Bhumi fruit balls

I've named these tasty fruit-balls "Bhumi" balls. Bhumi means mother earth in the ancient Sanskrit language.Today is a special festival in the Krishna culture celebrating an incarnation of the Lord known as Varahadeva. According to the Vedic scriptures Lord Varahadeva rescued mother earth from the bottom of the causual ocean (the Vedas have descriptions of the universal planetary system which differs much from the modern day view). So I made these Bhumi balls for the Lords pleasure today! :-) Hope you like them!

Ingredients

Approx 1/4 cup or less almond milk
1 1/2 TBSP vanilla essence
1/2 tsp almond essence
pinch sea salt
approx 1 cup roasted almonds
1/4 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup candied ginger pieces
1/2 cup candied mango pieces
3 TBSP of a coffee substitute mix - the one I used had roasted chicory and carob in it.
Approx 2 cups toasted wheatgerm
1/4 cup Trader Joes white baking chips (white choc chips)

Method

Blend all ingredients -- except the last two -- together in a food processor til smooth. Place into a bowl and knead in the white choc chips and wheatgerm. Roll into balls. Makes approx 14 large sized balls.

Brown spice cake with caramel sauce

Here's a neat little cake I whipped up, somewhat adjusted from a recipe I just got for chocolate sponge cake. I tweaked it so I used spices instead of chocolate, and maple syrup instead of sugar, added some salt, some almond essence and 1/2 the water called for since maple syrup is a liquid. Made this for my friend Elena's birthday today. :-) Tastes very more-ish! Would be even better with some whipped cream.

Ingredients:

2 3/4 cup all purpose flour
2 tsp Baking powder
2 tsp Baking soda (I'd add a little less next time round)
2 tsp cinnamon powder (optional)
1 1/2 tsp nutmeg powder
1/2 tsp cardamon powder
1/2 tsp ginger powder (optional)
1/4 tsp clove powder
1/4 tsp sea salt
1 cup maple syrup
1 Cup water
3/4 Cup sunflower oil
2 TBSP Vanilla essence
1 TBSP Almond essence
2 TBSP Lemon Juice

Method:

Mix all dry ingredients, and then mix in the wet ones. Pour into a non-stick spring form baking pan. ( I still oil the bottom of non-stick trays and sprinkle on a little flour so its easier to remove the cake from the base).

Bake at 385 degrees Fahrenheit for approx 40 mins - til centre springs back when you lightly press your finger tip on it.

Makes 1 soft, light and fluffy sponge cake. Transfer onto a plate to cool.

(A blended banana would work well in this cake flavor-wise too - you would just need to adjust the liquids).

Caramel sauce topping:

1/2 lb brown sugar
4 TBSP salted butter
1/3 cup double cream
2 TBSP vanilla essence

Melt all ingredients over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Cover and cook down approx 10 minutes, no more - til thickened but still pourable. Pour over the cake and serve when cooled.

Savory Party Bites

I love baking with puff pastry, especially when I don't have to make it from scratch! ;-) I whipped up this recipe "Savory Party Bites" in a few minutes based on what I had at hand in the kitchen. It's really simple and quick to make - takes less than 30 minutes. You could definitely add other vegetables, spices and cheeses to vary it. This delightful delicacy makes great finger food for a party, snack, or as part of a larger meal. Makes approx 12 squares.

Ingredients

2 sheets frozen puff pastry thawed out (Trader Joes does a good veggie one)
1 cup sour cream
1 TBSP cornstarch
1 small zucchini shredded
1/2 cup frozen sweetcorn
1 cup frozen bell pepper strips
1 tsp asafoetida
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp paprika flakes
1tsp fresh ground black pepper
1 TBSP Italian herbs
1/2 cup mozzarella cheese
2 TBSP nutritional yeast
1 TBSP ghee

Method

Preheat oven to 365 degrees Fahrenheit.

