Cooking Thai Curry with Coconut Milk

Michelle Sharma

June 19, 2025

Do they stay separated? What happens when you stir? If you add chilli/spices won’t they go into the sauce not the oil?

Michelle Sharma

June 12, 2025

Do they stay separated? What happens when you stir? If you add chilli/spices won’t they go into the sauce not the oil?
———
mythaicurry replied:
Coconut milk that has separated stays separated unless something like cornflour(ugh) is added to it.

Laurence Carr

July 17, 2024

Unfortunately it seems Aroy-d now add emulsifiers to their coconut milk 😔
———
mythaicurry replied:
Yes & no. They add emulsifier to Coconut mIlk from Indonesia which is what Sainsburys are now stocking. Most smaller Asian stores carry the Thailand product without an emulsifier. Chaokoh from Amazon also has no emulsifier. Have to say it must be a very small amount of emulsifier in Aroy-D from Sainsburys as I needed to “split” the milk for a Thai dish I was cooking.and had no problems in doing that.

Steve

July 14, 2024

Thai people Thai food is one of the best in the world when in Thailand, I’ve used these pastes in the past and will not get anything in the Uk like it (unless you make your own)

Returning back to Thailand from Nov-Jan looking forward to discovering more lovely food 🥘 🙏
———
mythaicurry replied:
Thanks Steve. Hopefully I will also make it home for December:-)

Emma

October 10, 2018

Thank you to the composer of this link!!!! I used my same homemade paste with Chaokoh coconut milk tonight and it was totally perfect!!! Also thank you for the knowledge that you cook the coconut milk first then add the paste. I then added my chicken for a couple of minutes and then my water chestnuts followed by red peppers and strips of ginger and it was Heavenly!!! Thank you So much for my lovely meal :) not watery at All!!!

Kusumanand

July 13, 2018

I tried the recipe with green Thai curry paste & thick pressed coconut milk 200 gm.It came out very well.I was afraid of d curdling of coconut milk .Thank God it didn’t happen.

Riyaz

July 04, 2018

Nice information

Erica Diana Cuevas

May 07, 2018

agree with post. the aroy D is superior to many others I have tried. so rich and creamy! will be trying the chakoah next

Merle.lennox

April 19, 2017

I have just received my pasted today! Can’t wait to try ! Thanks for the tips on the coconut milk! Will search for Chakoh!

Nitsa

February 19, 2017

Re: Coconut cream.

One reason I tend not to talk about coconut cream is that there is often confusion about the term. Coconut cream, creamed coconut, cream of coconut, these can be very different products used for everything from Pina Colada to coconut desserts.Aside from that it is rare to find coconut cream without added stabilsers etc. In regard to preferring a thicker curry, it’s worth pointing that in Thailand where you are at present, the tendency is towards a much thinner curry compared to how they are served in the West. if I want my curry to be especially thick then I find the separated out cream from a good brand of coconut milk to be sufficient.As far as coconut cream separating in a slow cooker you would have to experiment; different brands = different results.

gordon

February 17, 2017

I am in Chiang Mai and very soon to be returning to SW France via Phuket. Before I leave I want to buy some soft packets of local coconut milk .
Before I often used coconut cream which is obviously thicker. I like the thickness in Indian curries. You do not refer to to the use of the cream instead of the milk and I (and I guess others) would welcome your comments. One final query if the cream is used in a slow cooker like the milk would it be fine to cook for, say 2.5 hours without curdling and if longer cooking to add 30m before the end ?
Much obliged and a super site

Nitsa Raymond

January 24, 2017

RE: Grace Coconut Milk (see post below)

Hi Kyo,

Thanks for the input. My problem with this brand would be that there are too many reviews on Amazon like the those below from people who have purchased it once and loved it, purchased it a second time and found it absolutely awful. The reviews below are from the same customer. And there are quite a few similar reviews.

Review #1 March ‘14
“I’ve tried a multitude of variants and this is the best by far; 75% coconut & 25% water – that’s it, nothing else. "

Review #2 April ‘15
“This coconut milk used to be think and creamy and we great as a yoghurt substitute by letting it solidify in the fridge overnight. Now it’s like watery emulsion paint and will not solidify in the fridge. Grace have clearly added chemicals but have chosen not to put it on the packaging. Won’t be buying this again. Disgusted customer."

As I said in the blog post, I’m always cautious about recommending supermarket own brands because what is in the can one month can be totally different the next month. The label will be the same but the quality has taken a nosedive. Grace is a company that primarily specialises in products from the Caribbean. They are not a Thai company and their products are not sold there. Like the supermarkets or some other brands they buy up coconut milk and have their own label put on it. This can make for a very inconsistent product.

One of the reasons why I recommend Chakoh & Aroy-D Coconut milk (incidentally, also available on Amazon) is that they are by far the most popular brands in Thailand and really compete for market share. In such a huge market where the consumers are extremely knowledgeable when it comes to coconut milk, this means that the quality of the product has to be kept consistent.

I’ve no doubt that when it’s good it’s very good as you have found, however it seems you have to take a chance on whether future purchases will be the same, a problem that exists with many brands that don’t process their own coconut milk.
Hope you enjoy the curry pastes even if we may think differently on this point!

Kyo

January 23, 2017

HI – I love Thai food and for me, the best coconut milk is a brand called Grace, sold on Amazon UK. The only ingredients are 75% coconut extract and 25% water – I buy the 1 litre, pack of 12. It has a thick consistency with no separation so it oozes out of the packet. By far the most superior coconut milk/cream that I found, Btw, I just discovered your website so look forward to cooking your recipes using your pastes. Sounds authentic!

Nitsa Raymond

December 24, 2016

Hi,
You need to read this: https://mythaicurry.com/blogs/blog/87756481-cooking-thai-curry-with-coconut-milk-in-a-slow-cooker-or-crock-pot.
You cook coconut milk differently when using a slow cooker.