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• Personal Growth

February 2006

By Life Positive

When you offer food to the lord, you free yourself of the karmic debt of having killed in order to eat. Here, a range of satvic recipes, devoid of onion and garlic, to be imbibed as prasad

Recipes and pictures courtesy ISKCON’s Govinda restaurant, Girgaum-Chowpatty, Mumbai.

The Vedic scriptures admit, ‘One living being survives by eating another.’ Nevertheless, they also advocate nonviolence. This means that in order to live, one should keep violence to a minimum. Since violence is involved in killing animals, the individual who eats non-vegetarian food also imbibes the same violence with the food he intakes. But vegetables are also a lower form of life, and so, strictly speaking, being a vegetarian does not in itself free one from the impiety of violence and killing. One must undoubtedly suffer karmic reactions even for killing plants. For this reason, it is explained in the Bhagavad Gita that one should eat only vegetarian food, but he should first offer these eatables to the Supreme Lord. If we follow this process of sacrifice, the Supreme Lord protects us from any karmic reactions resulting from the killing of plants. Otherwise, according to the law of karma, we are personally responsible.

When we offer food to the Supreme Lord, by His immense transcendental energies, He actually converts matter to spirit. If we place an iron rod in fire, before long it becomes red hot and takes on all the essential qualities of fire. In the same way, the material substance of food that is offered to the Lord becomes completely spiritualised. Such food is called prasadam, a Sanskrit word meaning ‘the mercy of the Lord’. Thus, whatever food we eat becomes karma-free – akarma. Also, by eating such prasadam, the senses gradually become spiritualised and automatically become attracted to divine pleasures that far surpass any material experience.

Flower Lollypop (serves 4)
Ingredients:
20 pieces cauliflower
100 gm refined flour
2 tbsp Szechwan sauce
1 tbsp soya sauce
2 tbsp chilli sauce
2 tbsp tomato sauce
75 gm cornflour
Salt to taste
¼ tsp ajinomoto
¼ tsp white pepper powder
1 tbsp ginger paste
250 ml oil

Method: Boil cauliflower lightly with a little salt and turmeric. Marinate the cauliflower in the above four sauces. Then make a batter of cornflour and refined flour. Add salt, pepper, ajinomoto, ginger paste and the sauces. Dip cauliflower into the batter and deep fry. Serve hot with a garnish of cabbage and Szechwan sauce.

Ssweet Corn Veg Soup (serves 5)
Ingredients:
400 ml veg stock
100 gm tinned sweet corn
25 gm boiled American corn
50 gm cabbage
50 gm beans
50 gm carrot
Salt to taste
Pinch of sugar
Pinch of ajinomoto

Method: Simmer vegetable stock in pan and add finely chopped vegetables to it. Boil for two minutes. Turn in tinned sweet corn and boiled American corn. Add ajinomoto, salt, sugar and boil. Serve hot.

Waldorf Salad (serves 2)
Ingredients:
150 gm walnut
100 gm mayonnaise sauce
1 bunch chopped lettuce leaves
10 gm chopped celery stems
1 apple

Method: Peel skin of apple and cut into cubes. Wash walnuts and chop into small pieces. Mix it along with apple cubes and celery in mayonnaise sauce. Make a base of lettuce leaves. Place the salad on this and garnish with celery. Serve cold.

Govinda’s Supremo Pizza
Ingredients:
Base (makes 20)
1 kg refined flour
30 gm yeast
500 gm water (slightly warm)
100 gm olive oil
30 gm salt
30 gm sugar
Tomato sauce
1 kg tomato puree
100 gm olive oil
10 gm oregano
10 gm basil
Salt to taste
Toppings for 1 pizza
6 pieces artichoke hearts
6 pieces olives (green and black)
6 slices zucchini
6 slices bell pepper (yellow, green, red)
50 -70 gm mozarella cheese

Stir yeast into warm water and give it time to rise, then mix with all the ingredients for base and knead into dough. Cover for half an hour. Divide into 20 sections and roll out each like a chappati. Bake it at 300°C in a preheated oven for 10 minutes. Apply tomato sauce and sprinkle cheese on top. Place all the toppings. Top again with cheese and garnish with oregano and basil. Bake in a preheated oven at 300°C till cheese melts.

Talavan Dosa (serves 10)
Ingredients:
1 cup urad dal
2 cups rice
1 tsp methi
¼ cup besan
3 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp salt
Szechwan sauce
1 tbsp ginger chopped
½ tbsp green chillies chopped
½ tbsp celery stems chopped
4 tbsp kashmiri chilli paste
½ tbsp tomato sauce
1 tbsp chilli sauce
¼ tsp white pepper powder
¼ tsp ajinomoto
Salt to taste
2 tbsp oil
Palak gravy ¼ cup
1 pinch garam masala
¼ tsp chat masala
Salt to taste

Method: Soak urad dal, rice and methi in water for a minimum of 4 to 8 hours. Grind till smooth, adding water gradually. Batter should be of pouring consistency. Let the batter ferment overnight.

Add besan, sugar and salt to make the basic batter. Talavan dosa is a combination of three different dosas. Make three different batters, one with Szechwan sauce (2 tbsps with 3 cups of batter), the second as is and the third with palak gravy (3 tbsps with 3 cups of batter). To make palak gravy, boil one bundle of roughly chopped palak in its own juice and grind in mixer.

Heat pan, take a ladleful of Szechwan batter and spread the batter in an oval motion, starting from centre to get a crepe. Continue the crepe with a ladleful of basic batter and then the palak batter. Remember you have to be pretty fast in spreading the batter. Otherwise it will start cooking instantly. The idea is to get thin crepes.

Drizzle butter or ghee around the dosa. Wait till the basic dosa becomes golden brown and a little crisp around the edges. Carefully loosen the dosa and flip. Roll and serve with hot sambar and chutney.

Veg Fried Rice (serves 2)
Ingredients:
2 cups basmati rice (75% boiled)
1 cup cabbage shredded
½ cup capsicum julienne (long, thin slices)
¼ cup french beans julienne
¼ cup carrots julienne
1 tbsp celery stem
1½ tbsp soya sauce
2 tbsp chilli sauce
½ tsp ajinomoto
½ tsp white pepper powder
Salt to taste
2 tbsp refined oil
6 leaves sliced palak

Heat oil in a fry pan. On high flame, stir fry all the vegetables. Add rice, soya sauce, chilli sauce, ajinomoto, w.pepper, salt. Toss it on high flame. Garnish with sliced palak. Serve hot.

Paneer Chilli Gravy (serves 1)
Ingredients:
6 pcs paneer fingers
50 ml vegetable stock
½ cup capsicum
½ tsp ginger fine chopped
½ tsp green chillies fine chopped
3-4 green chillies vertically split
1 tbsp soya sauce
2 tbsp chilli sauce
¼ tsp ajinomoto
¼ tsp white pepper
Salt to taste
Coriander
Cornflour

Method: Dust moist paneer pieces with cornflour and deep fry. In 2 tbsp of oil stir fry ginger, both types of green chilli, capsicum on high flame. Add vegetable stock, soya sauce, chilli sauce, white pepper, ajinomoto, salt, mix well. Then add paneer. Mix cornflour paste to get desired thickness. Garnish with coriander.

Pina Colada (serves 1)
Ingredients:
180 ml pineapple juice
60 ml fresh cream
50 ml vanilla ice cream
¼ cup pineapple syrup
1 tsp sugar syrup
10 ml coconut milk

Mix ingredients, add crushed ice and blend in blender. Garnish with pineapple slice and a little nutmeg powder.