In the Asian/(mostly) Thai cookbooks that I have, recipes for curries generally start with coconut milk (I’m using canned unsweetened). The recipe nearly always specifies that you bring the milk to a boil and let it cook until it separates and an oily layer comes to the surface before you continue.
Does anyone know why this is? None of my books explain the importance of this process. I’ve tried it both ways (waiting for separation and not), but have not noticed any major difference between the two, although I could just be clueless…again.
Does anyone know what am I missing here? Is there something significant about this process that I’m not noticing?
Thanks.
(At least I figured out how to cook squid properly. That’s something. Mmmm…squid…)
The stuff that floats to the top is fat. If the recipe calls for a lot of coconut milk and you leave the fat in, the end product can be really, really greasy.
Thanks for your response. I appreciate your answer, but I don’t think this is quite the explanation, however. There is no instruction to remove the “oily layer” that floats to the top; only that you should cook until it appears. Evidently, it’s important to cook until it appears, but it gets left in.
Plus, I have NOT cooked until this separation takes place, and the result (which presumably contains all the “fat”) is not remotely “greasy”.
It’s mainly aesthetic. The oils take most of the colour of the spices, instead of them blending into a sort of homogeneous coloured cream. It looks nicer on the plate that way.
I’ve heard it said that the “heat” of the spices migrates to the oil as well – especially capiscum, which is soluble in fat but not in water. Supposedly, this makes a curry better by providing some contrast. I guess my taste buds aren’t that refined, because I don’t really taste much of a difference between a “glossy” coconut curry and one that is more of an emulsion sauce. I make 'em both ways, depending on how quickly I want to eat.
Yellow curries really do look better if take the time to separate the coconut milk, though. Something about that uniform yellow is just… wrong.
I’m pretty sure this is the essence of the answer–a lot of flavor compounds, not only capsicum, are oil-soluble, but not water soluble. While I am pretty good with Thai cooking, I know this fact mainly from Hungarian cooking. In Hungarian cooking, paprika is always added to a fat, to allow the flavor and coloring compounds to dissipate. Adding paprika directly to a soupy dish does very little for flavor compared with dissolving it in oil first. I’ve carried this lesson over to Asian cooking (dissolving spices in oil, but being careful not to burn them) and it seems to make a big difference to me, at least.
Ahh…now we may be getting somewhere. I knew about capsicum being oil/fat (but not water) soluble. That makes some sense, now that I think about it. Get the oil to let go of the coconut so it can grab the chilis.
The aesthetic angle isn’t something I’ve worried much about yet (just trying to get it to taste good first), but I’ll start paying more attention.
The real reason for cracking the coconut milk is that you are making a “fried” curry not a boiled curry. Unfortunately most canned coconut milks are homogenized by adding starch and don’t separate as required. Add a splash of oil before starting the process.
I should have said that the 'reason" for this is that it significantly alters the taste of the dish. Other recipes require you to add the coconut milk at the end of cooking.