How to Make Coconut Yogurt (and Coconut Bowls!)

Cultured foods are a wonderful addition to one's diet, as not only do they taste fabulous, but they also provide our guts with beneficial bacteria. While sauerkraut (I have a great article about how to make it here), kimchi, pickles and kombucha are more commonly known, a new one for me, coconut yogurt, is yet another super yummy fermented product.

You could use any type of coconuts to make the yogurt, but Matthew's favorites are Mexican coconuts. They are firmer than Thai young coconuts but lighter in color than the dark brown mature ones. One of the really cool things about using these coconuts is that you can also make the shells into bowls. Yay, a twofer! ;-)

But first things first: let's open the coconut!

When I arrived at Matt's he had already drained the coconut water by piercing a hole at the top of the shell and turning it upside down into some kind of receptacle. He had also shaved the outside of the shell down to the wood with a knife.

How to Make a Coconut Bowl
Matt loves to make best use of everything, therefore he turns the discarded coconut shells into beautiful bowls. If you don't really want to do that - it does take extra time and work - you can simply shatter the shell into pieces by using a hammer.

If you do decide to go the bowl way, you'll want to have the shell sit flat on the counter - you may have to shave off the tip some in order for it to be more even. Consider how tall you'd like your bowl to be. Matt marks a line around the shell with a pencil with the help of a piece of cardboard with a hole.

On the picture below you can see a line above the one that Matt is making. This is where he thought he wanted it at first, but then realized that it would make the bowl a little too deep and difficult to reach with a spoon.

Next, with a heavy utility knife/cleaver with somewhat of a thick blade - definitely not your regular thin bladed chef knife, as you will damage the blade! - start carefully hacking along the line at a slight downward angle. Resting your cutting arm against your waist helps to stabilize your hand and therefore have more consistent cuts.

As you can see from the picture below, the cut mark on the side of the coconut is at an angle. That's because you will be chopping in a slight glancing stroke (not a straight on 90 degree stroke). You'll want to start chipping a small way from the line and move closer to the line as the material is removed or chipped away. At this point you don't want to pierce through the shell just yet as it would cause it to crack unevenly. Just chip about half way through the shell and move on around the line, repeating the chipping motion until you complete one round. 

Once that first round is completed, as you keep working you'll notice that the knife will begin to stick more deeply into the shell. Again, just continue to work gently so that it doesn't crack before it's ready.

Sometimes you might need to pry with the back tip of the knife inserted into the shell to get it to pop apart.  Then pry the shell open with your hands.

The next step is to extract the coconut meat from the shell. A hard flat plastic spatula works well for this. Matt uses a short handled Norpro spatula.

For the bottom part of the shell you might want to cut wedges to make it easier to remove the meat.

Well done! You managed to get all of your beautiful coconut meat out!

This is what your shell will look like once it's been emptied out.

Matt evens out and smooths up the edges of the bowl with a serrated knife.

Lastly he cleans the inside of the bowl with a sharpened butter knife.

Tada!

How to Make Coconut Yogurt
Alrighty, now back to making yogurt!

Matt shaves off all of the brown bits from the coconut meat. He puts these aside and throws them into smoothies or sauces.

Once that's done he cuts the meat into small pieces and puts these in his high power blender container. You'll want it to be about 2/3rd full or so in order to fill one two quart Mason jar. This should take you one medium-large coconut or two small ones.

Now time to add coconut water. You'll want to pour just a few inches at first, only enough to blend.  You can then add more coconut water, as needed. Bear in mind that as the mixture heats up it will also blend easier. Depending on the coconut, at times the meat is really fibrous and Matt has to add all of the coconut water as well as some distilled water to get it to blend correctly. 

You'll want to blend the mixture on high, with the help of a tamper to keep it moving.

If you have trouble processing at high speed due to air pockets you may have to stop and use the lower speed for a few seconds - no more - as you don't want to overheat and burn out your motor (higher speeds allow for more air cooling of the motor).

Run the blender for at least a couple of minutes in order to get the mixture very smooth. It's a good idea to keep track of the temperature in the process so as not to go over 105 degrees.

When you're happy with the texture, stop the blender and add probiotics. Matt has had best results using Donna Gates' Body Ecology Kefir Starter. You don't need much; he only uses a couple of these teeny spoons (the equivalent of 1/8 teaspoon or so total.)

