How do I use all this coconut milk and cardamom?

August 3, 2016 10:42 PM

Please tell me your coconut milk and/or cardamom-intensive recipes!

A while ago I bought a flat of canned coconut milk at Costco. I also recently bought a large jar of powdered cardamom in order to use 1 tsp of it in a batch of chili (its my secret ingredient, a small amount adds a nice flower/perfume kind of aftertaste).

To use the rest of that cardamom would require A LOT of chili. I have no idea what to do with coconut milk but I can tell you it is not as good as you might think mixed with chai tea concentrate and bourbon.

posted by 3urypteris to Food & Drink (24 answers total)

Best answer: I am fond of cardamom and pistachio: they go well in meringues and cakes, at the very least!

(I also have a cardamom problem - I bought it originally to make shakshuka, but I forgot that I'd already done so, so I ended up with two jars, which is a great deal of cardamom!)
posted by batter_my_heart at 10:49 PM on August 3, 2016 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Cardamom is awesome in tea and coconut milk might be too, depending on your tastes. And I also suspect coconut-cardamom ice cream would be great.
posted by gusandrews at 10:50 PM on August 3, 2016 [4 favorites]

Best answer: Sticky rice with mango!
posted by praemunire at 10:55 PM on August 3, 2016 [8 favorites]

Best answer: If you're not vegetarian, chicken adobo is one of my favorite dishes and it uses a lot of coconut milk. America's Test Kitchen has a great recipe. I got it from one of their cookbooks, but you might be able to find it online. The New York Times also has several chicken adobo recipes. I can personally vouch for Tita Em's Chicken Wings Adobo, although to be frank, I skipped the coconut milk once and didn't notice a difference, since it's pretty minimal in that particular recipe.

I stumbled upon this lady's blog while searching for alcohol-free bread pudding, but she also has an amazing berry cobbler recipe which can be used with coconut or regular milk. I've made it both ways, and it's great, although not exactly a sugar-free dessert.

Cardamom is really, really excellent in rice pudding. Unfortunately I've never made it myself so can't provide you with a recipe, but I have it on good authority that it's not particularly difficult to make.
posted by perplexion at 10:56 PM on August 3, 2016 [1 favorite]

Best answer: do you also have cumin? these two would be my go-to 'lazy' spices for my morning omelette. and yes, also in tea. you can make something like a lazy-person's masala tea with tht cardamom and some cinnamon. it's also good to use in baking meats i would think, but it's best if you have other spices to go with it as well.
posted by cendawanita at 10:58 PM on August 3, 2016 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Cardamom coffee is a thing I enjoy, that's actually the only reason I keep it around. I'd probably be trying coconut cardamom coffee.
posted by bongo_x at 11:26 PM on August 3, 2016 [8 favorites]

Best answer: Thai-style curries are really simple if you use premade curry pastes (available online and in Asian groceries). The "recipe" is basically a can of coconut milk, about half a can of curry paste, a pile of onions, protein of choice, and whatever vegetables you want to throw in.
posted by yeahlikethat at 11:28 PM on August 3, 2016 [3 favorites]

Best answer: Indian rice pudding! I've made this very recipe a few times and it's delicious.
posted by kitty teeth at 11:28 PM on August 3, 2016 [1 favorite]

Best answer: These sugar cookies are delicious and use 1 tsp of cardamom per batch.
posted by neushoorn at 11:32 PM on August 3, 2016 [4 favorites]

I've recently discovered that on a hot day, a pitcher of cold water infused with cardamom is very refreshing. Not sure how well that would work with powdered cardamom, though.
posted by chicainthecity at 12:18 AM on August 4, 2016 [2 favorites]

Cardamom coffee is delicious. So is Shrikhand-- we use a lot more cardamom than this recipe. Yum.
posted by athirstforsalt at 12:21 AM on August 4, 2016

Cook some minced onion until it's browned and sweetened, add basmati rice, any spices you like (ahem!), and cook the rice in coconut milk until it's done. I do this in a wide, open pan so I can evaporate a whack of it and make it extra-coconutty. The result is a soothing foil for spicy dishes and something of a comfort food.
posted by kmennie at 1:29 AM on August 4, 2016 [3 favorites]

