Making Coconut Cream

  Food here is pretty pricey.  We'd all prefer to eat in than out.  There's free food all over the place---papaya, guava, coconuts, mangoes....Pineapples aren't too expensive so we've been buying those.  We've been loving fresh coconut---just the meat, coconut water, and coconut milk and coconut cream for peanut sauce, pina coladas, ice cream.
  This is the beach we're on.  There are always coconuts lying around and the kids have learned to find the good ones without rotten tops, and are full of liquid when you shake them.

   There's a hefty screw hook in this tree on our deck, perfect for helping tear the tough husk off the coconuts.  My job.

  It's in there somewhere.

  There's a hefty cleaver here that you can rap the coconut with the backside of until you hear the soft spot, then you whack it hard and it splits.  The liquid inside is coconut water---very 'in' right now.  We used it to cook the rice---gives it a nutty flavor.  It's not coconut milk.  I cut the meat while it's in the shell so it chips out in nice chunks.

   Maybe about a third of a coconut worth.   Don't worry about the brown part where the meat comes off the shell.  All this goes in the blender with a cup of boiling water.

    There happened to be a coffee press here so I dumped the puree in it.  Then in the fridge to chill for awhile.

  Pressed it all down.  That got poured into a glass and back in the fridge---we get about a cup of coconut cream from each coconut.  The liquid on the bottom is coconut milk, and you can add another cup of boiling water to the puree for a second extraction of milk.
  If you're ever planning on being stranded on a tropical island make sure you have a blender and a coffee press