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I cooked something for the Lord today to celebrate the appearance day
of Sri Nrsimha!!!The festival will be observed tomorrow at the temple,
but we had a small feast at home today. Eze gave the lecture… he was
very accurate on his explanation of how Lord Nrsimhadev defeated
Hiranyakasipu… then we offered this simple preparations (vegan
burgers with mayonnaise, yellow rice with raisins, salad, apple chutney
and burfi), then kirtan and finally we honored prasadam

I will give you the recipe of the burgers, that are healthy and light. Actually it’s a personal adaptation of an ayurvedic recipe. Today I made the burgers like this:

INGREDIENTS FOR 24 VEGAN BURGERS:

2 cups lentils
7 - 8 cups water
4 Tablespoons rice
1/2 teaspoons yellow asafetida powder
2 teaspoons sunflower oil
1 1/2 teaspoons cumin powder
1 teaspoon oregano
1 potato
1 sweet potato
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon dry ginger
4 Tablespoons chickpea flour
2 eggs replacer. You can make it preparing this mixture: 4
Tablespoons plain flour + 1 teaspoon oil +1 teaspoon baking powder + 4
Tablespoons water
*You can use this replacer for any other recipe (I got it from Kurma Prabhu’s blog).

DIRECTIONS:

1. Lentils + rice + potato + sweet potato + water + asafetida. Cook and drain them.
2. Add the spices and the oil and mix well.
3. Add the egg replacer to the mixture, the salt and the pepper and mix again.
4. Finally, add the chickpea flour.
5. Make the pattys (use the Onigiri technique, dipping your hands in water before making every new patty).
6. You can either pan fry them or bake them. I decided the baking this time. 220º C, for 20 or 30 minutes.

I served them with mayonnaise… you still don’t know how to make eggless mayonnaise??? It’s veeeery easy.

Pour a little bit of milk in a container, maybe 100 ml, then, with the blender in
your hand, pour sunflower oil at the same time you blend it with the milk.
Go on pouring oil till you get the desired thickness. Add 1/2 teaspoon
of salt and a bit of lemon juice. Today I made it with asafetida
(according to Ayurveda, asafetida should be cooked but sometimes I skip
this rules for a higher purpose hehe) and fresh chopped coriander…
very tasty

Nrsimhadev Bhagavan ki jay!

ys, Sol

technorati tags:ayurveda, vegan, burger, vegetarian, eggless, recipe, nrsimha, hare, krishna, festival, feast, cooking

I was looking for inspiration in a Japanese cookbook and onigiri called my attention very much. I remember having seen them somewhere when I was a child and finally I found the recipe.

It is a snack of rice formed into triangle or oval shapes and wrapped in green leaves* (avoid nori seaweed cause it may not be vegetarian). Onigiri literally means “taking hold of (something) with your hands”. It is one of the most famed and popular snacks in Japan. I find onigiri not only cute but very practical for travelling. This is how to make them:

1. Cook a suitable amount of rice for the number of people you want to feed. Important: do not rinse the rice before cooking! You want it to be sticky and clumpy. White short grain rice is the best kind for onigiri.

2. It’s important to work with the rice while it’s still warm and sticky, but let it cool a little first so you won’t be scalded. Five minutes should do it. Turning the rice from the cooking container into another bowl and fluffing it with a fork or rice scoop will help it to cool slightly.

3. Fill a bowl with cold water and stir in a couple of teaspoonfuls of salt - keep this in your work area and dip your hands before beginning each onigiri. This will ensure that the rice sticks to itself, without sticking to you!

4. Having dipped your hands, scoop out a small quantity of warm rice. Take an amount that you can easily work in your hand.

5. Give shape to your onigiri…

Fancier shapes will usually require a mold…

6. Use any green leave to decorate your onigiri, folding it around one edge of the disc or triangle…

…or wrapping around the middle of the capsule…

7. Set the completed onigiri aside on a plate and dip your hands ready for the next one. Chilling the onigiri in the fridge helps to set them.

This is the very basic recipe, but you can fill and decorate your onigiri in unlimited ways… get inspired!

I can’t wait to make onigiri for Krsna!

ys, Sol (^_^)

technorati tags:rice, onigiri, japan, harekrishna, vegetarian, cooking, recipe

Well, I have been asked many times “what do you cook?”, specially by my Indian friends, so I though it would be a good idea to show you, and them, what do we eat on a common weekday. It is not that we always eat pizza! hehehe.

