Oat Milk

Oat Milk

makes about a litre

Ingredients:

About 65g (3/4 cup) whole oats
1-2 dates
About a litre of COLD water

Method: 

Place the oats with the date or dates (stone removed) in a high speed liquidiser (blender). Add enough cold water to make it up to about 500ml. 

Blend on high speed for up to about a minute. 

Cashew milk

Cashew milk
Makes 1.2-1.5 litres (US: 2-3 pints)

Ingredients:
50-60g unsalted cashews (US: about 1/3 cup)
About a litre of water (or more)

Extra water for soaking and rinsing

Note: You need a fairly high-powered blender for this; it's possible with an immersion blender but a bit messy. A food processor might work, but a good blender is best.

Method:
Put the cashews in a container with enough water to cover them well. Place in the refrigerator for 24-48 hours (or longer).  I usually do this for around 48 hours for the best consistency.

Almond milk, step by step

Almond milk

Makes 1 litre 

Ingredients:
80-100g almonds
approx 1 litre water

extra water for soaking and rinsing




Method:
1. Put the almonds in a suitable container and soak in cold water in the fridge for several hours, or overnight. The quantity of almonds used depends on how much you like the flavour; it's quite mild, so if you like almonds, the full 100g gives quite a creamy milk. We have found that reducing this to 80g works just as well, and the almond flavour is less pronounced.




2. Drain the water away through a small sieve, rinse the almonds, and drain again. Place the almonds in a food processor or blender, (shown in the photo above) and blend for about 30-40 seconds, until the pieces are finely ground, as in the photo at the side.

Do not over-process or you may end up with almond butter.




3. Pour about 200ml cold water onto the ground almonds, then process for about 40-50 seconds on high. The 'milk' will be extracted into the water as you do this, so that when you take the lid off you will see something like this photo.

The sides of the food processor or blender will be rather spattered with pieces of almond, so scrape them into the milk, using a little more cold water if needed.


4. Pour the milk and pulp into a sieve over a measuring jug, then pour another 100ml or so of water over, and push down gently with a spatula or large spoon, to push out more of the milk.

Return the pulp to the food processor, then repeat stage 3; the second stage of processing will produce slightly more watery almond milk, but it's well worth doing this extra processing. Strain again; at this point you can use a muslin bag or square, if you want, to squeeze out the last of the milk, but I tend just to stick with the sieve and push out as much as I can with a spatula.

Keep drizzling water over the almonds and straining remaining milk through until there's about a litre of almond milk in the jug. Then cover, and refrigerate.

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Some years ago, two members of my family realised that dairy products were causing their ears to block up. In addition, we realised that most cows' milk is highly processed and homogenised. We experimented with various kinds of home-made milk substitutes; living in Cyprus, it's very expensive to buy them pre-packaged.

For adding to coffee, and for using in cooking anything sweet or connected with curries, we like coconut milk the best. But our son much prefers almond milk on granola, and we also find that it works better in savoury foods such as quiche or yorkshire puddings. So we usually have both available.

The pulp can be refrigerated for several days, or frozen for a few months. We use it when making granola, or added to a bowl of granola when eating it. It makes a good substitute for ground almonds in any recipe that uses them, such as Christmas cake, or can be added to bread, to digestive biscuit bases of cheesecakes, or even to pastry.

Coconut milk from desiccated (dried) coconut

Coconut Milk

Makes a litre of coconut milk

Ingredients:
100g desiccated coconut
500ml hot water
500-600ml lukewarm water

You will also need a food processor or blender, a sieve and a muslin square or fine-meshed tea-towel for straining.

How to make the coconut milk:
A few weeks ago, I made (and created a photo-guide for) some coconut mik from a fresh coconut. It was very good indeed, but it was a great deal of effort and decidedly not something I wanted to do regularly.

So I thought I would try using desiccated (dried) coconut, since most of the recipes I had found online assured me that it could be used in a similar fashion. I've had one or two people ask me exactly what desiccated coconut is and where to buy it - so here's a photo of one of the types available in Cyprus. It comes in packs of about 180g or 200g, and costs around 60-70c for 100g.

