Coconut Meat substitutions?

I live 30 miles south of the city that has a Nature's Pantry near me, and even then they don't always have good Thai baby coconuts or coconuts at all. They're also very expensive and I can't afford them.

Is there a way to substitute coconut meat with something else less expensive and more readily available in recipes? So many of the recipes I want to try have coconut meat in them, and I wish I could afford them, but I can't.

Comments

  • greenwoodgreenwood Raw Newbie

    I have never found a good fresh coconut here in Britain- they are always dried up. I too get the dessicated- I buy it in a packet and then put it in a clean glass jar. I used it in Jonsi's strawberry coconut pie and it was great. I used the creamed coconut for the cream topping.

    I can get coconut oil cheaply here in an Asian supermarket-

  • Hi I sometimes use something called "dessicated coconut": http://coconutboard.nic.in/dc.htm which is finely ground coconut. To make it smoothe i process it with water till it's completely fine. It won't taste exactly as creamy as a fresh young cocnut, but it is pretty close. The asian market near where I live also sells frosen coconut meat. I prefer this to the "fresh" ones, because I heard alot of the young thai coconuts are put in formaldehyde before shipping to prevent moulding. Lot's of markets sell dessicated coconut, and you can keep it in the pantry for a long while before it goes bad :)

    EDIT: - I now noticed the brand to the link I produced actually blanches the coconut meat :/ - The brand I use claimes that they don't, and that it is just air dried.

  • What brands would you recommend for dessicated coconut?

  • greenwoodgreenwood Raw Newbie

    Gosh, I don't know- what we get here in Britain you might not have.I think I just got one from the supermarket- I don't use it much at the moment as I haven't an electric blender- made the pie at a friends who has an electric mixer.

    I would obviously try to get an organic one! Have a look in your nearest organic/health shop. It shouldn't be too expensive.

  • sv3sv3 Raw Newbie

    Hey greenwood, just wondered if the coconut oil you got from the Asian supermarket is raw? It's just that I noticed some too the other day in the Asian section of a supermarket but don't think it was raw. Do you remember the brand name of yours?

    PS. I get Crazy Jack Organic Desiccated Coconut as also struggle to get fresh coconut.

  • greenwoodgreenwood Raw Newbie

    I have no idea what brand it was as I used it and put the rest in a jar! I think dried coconut is raw anyway.

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