I have several recepies which call for cracking coconut cream (Thai curries).  I used to just fry the curry paste and add coconut cream (or coconut milk) which produces reasonable results, but on reading the recipes again I realized that I was not making it correctly.   My more recent attempts at starting with coconut milk have resulted in it being more poached than fried, still nice but I feel that I am missing something.   As far as I can tell if you simmer the cream for long enough the oil should separate out and you are able to fry in it. But I can't seem to get this to happen. Am I being impatient or am I doing something fundamentally wrong? 
Andy Rickers Pok Pok cookbook has some advice: he says boxed coconut cream (UHT) is best, bring cream to boil the. Simmer for 3-10 minutes. So I tried this and faced the same issue you did the first time I tried to crack coconut cream. I was staring at it for like 15 minutes waiting for something to happen.. Short answer, I wasn’t cooking it hot enough. You don’t want “high heat” but you I needed to go well into medium-high (7 out of 9 on my crappy electric stove). Make sure it really simmers. You want bubbles. You will need to stir often (I stirred almost continuously but I think this was nerves). You’ll know it when it starts to work. 