Burmese Khao suey! You use loads of coconut milk for that.
posted by Ziggy500 at 3:04 AM on August 4, 2016

These sweet potato lentils are a great use of coconut milk, and cardamum would actually go really well in there.
posted by hydropsyche at 4:35 AM on August 4, 2016 [1 favorite]

Freeze any leftover coconut milk either flat in a freezer bag or in ice cube trays for future use if you open a can of the coconut milk and don't plan to use it all within a few days or a week. Sounds like cardamom, coconut bread (sub coconut milk for liquid and cardamom for spices) quick breads might be a good idea for gifting! Banana Bread
posted by RoadScholar at 4:46 AM on August 4, 2016 [1 favorite]

One of those southern Indian curries with coconut milk and tamarind. I can’t vouch for this particular recipe, but something like this: Goan fish curry with coconut milk and tamarind
posted by Bloxworth Snout at 5:01 AM on August 4, 2016

Make your own Thai Chili paste. It's not as hard as it sounds, the quality can be better than premade, and it keeps for a while so you can do it months ahead of time.

What's really nice is that you can have an (honestly!) home-cooked meal with very little effort and time by just adding veggies and a can of coconut milk. Fry the paste + veggies in coconut milk solids, braise in coconut milk.

I've tried this recipe.
posted by cotterpin at 5:34 AM on August 4, 2016 [1 favorite]

I bet you can find a recipe for coconut milk pista-cardamom kulfi (no churn ice cream). That sounds excellent, actually; I think coconut milk would complement the pistachio and cardamom really well..
posted by tippy at 5:44 AM on August 4, 2016 [1 favorite]

You can make rice pudding with coconut milk instead of milk/cream, it will be delicious and you can flavor it with cardamom as well.
posted by fingersandtoes at 7:20 AM on August 4, 2016

I agree with Thai curry for the coconut milk. This slow-cooker recipe is my absolute favorite (if you eat pork).
posted by rainbowbrite at 9:38 AM on August 4, 2016

What a happy couple of things to have in abundance!

Do you like figs and baking? Figs and cardamom go together really well. When I'm a good boy, my friend makes me a fig tart with cardamom and lemon zest. It's the tastiest thing in the universe. Some recipe inspirations here.

I use cardamom, a lot of it (maybe a tablespoon at a time) in the poaching liquid for fruit, especially pears and apples. We have a pear tree that's dropping fruit like mad, so we poach fruit probably every other day. I love the smell the kitchen takes on during these ripe fruit periods. After poaching, I boil down the liquid to a thick syrup that I put on the fruit and everything else from toast to ice cream.The spice works great in jellies and preserves, too.

Seconding cardamom in coffee, but that's usually only a smidgen.

Coconut milk is a great base for soups. It's the wrong season where I live for big winter squash, but I really enjoy the combination of things like pumpkin, butternut squash, kuri squash, etc. with coconut milk (like in this soup). We're getting lots of corn at the farmers market now, so don't forget trying a coconut milk-based corn chowder.
posted by late afternoon dreaming hotel at 10:01 AM on August 4, 2016

Cardamom in a smoothie or mango lassi.
posted by hooray at 3:08 PM on August 4, 2016

Watalapan is a Sri Lankan dessert that is delicious and easy to make. It is basically a spiced coconut custard sweetened with molasses. I grew up on this and it is a true delight, especially because you can regulate the amount of molasses you use to make it more or less sweet. The coconut milk provides a smooth, creamy mouthfeel to the kick of the cardamom.
posted by Everydayville at 3:22 PM on August 4, 2016

Cardamon and coconut milk are the best! Rice pudding is a no brainer for both, as mentioned above. You can't go wrong with that. However, if you're into baking, not so much for coconut milk but for cardamon I'd suggest this cake. Easily my favorite cake which, much to my family's dismay, I often eat the entire cake. Or this awesome Swedish cardamon bread. I usually make that at Christmas but it would be great all year round.
posted by Ashwagandha at 7:34 PM on August 4, 2016