Matt also likes to throw in a wee bit of Spectrabiotic powder. (He buys his from this online store.)

Like I said, you really don't need much at all!

Now back to the blender on medium, just to incorporate in the probiotics.

This is the texture you're looking for.

Time to transfer the mixture to a glass jar.

Be careful not to fill the jar more than 2/3rd full as the coconut yogurt will rise up as it cultures.

Cover loosely with a lid. Matt likes to use a metal one for the seal, but I'm sure just a plastic one would work too.

Place your jar of coconut yogurt in a warm place to culture. Since Matt lives in a trailer the temperatures tend to vary greatly, so he's set up a little cozy chamber for all of his fermentation. It's made of cardboard boxes and a heater hooked up to a thermostat set to 70 degrees. He then covers the whole thing with a blanket to keep the warmth in. Placing the jars inside a larger bowl can help in the event that the culture overflows (particularly when making sauerkraut.)

Start checking on your coconut yogurt after 24 hours or so. Depending on how tart you like it you may want to keep it culturing for up to 36 hours. In this next photo you can sort of see how much the cultured yogurt has risen in the front jar. The back jar is roughly the amount that it started off with.

Store the coconut yogurt in the fridge where it will keep for 7 to 10 days.

Voila! You can now make wonderful raw vegan coconut yogurt at home and even get a lovely wooden bowl to boot! ;-)

Delightfully Raw in Santa Barbara: Part 2

I'm back with the last details of our adventures in Santa Barbara. Now let's see, how about some food talk?

In Diane's Sunny Kitchen

One of Diane and I's intentions was to play together in her kitchen, as we hadn't had a chance to whip up much at all during the 3 days we stayed with her in 2010. Her kitchen is quite small but the three of us danced around each other harmoniously and effortlessly. Don put on his usual hat of Master Juice and Smoothie Maker.

A simple smoothie made with whole oranges (peeled and seeded), lemon juice, gogi berries and water.

We were also initiated to yet another amazing fruit: cherimoya. On a friend's high recommendation (more about that later) we had picked up a few at the farmer's market. We learned that Santa Barbara is actually the mecca of cherimoyas in the US so we had to take advantage of all that abundance. The fruit's texture is soft and smooth, very much like another exotic fruit called sapote, and its flavor can change greatly depending on the variety; it sometimes has a hint of citrus or is more banana-ey. Exquisite! In this next photo I was getting ready to try it. Gotta take a sniff first, right?

As for dinner, we whipped up a different soup every day to start off our meal. We so love our raw soups and enjoy showing how simple they are to make and oh-so-delicious! Don would often let himself be inspired with whatever veggies were on hand, but we also had some of our favorite concoctions, such as the Spinach Almond Soup, the Sweet Pea Soup and the Curried Corn Chowder shown below.

Some of the entrees we enjoyed...

For our arrival Diane had prepared one of my older recipe creations: Spicy Noodles and Veggies in Szechuan 'Peanut' Sauce. Mmmmm... I'd forgotten how yummy it was!

Russell James' Broccoli in Hoisini Sauce that we served on kelp noodles instead of 'rice'. One of the most palatable ways we've had broccoli in the raw!

I never really got into sprouted quinoa, not caring much for its slightly bitter flavor. However we've learned to like it in tabouli. One night we made a slightly modified version of Elaina Love's recipe.

Quinoa Tabouli

Adapted from a recipe by Elaine Love posted here 

Serves 6
 
3 cups sprouted quinoa (about 1 1/2 cups before sprouting)

4 green onions, thinly sliced
1/2 cup mint leaves, minced
1 large tomato, seeded and finely diced
1 medium cucumber, peeled in strips, seeded and finely diced
1 cup parsley, minced
4 to 6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
3 to 5 tablespoons lemon or lime juice
1 to 2 tablespoons tamari or 1-2 teaspoons Celtic sea salt, to taste

Mix everything together in a large bowl. Let sit 1 hour to allow the flavors to meld before serving.

Note: To sprout the quinoa, soak for 4-8 hours. Drain water and rinse. Sprout in a jar for another 18 hrs. or more, rinsing the quinoa every 8 hrs. To test whether the sprouts are ready, chew one. It should be firm, yet soft – and not too crunchy.