I experimented with various quantities, based on recipes I found elsewhere, and since I like to keep things easy, I opted for 100g coconut, which I weigh directly into my blender, or a tall jug if using a stick blender. Unlike almond milk, the coconut 'soak' water is used for making coconut milk.

For those who don't have metric kitchen scales, 100g is about 3.5 ounces. If necessary, if you want to use a measure, check the weight on the packet, see how many cups of coconut it produces, and do a little arithmetic. Different kinds of desiccated coconut seem to take up different amounts of space, so it's impossible to state an exact cup measurement.

I put the coconut in a pyrex jug or bowl, then I add about 400ml hot water - heated in the kettle or microwave, but not quite boiling. It should be sufficient to cover the coconut to allow it to soak. If your blender is made of pyrex or other heatproof material, you can soak the coconut in that, but mine is plastic which is not supposed to have very hot things in it. 

All that took a great deal of typing, but in practice it's about half a minute to get to this stage - perhaps a little longer if you include heating the water.

Leave the coconut soaking for around 20 minutes; it doesn't matter if it's somewhat longer. But don't leave it for more than about a couple of hours. 

After the coconut has soaked, I tip it into the blender, and usually add another 100-150ml or so of lukewarm water to rinse out the jug or bowl. Then I use the blender (covered, of course), for about a minute at high speed.  If you are using a stick blender, you may need to blend for longer, starting at low speed.

The extra water makes it sufficiently liquid that it should blend nicely; if you're so inclined, you can watch the clumps of coconut fall down into the centre to twirl around in the blender. If it seems a bit solid and isn't mixing well, stop the motor for a moment and add a little more water.




While the blender is running, I get out my wide-necked two-litre jug and a suitable fairly fine sieve (strainer) that fits well over the top. I use the kind intended for sieving flour, but almost anything will do. Cover the sieve, sitting on the jug, as evenly as you can with a muslin square.





When the blender has run for around a minute, switch off, then tip the contents over the sieve into the muslin. If your sieve is too small, you may need to do this in two parts but it's quicker, obviously, to do it all at once.

I use a plastic spatula to help the coconut mixture out of the blender, but if there's a lot stuck to the sides, I may use another 50ml or so of water to rinse it around and then pour that over the muslin too.

So far, the entire process has taken maybe two minutes (excluding the soaking, where you can go away and do something else).

Now comes the part that can be a bit messy. You have to knead the coconut in the bag to extract the 'milk'. If you do this too enthusiastically, it can squirt in all directions. So be warned.

What I do is to gather up the corners so that the coconut is caught inside, then slightly twist the top together, and push down into the sieve. That way, most of the coconut milk will go straight into the jug.

After you've pushed and kneaded for a few seconds, and got most of the milk out, you can pick up the bag (making sure that the coconut itself doesn't escape) and then squeeze and knead in your hands; but, again, be careful to aim downwards as far as you can.

By this stage you should have about 500-600ml in your jug; it's hard to extract the liquid entirely.

When I first did this, I put the dry-ish coconut meal back in the blender and repeated the process. But it was very messy. I no longer recommend this but you can try it if you like.

What I do instead is to pour some more hot (but not quite boiling) water carefully over the coconut meal, which will help to extract more of the milk. Then pour a little cold water over that, estimating amounts; you want to make the resultant liquid up to a litre. The cold water is simply to make it possible to repeat the 'milking' process as shown above without burning your fingers!

Push down again, after gathering the top up, then knead, and squeeze; if you like you can also twist the top around tightly to force more milk out. Keep going until you reach the 1000ml (1 litre) mark on your jug.

If you don't have markings on the side of your jug, just guess. Or decant the milk into another jug which does have measurements on it. If you're in the USA, a litre is approximately the same as a quart (ignore that if you're anywhere else in the world, where a quart is 40 fluid ounces rather than 32, and thus rather more than a litre).

And there you have it: one litre of coconut milk. It tastes much the same as when it's made with fresh coconut milk, is less expensive, and considerably less effort. At most five minutes of work.