Heat ghee in a saute pan over medium heat and chaunce the spices and herbs for a few seconds. Add in zucchini,bell peppers and sweetcorn and saute for 5 mins. Lower heat and mix in sour cream and cornstarch. Cook down for 5 mins or  until slightly thickened. Remove from heat and add in nutritional yeast and
mozzarella cheese, mixing evenly. Leave to cool.

Meanwhile prepare the thawed out pastry sheets by laying them on a dry flat surface and cutting into even squares (it will taste nice even if they're a little uneven - I cant cut a straight line for the life of me!). A pizza cutter probably would be a good tool to cut it evenly. 

Lightly oil a baking sheet and place the pastry on it. Place a tablespoon of  the sour cream filling onto each pastry square. Bake for 10-15 mins or until golden. Remove carefully using a flat spatula (or pan-knife as we say in Europe).

Thats it! Delicious served hot or cold - it will be gone in the blink of an eye, so hide it if you dont want it eaten before your party starts! Haha! :-D



Top left to right: Savory Party Bites, grilled asparagus, simple avocado salad, strawberry smoothie, and fried vegetable rice.

Spiced Potato Swirl Pastries

Happy New year everyone! :-)
 Here's something to warm you up in the cold winter weather! Tramping through the snow and shoveling clear your driveways will certainly give you a good appetite for sampling this recipe. :-)

There is a popular Indian dish known as Alu Patra which are deep fried spiced potato swirls. Every Indian house wife probably has her own variation of it. Since I prefer to bake instead of deep-fry, here is my own "gopi-fied" version of the recipe. These pastries make delicious lunch box snacks or a meal in themselves.

Ingredients

 
Filling:
5 medium potato's peeled, washed and cubed
1 small zucchini washed and shredded
1 TSBP ghee (clarified butter)
1 1/2 tsp asafoetida
2 TSBP Italian herbs
1 1/2 tsp tumeric
1 tsp fresh ground black pepper
2 tsp paprika flakes
Approx 1 1/2 - 2 TBSP real sea salt (or to taste)
Juice of 1/2 a lemon
1/2 cup sour cream
1 TBSP cornflour
1 cup fresh coriander leaves washed and chopped small

Pastry:
1 cup all purpose flour
2 cups Arrowhead Mills pancake waffle mix
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 TBSP salt
3 TBSP ghee
1 1/2 TBSP apple cider vinegar or lemon juice
Approx 3/4 cup cold water or as needed
1 TBSP oil or ghee for rubbing
1/2 cup flour at hand for dusting

Method for the filling:

Steam potato's til soft and drain. Heat 1 TBSP ghee and chaunce spices for a few seconds. Then stir fry the zucchini a few minutes and add in potato's. Stir to coat with evenly the spices. Mash the potato's, add salt, lemon juice, corn flour, and sour cream and mix well. Simmer over low heat for 10 mins stirring frequently. Remove from heat, mix in the coriander leaves and leave to cool.


Method for pastry:

Mix all the dry ingredients together. Rub in the ghee til flour resembles fine bread crumbs. Add in the vinegar/lemon juice, and then add the water slowly. Just use enough water to make a lovely soft non-sticky dough. Knead for a few minutes til nice and smooth. Place in a bowl and leave in freezer to cool for 10 mins.

On a dry surface lightly dusted in flour, roll out the pastry into a rectangular shape. Rub oil or ghee over the surface. Then spread the potato filling evenly over the pastry leaving a 1/4 inch uncovered along the edges. Then beginning on one end pinch over the pastry into a ridge and roll it up as firmly and tightly as possible. Pinch the ends and sides of the pastry shut - use a little water if necessary.

Using a sharp knife, cut the roll into approx 1 inch slices. On a lightly floured surface - to avoid stickiness from the potato filling coming out - pat them back into rounds.

Lightly oil a baking sheet and dust with flour. Place the pastries on it leaving a couple millimeters between them. Bake in a preheated oven at 395 degrees Fahrenheit for approx 20 minutes or until dark golden.

