Decadent Chocolate Pudding

Place the coconut in the blender and pour the boiling water over it. Cover and let stand for 5 minutes. Turn blender on to high speed and blend for 2 full minutes. Stop the blender, scrape down the sides and scrape the coconut out of the lid. Blend again for another minute.

Place a strainer over a medium bowl and line it with cheese cloth. Scrape the coconut mixture into the cheesecloth and press down hard with a spatula or spoon to extract the liquid. Gather the cheesecloth into a bundle and squeeze as hard as possible to get out all of the liquid. (If the coconut is too hot to handle at this point let it sit a few minutes before squeezing it). Measure the coconut milk in the bowl and add enough water to make 2 cups. The absolute most it should need is a ¼ cup. If there is less than 1 ¾ cups of coconut milk squeeze the coconut more to extract the remaining water. Place in a small sauce pan.

Combine the potato starch, sugar and espresso powder in a medium bowl. Whisk in the water, continuing to whisk until smooth. Set aside. Heat the coconut milk in a small saucepan over medium heat and bring to a simmer. Stir in the potato starch mixture. Cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture comes back to a simmer and thickens. Reduce the heat to low and stir in the chocolate. Stir until the chocolate is melted and remove from the heat. Stir in the vanilla.

Strain pudding through a fine-mesh strainer into a serving bowl or into a large measuring cup with a spout and pour into individual serving dishes. Cover pudding with plastic wrap. If you do not want pudding skin make sure the plastic is completely touching the surface of the pudding. To make pudding skin, simply pull plastic wrap over the top of the serving dish before refrigerating. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes and up to 3 days.