Coconut Luvs You!

Young Thai Coconut Yogurt (vegan)
Important: for this recipe, make sure all the kitchenware you use is clean and sterile. Make sure hands are washed, we're going to be fermenting this so we don't want to be adding anything that might contaminate the culture.

• 1 young green thai coconut
• contents of 1 probiotic capsule

Crack open coconut with a large butcher knife. This takes some practice and be careful when you're hacking around. It takes quite a lot of force to get it open but once you feel the coconut water splash you can pry it open. Pour coconut water into a 1 quart jar.

Now it's inspection time, look at the inside of the coconut, look at the colour of the flesh. What we're looking for is WHITE, not purple, not pink, not even violet. If you get any aberrant colour its best to throw it away and try another, this is the risk you take buying coconuts.

Once you've got a good coconut scrape out the inside. This can be done with a large spoon or a plastic scraper like the one that comes with a vitamix. Put the meat in your blender and combine with enough coconut water to almost entire cover your meat. Add the contents of your probiotic and blend until smooth.

Place at room temperature for 16 hours to ferment. Smell yogurt to see if it smells like yogurt. If it smells off it's best to start over and try again, once again better safe than sorry when it comes to fermentation.

Refrigerated yogurt stays good for 4-5 days.

Cats Against Climate Change

Kimchi a l'expressionista

So spicy, so tangy, so tasty; it's kimchi! Sure you can buy it in the store but you either get pasturized crap or pay way too much for a little jar of "live" kimchi. The solution of course is to make your own or, saving that, feel free to make mine. It's packed with vitamins and a plethora of probiotics. Everything you need to get you through the sickness season plus hot peppers of course!

Kimchi a l'expressionista
Important: for this recipe, make sure all the kitchenware you use is clean and sterile. Make sure hands are washed, we're going to be fermenting this so we don't want to be adding anything that might contaminate the culture.

• 1 gallon jar for fermenting
• 2 med heads of napa cabbage
• 5 carrots with tops
• 5 sunchokes (jerusalem artichoke)
• 3 heads baby bok choy
• 1 finger of ginger, diced
• 5 green onions, chopped
  
• 2 tbsp paprika
• 10-15 dried aji peppers (feel free to substitute)
• 2 tsp sea salt
• black pepper to taste
  

The first step is to get into a fist fight with you cabbage. Upon peeling off the leaves, place them in a large metal container. Add salt. Now you're going to punch down into the bowl, hard enough to start to break down the cabbage, but hopefully not hard enough to hurt your fist. Toss in bok choy.

Set this aside and get out your food processor. Of course you can chop the veggies by hand but I'd suggest at least grating them to keep the chunks uniform. Grate the carrots and sunchokes. These will make up the bulk of the food for our culture. I used the carrots leafs after cleaning them and cutting them from the stalks. They make an excellent addition to the kimchi. Chop and toss in with the cabbage and bok choy, which should be softening because of the salt.

Time to spice it up! Stir in your ginger, green onions, paprika and peppers. Next stir in the contents of a probiotic capsule if you have one on hand. This will speed up the fermentation and reinforce the good bacteria. Top off with black pepper.

Next transfer mixture to your fermentation jar. Hopefully you come pretty close to filling up the gallon, the less room at the top the better. Push down on mixture with a ladel or large wooden spoon. It should be rather juicy by now. Insert a rolled up cabbage leaf into the top to keep the kimchi under the juice.

Set the kimchi somewhere it won't be disturbed for the next week. Room temp is ideal. In seven days time it should be ready. Taste it, you're looking for a tangy spicy taste. If it's not sour enough, let it sit for a few days longer.

Enjoy!