Gently remove from tray with a flat spatula and place to cool on paper towels to remove any excess oil for the bottom. They should be soft in texture. Makes approx 12 pieces. Delicious served warm with a dash of sour cream.

 

Frozen Strawberry Dessert

Ingredients

3 cups frozen strawberries
3 cups vanilla hemp milk
3 - 4 TBSP organic maple syrup or to taste
1 TBSP vanilla essence

Method

Blend all ingredients together til smooth 'n' creamy. Pour into glasses and serve immediately or chill and serve within a half hour of making.

Vegetable pie

Today I was at a loss what to cook because we are out of many basic supplies in the kitchen. Well, as they say "necessity is the mother of invention," so it was a good thing, because I had to get really creative with whatever ingredients where at hand. Since we had a few odds and ends but not enough of any one vegetable to make anything substantial, I figured instead Id make a savory pie with a medley of veggies. Turned out very nice indeed! :-)
 
Ingredients

2 cups Wholefoods brand 365 organic pancake waffle mix
1 cup Bob's Red Mill wheat farina
4 TBSP cold butter
1 tsp salt
Cold water as needed to make a smooth medium firm dough

Filling

Grated vegetables of your choice - I used:
1 medium zucchini
2 medium carrots
4 small potato's
4 sticks celery chopped small (the tender heart of it and the leaves)
2 cups of frozen spinach
1 cup  frozen of sweetcorn

1 TBSP paprika flakes
3 tsp smoked Spanish paprika powder
1 TBSP Italian herbs
2 TBSP Cumin powder
2 tsp tumeric powder
1 tsp ground mixed black and red pepper
Approx 2 TBSP Sea salt (or to taste)
3 TBSP nutritional yeast

1 cup Ricotta cheese drained or 1 cup cooked down sour cream (or plain Greek yogurt might work too)
1 cup shredded Monterrey Jack cheddar cheese

Method

Place flour and salt in bowl, grate butter into it and crumble it together til its looks like bread crumbs.
Add water as needed to make a firm smooth dough. Put in fridge for 15 mins. Roll out on a floured surface into a round and place into a buttered pie dish, cutting off extra pastry from sides. Keep these to the side til later.Use a fork or knife to make some slits in the pie base. Bake blind in a preheated oven at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for approx 10 mins. Remove from oven and set aside.

Heat 2 TBSP oil/ghee into a sautee pan. Chaunce spices for a few seconds, add vegetables and stir fry, stirring frequently. Mix in the salt, lower heat, cover and cook til vegetables are tender. Remove from heat, add in nutritional yeast, ricotta cheese and cheddar cheese. (if you use sour cream instead of ricotta cheese
cook it down first til its thickened.

Allow to cool a little. Roll the extra pastry out and cut into strips. Put vegetable mixture into the the pastry shell. Arrange the strips in a criss-cross pattern over the filling. Place in oven and bake for approx 20 mins til
golden brown on top.

Delicious, best served warm. :-)

Cinnamon raisin sticky buns

These sticky buns are tasty and quite filling! They are typically made with white flour, but I made them with wholewheat and Spelt flour(s) to make them more pleasing to those with a more health conscious conscience! If you find this combination of flours too intense and want a lighter pastry use 1/2 white flour instead .Give it a go and see how you like them. :-)

Ingredients

3 cups wholewheat flour
3 cups Spelt flour
2 TBSP Fleischmann's active dry yeast
2 tsp sea salt
3 TBSP raw cane sugar
2 1/2 cups water
1 1/2 cups organic milk
2 TBSP butter

Filling

Rind & fresh juice of 2 medium sized lemons
2 cups raw cane sugar
2 TBSP cinnamon powder
3/4 cup carob chips
1/2 cup cranberries
1/2 cup raisins
Approx 2-3 TBSP water

Method

You can make the bun dough by hand if you have time. I happen to have a bread machine in this house,so I made use of it.

Put all the dry ingredients into the the bread machine mixing bowl.

