Heaven in a Can

When I was a kid, my dad had a kind of mental block about cat food. He could never remember to check whether he needed to buy it, so he always bought more just in case. It got to the point where there were cans and cans of cat food spilling out of a cabinet.

Coconut milk is my cat food. For the past couple of years, whenever I’ve come across a can of coconut milk, I’ve bought it. I happen to love coconut, so while there may not have been anyone at home yowling for lack of it, I feel there must always be at least one can in the house. Because my use of coconut milk had been fairly limited—amounting to little more than coconut ice cream and Thai curries—these cans multiplied until nearly an entire pantry shelf was devoted to coconut milk.

Then, one morning while making muffins, I found I didn’t have enough milk. Searching the pantry for a can of the evaporated variety, I noticed the coconut milk and decided to add some to the batter. It was just a small portion of the recipe, so I didn’t detect any difference in flavor, but it gave me some ideas.

I made a batch of pancakes with coconut milk, which came out rich and tropical-tasting. I poured some over day-old pound cake to moisten it and discovered it’s even better for this purpose than whipped cream or ice cream. I stirred some into cooked rice to add an instant Caribbean touch to dinner. I drowned chocolate chips in the milk and ate the classic combo with a spoon.

But the best use of all was in coconut lattes. Equal parts strong coffee and gently heated coconut milk, plus a touch of sugar, was heaven in a mug.

As for those cans for cat food, eventually my dad remembered he had purchased too much and stopped buying it altogether. So, of course, we ran out of cat food and had to hear about it from the cats for days. My resolve is to keep buying coconut milk—and continue using it up.