Well, today I made some very typical Spanish soup. We call these kind of preparations something that could be translated as “spoon dish” (plato de cuchara para los españoles). It’s made with chickpeas, potatoes, carrots and spinach. Very nice for winter season. It’s not winter here but we had a few very cold days so I felt inspired

I boiled the chickpeas, potatoes and carrots and I fried the spices (asafetida, cumin seeds, cummin powder, coriander powder, turmeric…) and spinach in a pan with olive oil. To get some thickness I blended a part of the soup and added to it with the spinach, then some salt and pepper and that’s it. Simple and pleasing to the heart!

And then I made rice with corn, red capsicum and looots of black olives. I don’t know if olives are used in rice dishes but I love them so I put them everywhere! I used some bay leaves, dill, yellow asafetida powder and salt for seasoning…and olive oil of course!

Offering time! Everything ready to offer to Srila Prabhupada

I offered also some bananas with “dulce de leche”, some kind of typical
Argentinian caramel… every Argentinian worships it, but that’s
another story…

“Foods dear to those in the mode of goodness increase the duration of
life, purify one’s existence and give strength, health, happiness and
satisfaction. Such foods are juicy, fatty, wholesome, and pleasing to
the heart.”
Bhagavad-gita 17.8 (Click here for full Bhagavad-gita).

So this is an example of what I cook… what do you think?

ys, Sol

technorati tags:chickpea, rice, olive, spanishcooking, harekrishna, prabhupada

I came back from India one month ago and since then I didn’t make any pizza… why? We were in Mayapur and we took too much of it, sounds familiar? hehehe. But I was feeling the separation so I decided to awaken my Italian side!

When we went to Italy (click here to see the report) we got a Pizza-Express machine and since then we were taking pizza maybe once a week for not breaking the Ayurveda diet too much. Pizza imbalances the pita dosha a lot, so be careful!!!

I like to use fresh ingredients and specially olive oil and olives that are so good in Malaga where we live.

Fresh fresh…

Red tomatoes for the tomato sauce… yum yum… it’s done!

Capsicum, olives and cheese… the dough… everything is ready!

Putting everything together + a few minutes of Pizza-Express…

Oregano and olive oil…

And here it is! Hot and delicious pizza ready to be offered to Srila Prabhupada…

My mum came for the pizza party and she and my brother were very happy and satisfied.
All glories to the offered pizza!

I hope I can make some for you one of these days!

ys, Sol

technorati tags:pizza, harekrishna, italy

My friends Soheil and Sara got married few months back. They had a very beautiful vedic ceremony in the Hare Krsna Temple of Malaga (click here for the report). They were going to make another ceremony for the rest of the family and friends who weren’t able to attend the first one so they asked me to prepare the cake… I’m not a “cake maker” but I wanted to please them and also help in the Holly mission of prasadam distribution (food offered to Krsna) so I accepted the challenge.

I had to decide which kind of cake would be the best for such an special occasion. I took advantage of the mango season and I chose a Mango and Saffron cake. I got all the ingredients (very basic ingredients cause there is not much variety in Spain for cake making) and I made my planning.

One day before the wedding I woke up full of enthusiasm, I took a strong breakfast to get ready for a long day of work and I went to the temple. I was supposed to bake the cake there but when I arrived…you won’t believe me… there was NO KITCHEN!. They were making a very nice new kitchen for the pleasure of Sri Sri Gaura Nitai. In one hand it was a good new but… where could I make the cake then??? My first though was “This is very auspicious. Krsna always arranges whatever is the best, so I must surrender…”

I called Soheil and gave him the new… He told me they had arranged a temporary kitchen outside the temple. It was right there but I didn’t realize that that was the “new” kitchen”…

…so I made the cake here

At the end everything went well. I was all alone, just hearing lectures and concentrating in my work… There was a very sweet atmosphere that reminded me to India.

I made a couple like this and then somebody came to pick the cake up to bring it to the restaurant where I would build it up.

Then I arrived to the second new kitchen of the day. This one was also ok, but not that sweet

I made the mango filling and the vanilla buttercream…

And then I started to build the cake…first the mango cream filling…

Then the buttercream…

…and after this it was very late (23:30) and the cake needed refrigeration so I decided to come back the next day.

