a tip on curdled hot milk soups

[Whisp]

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/cream-cheese-penguins/

First of all I would like to thank again someone here (I can't seem to find the thread) that posted this cute recipe of penguins (made out of black olives and cream cheese). I had my regular Sunday dinner with my dear fam and made one for each of us. Everyone squealed with delight when they saw the cute little buggers all huddled on a blue plate - with coconut sprinkled around to simulate snow. We even picked out which penguin was who as they all seemed to be a little different than the other.

So to the tip: I was making Thai Green curry soup, which we all love. The recipe calls for coconut milk but I have yet to find one that appeals to me - the ones I've tried from a tin all taste more like Milk of Magnesia (feh!) than anything coconut. So what I do is buy coconut flakes from the baking section (medium sweet) and let them soak in the amount ofo milk required for the recipe. I put them on low heat on the stove and check out the milk taste for its coconutyness before I put into main cooking pot. (I Strain the coconut first).

After putting everything into the main pot I got distracted with something and it took to a much higher boil than it should, therefore the whole pot looked curdly because of the overheated milk. It would still taste the same but it looks yucky that way.

What I do when this happens is sprinkle in a bit of Baking Soda. Just a bit at a time and it smooths it out quite nicely.

So there. ;D

[Duer 157099]

1. That's interesting.

Does it make it too salty, from the sodium? And speaking of sodium, I wonder how much it adds.

I'm a bit of a coco nut myself, love all things coconut, especially Thai curries/soups.

My go-to canned coconut milk is from Trader Joes.

[Whisp]

2. I added just a finger pinch at a time

stirred, and added a wee bit more if needed. It was quite a small amount overall and I didn't find it altered the soup taste at all.

I don't think we have a Trader Joes here and I'm not really one to go searching for things all over the city I just want to get out of supermarkets asap, generally. For now the method I use seems the best alternative.

[blaze]

3. The Olive Penguin Recipe

Was posted by our spectacular host, Lucinda!!!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/11571677#post29

I delighted a party with those silly masterpieces!!!

And thanks for the uncurdling tip!!

[jwirr]

4. I don't know if you are talking about this kind of soup but my mother made the best tomato soup

in the world. But if you poured the milk into the tomato it curdled. So she learned to pour the tomato into the into the milk slowly. That way the acidity was not so over whelming. She used her own home preserved tomato.