Last year Diane had made a fantastic kimchi so we decided to prep a large batch together. We looked at a bunch of different recipes online (such as these and this one) and quickly concluded that there's lots of room to play with. We ended up creating our own concoction which we had a bit of a hard time keeping track of, especially since we had to add more veggies at the last minute when we discovered that the gallon jar was only 3/4 full when we packed it in.

Here's a very loose rendition of what we did.

Kitchen Sink Kimchi

We basically used whatever veggies we had on hand (read: we were desperate to make space in Diane's fridge! lol)

A couple of small green cabbages, shredded
6 medium carrots, thinly sliced on the mandoline
2 large daikons, thinly sliced on the mandoline
1 large head of mature bok choy, thinly sliced
2 small baby bok choys, thinly sliced
1 bunch of green onions, thinly sliced
4 cups broccoli florets
1 leek, thinly sliced
Several garlic cloves, crushed
1 generous chunk of ginger, finely grated
A couple of dried red chilis, thinly sliced

First we washed the veggies very well then massaged them with 4 or 5 tbs of sea salt and the content of 4 probiotic caps. I let them sit for a few hours to allow some of the juices to be released, folded in 1/2 cup sesame seeds and 1 tbs sesame oil, then packed everything tightly into the gallon jar.

We used the Sauerkraut and Kimchi Maker system which we find works wonders. The hardest part is to wait for a few days (I think it took 3 or 4) before the kimchi is ready. It turned out absolutely delicious! Yay!

As for the sweet side there was always some kind of dessert around the house. On the day that we arrived in Santa Barbara Diane had made my Chocolate Caramel Trifle; one of my more elaborate but very scrumptious creations from my second recipe book, The Best of Raw Freedom Community.

Cheesecake from my new Delightfully Raw topped with cherries. Very decadent!

Diane has a new Cuisinart ice cream maker but was complaining that it didn't really do a good job. I explained to her that the secret to ultra smooth ice creams is to use enough fat content, such as nuts, nut milk, young coconut or coconut oil. We made Heathy's Maple Ginger Ice Cream; she liked it so much that she made another batch a few days later. And yep, her ice cream maker works like a charm!

My Dazzling Chocolate Hazelnut Pie. Once again she did wonders with the decoration.

She served it with more Maple Ginger Ice Cream. The latter was a little under sweetened so we drizzled it with some extra maple syrup. Heavenly!

Playing With Colors
But our kitchen experiments didn't stop at food. We also tried our hands at tie dyeing, since Diane already had all the equipment from her silk hand painting. One of my favorite skirts had a pretty bad blue stain (long story) so I thought it would be the perfect canvas to play with. In hindsight we should have done a bit of research online on how to go about tie dyeing, but you know how it is; you gotta learn from your mistakes, right?

I bunched up bits of fabric and tied them with rubber bands, then used a couple of different techniques: dipping the fabric directly into bowls of dye...

... and using a paint brush.

We then wrapped the skirt in a plastic bag and left it for 24 hours to allow the colors to sink into the fabric. We could hardly wait to see the result! It looked really cool but sadly most of the dye washed off during the rinsing process. Boo hoo! I gave it another try but the same thing happened. I decided to leave it at that for the time being; the skirt still looks cool with its soft pastel tones, but you can't really make up the designs. Ah well, good thing I had so much fun in the process!

We later discovered that the dye would have held better if we had first soaked the fabric in soda ash for 15 minutes to an hour prior, and that the dye would have been easier to apply if it had been thicker. Diane tackled a couple of shirts with that new knowledge and they turned out fabulous! (They're the ones that Don and Diane were wearing in a picture in my previous post.)

Rawkin Farmer's Market
On Saturdays we always checked out the farmer's market in order to stock up on fresh fruits and veggies. It's definitely one of the better ones we've been to, offering lots of produce, with many organics all year round.

One time this young guy came up to me and asked if my name was Carmella. I almost cried out loud in surprise. I don't think you can ever get used to being recognized in public; at least I can't. Now get this! It turns out that he used to hang around Raw Food Talk and later Raw Freedom Community some years back under the username 'rawsurfer'. It's nothing short of amazing that he was able to recognize me from the minuscule avatar pics I posted on these forums!