I usually put mine into a nicer jug (such as the one shown at the top of the recipe) which pours more easily before refrigerating. It keeps in the fridge for at least three or four days, but we get through ours in about two and a half days.

If you remember, it's a good idea to stir it as it cools, otherwise some fairly solid 'cream' will float to the top and set. You then have to break it in order to use the milk. However it doesn't matter, and quickly melts when used in coffee or to make curry.

Coconut milk from fresh coconut (a photo guide)

Coconut milk (from fresh coconut)
Makes a litre of coconut milk

Ingredients:
1 fresh coconut
warm water

You will also need a food processor or blender, a sieve and a muslin square or fine-meshed tea-towel for straining. Plus a few other tools which can be improvised - see the recipe.

Introduction:
While coconut milk can be bought in a can, there are some concerns about the safety of canned products, particularly when stored long-term. And with fresh coconuts in the local fruit/veg shop, I thought it would be an interesting experiment to try making our own coconut milk. I searched online, and was particularly impressed by this explanation about making coconut milk - in video and text. Just to make sure, I also watched this series of videos about coconut milk. Both made it sound reasonably easy - so much so that I wondered why I had never tried before.

Not having a coconut grater - and liking to use minimal effort - I decided to use the food processing method to chop the coconut into fine enough pieces.


Method:
The first thing to do, having bought a coconut that smells fresh and has a sloshy sound when you shake it, is to pierce the coconut at the 'eyes' at one end, so that the watery liquid can be removed. (I did first of all remove some of the hay-like strands and rinse the whole thing.)

Easy?

Alas, no. Perhaps a cake skewer would have helped, but I don't have one. I tried a variety of pointy objects and eventually managed to pierce one eye. I could see the white coconut flesh... as shown in this picture. But of course basic physics determined that the liquid would not drain out when there was nowhere to let air in. So I spent another couple of minutes trying to bang the other eyes, and eventually did manage to create a hole and drain the liquid out, into a jug.

Then, at least according to some of the online advice, it's a good idea to put the coconut in a medium oven for half an hour or so to make it easier to crack. I did have the oven on for something else so I popped the coconut in for about 20 minutes. I was too impatient to leave it for longer.

Then I had to let it cool down for a while.


Next thing on the agenda is to hit the coconut a few times with a hammer, so it breaks into two nice even pieces. I did actually use a hammer, and would recommend doing so, but any heavy blunt instrument would probably suffice.

I tried holding the coconut while hitting it, but that didn't really work, so I put it on an oven glove on the counter top. I hit and I hit... and then, suddenly, I did see a crack. Not a beautifully even one like the tutorial videos show, but still. A start.

I kept on hitting in other places until, slowly, the crack expanded and at last the coconut broke into two parts.


This is the stage where, if you have a coconut grater, you can work up a sweat by using it. I can't say that it appeals to me. Much easier is to take a short-bladed knife, or even a screwdriver (washed), and remove chunks of the white coconut 'meat' a piece at a time.

I found that cutting a rough triangle, a few centimetres in size, down to the husk, enabled the coconut to come away from the shell very easily. Each piece was backed in a sort of brown skin; online advice varies as to whether one should keep that or not. I discovered that a potato peeler was a good way of removing most of it without too much effort.

I also rinsed each piece quickly. I don't know if it's necessary to do so, but there seemed to be random bits of brown stuff that didn't look terribly appetising.



I put all the pieces in the food processor, and switched it on for about half a minute. You might want to do it for longer - and a blender would probably be more effective, but my food processor is much easier to clean than my blender.

The smell of coconut was very pleasant at this stage.

The coconut had rather flown around the inside of the food processor, so I used a flat-bladed spatula thing to push the pieces down into the bowl and switched it on for another half minute or so.

Next thing to do is to add some water into the mix. Different sites recommend different amounts, but most of them suggest that it should be warm. I added about a cup and a half (350-400ml) so that the coconut was just about covered, and then put the food processor on for another minute.

And, yes! It did turn milky coloured.


I have a muslin square (although a tea-towel would work) so I put that in a big sieve, over a pyrex jug, and poured the contents of the food processor into it. I let it drain for a minute or two, then squeezed - and was surprised at how much extra 'milk' came out.

