This Christmas, when I heard my nephew and niece were gonna join us for dinner I decided to get crazy with the kombucha and make a lovely punch. I have been using coconut water to make kefir lately and decided to try it with kombucha. This recipe isn’t exact. Be sure to use your taste buds to decide how sour or sweet you want it as different brews will have different strengths.

Pomegranate juice is a must this time of year especially with the connection that they have to rebirth and solstice rituals. Mint makes any punch festive and the coconut water gives an exotic reminder that we are all connected. Not just though our guts to the microbes but also to each other all the way around the world.

• 1 batch kombucha (1 gallon)
• 5 medium pomegranates, juiced
• 1 lt coconut water
• 1 bunch of mint

Method:
After your kombucha has fermented, remove the SCOBY and divide between 2 ltr (1/2 gallon) jars (preferably glass). Divide the pomegranate juice, coconut water and mint evenly between all three jars, leaving room at the top for any gasses that build up in the fermentation process.

Allow the second ferment to stand in a warm place for 24 hours, check the flavor. If it is still very sweet allow it to stand another 12 – 24 hours.

Delicious, everyone loved it. I recommend drinking it with coconut water, pomegranate and mint ice-cubes for extra bling (although unfermented coconut water isn’t GAPS / SCD friendly).

I have just finished making a raspberry-vanilla-honey syrup to use in my second ferment of coconut water kefir. Since we are on the GAPS / SCD diets we have been finding every way possible to get more probiotics into our bodies. Coconut water kefir is a very delicious way to get extra probiotics as it creates a fizzy, champagne-like coconut water soda.

Personally I prefer using dairy kefir grains, which work quite well a few times, but since they prefer dairy to grow in they will get depleted and you will have to replace them. You can also use water kefir grains which just love a mineral-rich, sweet medium to grow in and coconut water is just perfect. If you are looking for cultures you can get dairy or water kefir grains here. The same method works for either dairy or water kefir grains.

Coconut water kefir is very rich in probiotics and it is best to only drink about 1/4 to 1/2 cup at a time especially when you first start drinking it.

Lately I have become a fan of marinating my meat in kombucha. In fact last night I made a delicious pulled pork recipe which I first marinated in a star-anise, ginger kombucha — oh so tasty, but that is another recipe. This Kombucha chicken recipe is fantastic, simple and just look how the glazed skin twinkles in the sunlight! This just proves how true it is that the simplest recipes are always the best. This recipe is featured in the Hella Delicious 2012 Recipe Calendar.

• 1 free range chicken
• 2 c kombucha
• 2 T mint sauce
• salt & pepper

I recently posted about the benefits of miso soup in cases of radiation poisoning. Miso soup is easy to make and is extra beneficial when made with the Japanese stock dashi because of the kelp (kombu) that is used when making that stock. More information on how to detoxify radiation poisoning and other toxic conditions here.

Variations of dashi can be made with only kombu or with an addition of shittake mushrooms. Kombu dashi has a lot of iodine from the seaweed and is helpful if you are exposed to radiation. The addition of traditionally made hatcho miso to your dashi stock has quite powerful radiation detoxing abilities. But commercial miso has also been found to work as well.

This is a very simple recipe that I made one day while making kimchi, I had left over diakon and carrots. This is really delicious, fresh and crisp. A living food full of enzymes and probiotics.

• 3 medium organic carrots, julienne
• 1 medium diakon radish, julienne
• 1-2″ ginger, grated or pounded
• 1 T salt or 3 T whey
• filtered water to cover

Saurkraut made with kefir grains gives you kefirkraut! Originally developed by Dom, please check out his site: Dom’s Kefirkraut in-site for a full description and history of the recipe. There are lots of other great recipes and interesting resources over there, which I am sure all the fermentation fanatics out there will really get into.

Well I’ve been feeling a bit bad about not posting many recipes lately, so I just wanted to share this one. Recently we’ve started adding juices to our kefir–yum! Very easy fresh and full of friendly enzymes, probiotics and vitamins.

• 3 apples
• 3 medium carrots
• 1-2 inch piece of ginger
• 1 c of freshly made kefir

At the end of the summer I was down on Hastings in one of my favorite little stores–Como–it is run by a feisty Asian couple who speak Italian. They get in large sacks of fresh olives towards the end of the summer. This year I decided to buy one and try to figure out what to do with them. Just as I was heaving the sack onto the counter, a lovely lady behind me started asked me what I was going to do with them. I said, “Well I don’t know really.” She smiled and happily started telling me her recipe which had been handed down to her from her mother–a real traditional recipe (that’s why I love this area so much!). Her English wasn’t perfect, but I managed to get a pretty good idea of what she was saying and figured the rest out as I went along.

This year, while searching through various old cookbooks for pecan pie recipes I came across a lovely fresh apple relish (Apple Kitchen Cook Book by Demetria Taylor), which I just had to try. It was fantastic! Especially tasty with fresh, local apples, it works particularly well as a relish with turkey, and really helps to digest a big meal as it has homemade dill pickles as well as probiotic mustard and a touch of homemade mayonnaise. This is my version…I should have posted it before Thanksgiving! Keep it in mind for your Christmas dinner.

This is a very simple technique that makes an extra tasty batch of kombucha. By adding fruit juice after the ten day fermentation period you get a fizzier drink, which means there is more alcohol. This drink is very much like a grape soda, but good for you!

I have been making kombucha lately with honey, and I have found that over time the mushroom looses it’s potency. I have a batch of regular black tea kombucha getting started this morning because I have a flurry of people requesting kombucha babies (SCOBY) via the www.kombu.de website. Since I have been making it with honey, I need to make up a potent batch before I can spread that good kombucha love.