuts became less available and therefore expensive. They say because of monkeys but it's because of inflation too. 160 is a good price as normally it's around 190.

 

[lastmanstanding]

 

[dragnlaw]

When we get them here, most of the "hair" is off, although you can tell there was some. LOL - just never imagined so long!

What would be the shelf life of them? Can you just store them in a dark (hopefully cool) area, for any length of time?

Although I have bags of desiccated and shredded coconut for baking, they are just going stale as I can't say they are my favourite ingredient to use in cooking. Don't know why, as when others bake something I like it.
Dad used to bring them home, pierce them for the liquid, then break them open and we'd eat the flesh. I only did it once with the family but they weren't particularly impressed... so never did it again.
Perhaps I should again and see how the grands like it.
I'll keep my eye open for them.

 

[lastmanstanding]

Shelf life depends highly on that bit of "long hair" left on the coconut. You don't need to store at any specific place, just keep it out of direct sunlight or heat that can dry it. You can use it even after a month. (As long as there's water inside). But if you remove that bit of husk from its 'eyes' the life will shorten as weather goes through those eyes quite quickly, probably in a few days if left in open, humid, air. Specially the less mature ones.

DC coconut is different from fresh ones such as what's in the photo. DC coconut is dried and sliced in mills, and then packeted. They last much longer if packed and sealed properly, but we don't use it very much. It's for industrial use only. Also you can't get coconut milk from it.

Fresh coconut is scraped using a hand operated equipment, and is different in taste and texture. Freshly scraped coconut is soft, and has a milder, balanced taste, while the DC coconut is sweet and dry. We loved to hunt for DC coconuts in the house when we were very young, and then break them and eat. Because it's crunchy and very sweet. Lol.

But fresh coconut is what you would like, for water and for milk.
Coconut water was used as a leavening agent in the old days. Even today the village folks use it, in making the items such as "hoppers" "wandu cake" etc. I know they are strange names, hope Google could help there .

I'll take a photo of scraped coconut during daytime. My crappy phone camera photos are like hand drawn charcoal pictures at night.

 

[blissful]

I use almond milk with coconut extract to substitute for coconut milk.

 

[lastmanstanding]

I use almond milk with coconut extract to substitute for coconut milk.

Here it's a billionaire who would use almond milk. Lol.