Most of the recipes suggest repeating this stage, so I did exactly that - dumped the coconut shreddings from the muslin square back into the food processor, added more water, processed for another minute, and strained all of that in too, adding more water to 'rinse' out the food processor into the sieve. Then I squeezed the muslin even more strongly at the end.

In all, it made approximately a litre of coconut milk. I wondered if it might be too watery, but we used it in some frappés in place of cows' milk, and I thought it extremely good.

It needs to be refrigerated after use, and should last a few days. Can be used anywhere you would use regular milk (so long as you don't mind a slight coconut aroma. It might be a little odd in a cheese sauce). It's particularly good in curries.

Note that it does tend to separate into a kind of skimmed milk at the bottom, and a much creamier substance at the top. Just like real non-homogenised milk used to do. Just give it a good stir before use. If it solidifies - as it will eventually - you may have to bring it to room temperature before it returns to creamy form. Or just put a chunk in your coffee along with the watery part.

Oh, and you don't have to throw out the remaining shreddings of coconut meat. Just spread them on a tray and dry out in a cooling oven overnight (or a dehydrator, if you have one) and you can use it as desiccated coconut.  Best to keep in the fridge, though.

Final note: coconut milk can also be made with dried/desiccated coconut, which is much less effort, and usually less expensive too. 

Simple fruit smoothies

Serves: 2-3

Several pieces of fruit, such as peaches, strawberries, apricots, etc (2-3 types), fresh or frozen
About 250ml pure fruit juice, either fresh or from a packet or concentrate
A few ice cubes

Method:
Put the juice in a blender (liquidiser), then the ice cubes and any frozen fruit. Wash the fruit, remove any stones or stems, and chop into smallish pieces, then add to the blender. Switch on for about 30 seconds, until the mixture is smooth and well-mixed. Add extra juice if it's too thick and blend for a few seconds more. Refrigerate until needed. Serve in tall glasses, with extra ice and straws if liked.

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What can be better for a hot summer's day than a cold fruit smoothie? A year ago I tried looking for recipes online, but the majority of them contained either milk, or yogurt, or bananas. My teenage son gets 'glue ear' if he has any dairy products, and soya milk just doesn't taste right in a fruit drink. And he loathes bananas. Finally I was given a wonderful book - The Big Book of Juices and Smoothies - and learned that a recipe isn't really needed. You just choose fruit that you happen to have - even if it's getting a bit squashy - and add it to juice and ice. No sugar, no diary products, no additives.... just pure fruit goodness.

We particularly like smoothies made with peaches and strawberries, and freshly squeezed orange juice. When strawberries are in season, I buy a lot and open freeze them, so I can add a handful straight from the freezer to a smoothie. Four peaches and about eight strawberries gives an excellent blend.

Apricots and raspberries are a good mixture, too, in either orange juice or apple juice. Raspberries, too, can be frozen. And, of course, if you can't get any fresh fruit and don't have any in the freezer, you can always use canned fruit (in pure juice of course, not syrup) although it doesn't have the health benefits of fresh/frozen fruit.

Oh, and if your family does happen to like bananas, they make an excellent addition to a smoothie, in combination with almost any other fruit.

I tend to make a smoothie in the afternoon during the summer, while preparing our evening meal, and then keep it in the fridge for an hour or two, to ensure it gets really cold. We drink it after our meal, instead of a dessert.

One of the great things about smoothies is that you can use fruit that's going a bit soft and squashy, so long as it still smells all right and doesn't have any mould on it. I often buy bags of fruit that's on special low offer prices as it's a day or two old, since riper fruit are better for smoothies.

If you happen to have any left over, you can pour it into ice lolly (US: popsicle) moulds, and freeze. Much better for a quick snack than commercially made lollies or ice pops!

Frappé

To serve one:

1 heaped teaspoon instant coffee
1 teaspoon sugar (optional)
ice cubes
COLD water (refrigerated)
cold milk (optional)

Method:
Put the coffee, sugar if used, ice cubes and about 3/4 cup cold water in a large jar with a well-fitting lid (such as an empty coffee jar). Screw the lid on tightly, then shake hard up and down for about 30 seconds. This creates a slightly thickened, frothy mixture. Pour into a tall glass.