15th of September…my brother’s birthday, Haribol!!! I wanted to make a big feast for him but I had to finish the cake so I told him at least he would have a very big cake for his birthday
I came back and the buttercream was perfect so I whipped the cream and covered the cake with it… I enjoyed this step very much

…and then I made the decoration. I needed more flowers, more yellow buttercream and more time (I had enough raspberries) but I managed with whatever was there and this was the result…an Avadhuta Mango and Saffron Wedding Cake, only for Krsna’s pleasure.

I got the good fortune of helping the bride on her dressing, flower decoration and gopi dots painting. She was gorgeous!!!

Then the East meets West ceremony took place. Sara’s sister band played a song in between the poetical ceremony and there were even fireworks!!!… you can see Eze filming the event…

After that we took dinner; one of the plates was arranged by Uttara Mataji and Jagannath Nrisimha Prabhu. Here she is…

There was also a flamenco show and a concert and fiiinaaally they called the bride and the groom to cut the cake.

Here they are, with their Laxmi garlands very happily.

By Krsna’s grace, it was very tasty and everybody was very satisfied.

As I said, I’m not a “cake maker” but I did it with all my love and by Radharani’s mercy I was able to please the devotees, those who already are and those who will become.

Cooking for Krsna is transcendental. It’s such a simple thing but it brings full satisfaction to my heart.

Thank you Soheil and Sara for giving us a chance to serve you.

ys, Sol

Sri Bhagavat-prasada ki jaya!

technorati tags:wedding, cake, buttercream, mango, hare, krishna, ceremony, celebration

Haribol!

I met my dear friend Adbhuta Datri in Italy and she gave me a wonderful and easy ice-cream recipe.

Here it is:

1 liter or cream

1/2 kg of milk powder

1/2 kg of sugar (I put brown sugar)

1/2 liter of water
________________

1. Whip the cream.

2. Put the rest of the ingredients together and mix with the cream.

3. Add nuts/ fruits/ carob…

4. Freeze it.

5. Offer it to Gopinath…very important step and enjoy!!!

I suggest to prepare different flavors to make a Banana Split : ice-cream with fruits (bananas, strawberries, peaches, pineapple…) lot of cream, hot carob cream on the top and nuts… and maybe some biscuits too… Sounds good!!!

Make your choice!!!

Thank you for the inspiration my friend!!!

Note: ice-cream is “suitable” for people who have predominantly Pitta body type… but I don’t think Ayurveda recommends this Banana Split. It’s a big challenge for digestion!…What do you think???…

ys, Sol

technorati tags:icecream, recipe, dessert, sweets, vegetarianism

Since I came from India I stayed at my mother’s home but one week ago I moved to a new place. I’m sharing apartment with my brother Ezequiel.

So much cleaning went on during the last days but everything is done now so I can concentrate in the kitchen work, hehehe.

I wanted to see how the oven worked so I baked THIS simple but delicious cake that I served with spiced hot milk.

Here is the recipe:

OAT CAKE
2 cups oat flour
1 cup rice flour or wheat flour (I make it wheat-free following ayurvedic reccomendations, but wheat gives a better consistency. Short-grain brown rice flour is the best, but I don’t get it in Malaga)
1 Tablespoon baking powder
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspon dry ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
300 gr butter
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup raisings
1 cup chopped apples

GARNISH
1/2 cup “dulce de leche” (cooked sweetened milk… it’s similar to burfi but more creamy. It’s an Argentinian product and one of the few things I know from my origin place:))
coconut powder

1. Sift dry ingredients together

2. In another bowl, cream the butter with the sugar and add the milk. If you want to add some vanilla essence or similar, now it’s the time.

3. Stir into the flour mixture and add more milk if required.

4. Add the raising and the apples and mix gently.

5. Pour the mixture into a buttered pan.

6. Pre-heat the oven to 140 degrees C and bake for 40 minutes. Test to be sure the cake is finished.

7. Decorate with the sweet milk icing and coconut as in the picture.

Note: if you can’t get the sweet milk you can put some fruit jam or lemon-icing on the top… or simply leave it as it is.

I will explain how to make the “dulce de leche” and some other icings in the future

ys, Sol