Add richness to dal and dessert with coconut milk

livemint.com:

subzis (poriyal) or to grind the masala for kootu (dal-vegetable dish) or avial, coconut milk was not used in my grandmother’s kitchen. Even in the Kerala-inspired olan (ash gourd and black-eyed peas curry), she would prefer to add some ground coconut and regular milk. It was possibly to avoid the extra work of grating a coconut and extracting coconut milk.

Much later, I happened to taste payasam made with coconut milk instead of regular dairy milk and the flavour blew my mind. Coconut milk has a depth of flavour that regular milk cannot match. This is because of the presence of natural oils and fats in coconut, sugars, aromatic compounds such as lactones and the rich mouthfeel of the milk itself that makes it taste more indulgent.

Coconut milk is the easiest way to make your desserts taste richer. Coconut milk lends this richness to savoury curries too. However, some restaurants serving Thai curries (red, green or yellow) get it all wrong by thickening the curry too much (by using corn starch) and adding sugar (blasphemy!).

This completely overwhelms the delicate and natural sweetness of coconut milk. When you are looking to buy coconut milk, you’ll see over a dozen brands online. So how does one pick the right one? In Thai cooking, coconut milk is a key ingredient and the kind of coconut milk you choose makes or breaks the recipe.