Put about the same quantity of milk (or more water) in the same jar and shake a few times more, then add to the glass, topping up with more milk or water as needed.

Drink with a straw.

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Most Cypriots use frappé-makers, which are like little electric whisks to make the coffee mixture froth up quickly. We've tried them, but prefer the old-fashioned method above. The taste is much the same either way. It's very important to use cold water. Lukewarm, even with extra ice cubes, doesn't seem to work.

Although I don't have sugar in coffee normally, I do like frappés with about 1/2 teaspoon of sugar. If you normally have sugar in coffee, you may find you want a bit extra for a frappé. You might also want to use more coffee; the person who initially taught us to make this used two heaped teaspoons per person. If I have that much caffeine after lunch, I can't sleep at night so I find one is just fine. We use Maxwell House granules, the ones said to taste like filter coffee. They don't, but they're smooth and rich without any bitterness, ideal for frappés. The de-caffeinated variety work equally well although I don't suppose a Cypriot would dream of drinking a de-caff frappé!

Apparently Greeks often add cardamom. We've never seen this done and it's not a taste I particularly like. But it could be worth trying. Chocolate powder or syrup can be added for frappucino taste, and a scoop of ice cream can be added to make it more like a milk-shake. There are probably many variations on this, which is one of my favourite drinks for straight after lunch in the summer.

Lemonade (lemon squash)

To make about 3 - 3.5 litres of concentrate:

10-15 medium lemons, unwaxed and thoroughly washed
1kg sugar (2.2lb)
>water for cooking and cooling

Method:
Use a potato peeler or lemon parer to remove just the outer yellow part of the rind of about ten lemons. Place these yellow parings in a large saucepan with about 500ml water, or a bit more. Bring to the boil then gently simmer for about ten minutes. The water should become yellow and smell of lemon as the oils are released.

Add the sugar, and stir gently over the heat until it's all dissolved. Turn off the heat and leave to cool slightly.

Now cut the lemons in half and squeeze out the juice. This is easiest with an electric juicer or suitable food processor attachment. Keep squeezing lemons until you have about a litre (which is roughly an American quart) of juice, including the pips and 'gunk'. With reasonable sized lemons each one yields around 100ml; with smaller ones you'll need to squeeze more. Occasionally when our home-grown lemons have been small, I've needed 20 or more to produce a litre of juice.

Add all the juice (and gunk) to the pan, stir roughly, and leave to cool.

Use a nylon sieve to strain the lemonade over a large jug, and decant into bottles. Add extra water as necessary to squeeze the last of the lemonade out of the bits left in the sieve, and to make the resulting lemonade up to about 3 litres or a bit more, depending on the size of your bottles.

Put straight in the fridge. To use, dilute as necessary with cold water. I usually put about 2cm lemonade in the bottom of a tall glass and fill up with water. Others might have more of the concentrate.

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Notes:

This is a great recipe for those in warm countries with a glut of lemons on their trees. Or if you can find unwaxed lemons at the market for a good price. Alas, it would be terribly expensive if you bought organic shrink-wrapped lemons at one of the big UK supermarkets. You'd be better off just buying cartons of fruit juice.

But it's still a great recipe, even though the amount of sugar needed is rather frighteningly high. You might get away with less if your family doesn't have a particularly sweet tooth, but experimentation showed this to be about the right amount for us. It's much like British-style lemon squash of the high-juice variety, with no artificial additives at all. Or like the lemonade that can be made from frozen concentrate in the USA. It does need to be refrigerated after making, and won't last more than about ten days at most, so make less if you don't drink much of this kind of thing.

If, like us, you find you have far too many lemons to use in the spring, try freezing some. I prepare the yellow outer parings and put them in a freezer bag, then squeeze a litre of juice and put it in a suitable container. This is very useful for the summer when (a) we don't have any lemons growing and they're not widely available in the supermarkets (b) it's far too hot to do much in the kitchen anyway.