Back then I actually even bought a carob bag from Taylor that he was wanting to sell in order to simplify his diet. When he mailed it he also included a CD compilation of his favorite songs in the envelope which I thought was a nice touch. In fact we listened to it during last year's trip! lol

At that time he was living near Miami but he has recently moved to Santa Barbara where he's going to school. And here we were bumping into each other! What a very small world we live in, eh? The timing of our meeting couldn't have been better either, as we had a potluck planned for that very evening.

Raw Munching at Aliki's
Several of us got together at Aliki's home later that day in order to share some rawlicious food. It was going to be a new experience for many of the attendees so Diane went a little crazy in the kitchie, keen to show how varied and delicious raw and living foods can be. I started the gathering by doing a little demo of my Curried Corn Chowder and an avo based Chocolate Mousse, also from Delightfully Raw. The latter was the perfect excuse to inaugurate the awesome new Cuisinart food processor Aliki got for her birthday.

 The savory spread

Diane had made a double batch of my Warm me Up' Chili which turned out really really good.

She had also prepared two kinds of cultured Cashew Cheezes, my Garlic & Dill and Herb & Green Onion, for which Aliki had dehydrated some very tasty crackers.

The sweet spread

As for desserts Diane had made my Dark Chocolate Cookies (I'd forgotten how yummy these are!) and homemade raw vegan Vanilla Ice Cream.

Apple pie that Dawn had prepared.

Taylor eats mostly fruit but he came anyway so that we would have a chance to connect. He says he has gourmet type raw foods perhaps twice or three times a year so it was a special treat for him. I thought it was mighty cool (and healthy too in a deeper sense) that he was willing to be fluid and diverge from his usual fare in order to partake of the feast.

Meet The Cherimoya Man
Over the course of our stay in SB we actually bumped into Taylor another time while at the farmer's market. It's where he buys the bulk of what he'll be munching on that week. As I was just saying he eats mostly fruit and boy, does he ever eat lots too! Back in Florida he used to run a small tropical fruit business. He'd buy wonderful fresh and exotic fruits from local farmers then sell them at the market. Sounds like a dream job to me! Taylor has posted short videos showcasing his weekly fruit loot here (you first have to select a newsletter). I was drooling just watching them!

Taylor usually buys fruit by the case as he goes through so much. He is particularly fond of cherimoyas which grow marvelously well around here. He confided that he goes through about 100 lbs a week! Eeek! That's a LOT of cherimoyas! It was such a hoot to listen to him tell his fruit tales to the captivated audience at the potluck; everyone's eyes were just about ready to pop out of their heads, including mine! lol "After the second or third month of eating pretty much just cherimoyas, I still find myself craving them!" he shared candidly.

And so I suppose it wasn't so surprising that we should have crossed paths again at his favorite shopping place. This time he invited us over to dinner at his home. I was secretly hoping that he would give us a glimpse of his fruity diet and he did! Yippee!

That night we enjoyed an 'epic' four course meal, to borrow one of Taylor's favorite expressions. We started off with an appetizer of succulent and juicy locally picked lime tangellos and pixie mandarins.

Then continued with a lovely fruit soup that was out of this world! Taylor made it with local kiwi, Peruvian mangoes, fuji apples and orange juice blended into a smooth mixture, to which he added chopped mango and strawberries for texture. Divine!

The third course consisted of "enough cherimoya to give us a proper taste of what it's like." They were gigantic and utterly scrumptious! "If they don't make you close your eyes and moan in delight, then they're not real cherimoyas" he declared. And, well, these were the real deal for sure! No wonder he virtually lives on this stuff!

Going bananas over cherimoyas! ;-)

As we were feasting on all these beautiful fruitty delights, Taylor told us how he went from just-your- regular-18-year-old-party-animal-dude to a raw vegan and soon afterward fruitarian 4 years ago. Wow, it's no small feat he has managed to accomplish! Way to go my man!

We finished off our meal with a ginormous salad made with romaine lettuce, spiralized cucumber and cherry tomatoes. It was drizzled with a dressing that Taylor whipped up, with orange juice, the cucumber cores, celery and dates.

The Chef at work.

Oh, and did I mention that Taylor is a big time surfer? He got into it 11 years ago when he lived in Florida and is still passionate about it. He certainly has a few to choose from for his ocean excursions.

 

Alright, after spending some three weeks on and off in the city, we were overdue for some time in Nature, far away from civilization.

Coming up next, the details of our camping adventures in southern California!