In a saucepan, heat the water, milk and butter til warm - if it gets hot let it cool to warm before adding to the dry ingredients. Add wet ingredients to the dry ones and switch the bread machine on to the dough setting.

Meanwhile, to make the filling; Simply mix all ingredients together and set aside.

When the dough has completed the cycle and is nicely risen remove from the machine. Roll the dough out into a rectangle on a floured surface. Smear with melted butter or oil. Cover surface evenly with the cinnamon raisin filling. Roll up tightly pinching the ends closed as you go. Seal the roll by pinching and then cut into slices approx 1 inch thick. Place onto a greased baking tray. Bake at 385 degrees Fahrenheit in a preheated oven for approx 25 mins.

Remove from oven when lightly browned and while they are still hot place a tsp of butter on each bun and sprinkle with powdered sugar. Serve cool.

Ekadashi Banana Almond 'n' Ginger Muffins

By popular request I'm posting this recipe for Ekadashi muffins. FYI, folks, if you are wondering, "what the heck is Ekadashi," it refers to a bi-monthly fast abstaining primarily from grains,beans and peas, which is observed in the Krishna community.

When you cant use regular flour in baking, and don't have much experience with alternative flour substitutes, the end result often is dense gluey cakes etc., as probably every person who tried baking on Ekadashi days has experienced at some point!! I developed this recipe after some trial and error, and really you would never know these muffins don't contain wheat, except that they're lighter, and if possible even more delicious than regular muffins.

This recipe is very similar to the wheat-free muffin recipe I posted a while back, but here goes for posterity.

Ingredients

Approx 2 cups freshly & finely ground almonds
Approx 2 cups buckwheat flour
Approx 2 cups tapioca flour
1 1/2 level Tbsp baking soda
4 TBSP cinnamon powder
1 tsp nutmeg (optional)
1 1/3 cup maple syrup
3/4 cup safflower oil
2 pureed bananas
Approx 3-4 cups of water
1 cup cranberries/raisins/chopped dried fruits/orange peel - as you like!!
1 cup chopped crystallized ginger pieces
3/4 cup flax seeds
Sunflower seeds for sprinkling in the muffin tray

Method

Preheat oven - 385 Fahrenheit

Mix all dry ingredients in a big bowl. Blend together the wet ingredients and pour into the dry ones. Mix well.
The dough should be medium runny and kind of goopy (that's the buckwheat being itself). The flax seeds and cranberries are going to soak up lots of that liquid, dont worry! ;-)

Oil the muffin trays, sprinkle with sunflower seeds and fill in the dough. Bake approx 30 mins, til muffins are a lovely chocolate color. If the muffin springs back when you lightly press your finger into the surface its ready. Allow to sit awhile to steam themselves loose from the edges of their cups -- this especially if you filled the muffin dough in generously to the brim -- then they will come out of the muffin tray quite easily.


Makes approx 18 muffins. Praise the Lord for giving you a grand dessert this day and be happy! :-)

Banana and Lime Muffins

Today the sky is blue with a few soft clouds, the wind is blustering, swirling yellow and orange Autumn leaves around, and the air is fresh - full of life. Multi-colored fallen leaves carpet the ground outside, and it was such a lovely morning, I was inspired to experiment in the kitchen. The result is these zesty delicious muffins, and I'm happy to say I think they turned out perfect! :-) Makes 14-18 muffins, depending on the size of your muffin trays.

Ingredients

2 cups of all purpose flour

3/4 cup pancake waffle mix

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 cup fresh lime juice

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

1 TBSP fresh lime zest n lemon zest

1/2 cup cranberries

1/2 cup carob chips (optional)

1/2 cup flax seeds

1/2 cup toasted wheat germ

1 banana

3/4 cup safflower oil

1 cup maple syrup

water as needed to make a medium runny dough

Method

Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

Mix all dry ingredients together in a mixing bowl.

Blend the banana, oil and maple syrup til smooth, and add to the dry ingredients. Mix with water til you get a good consistency. Add into oiled muffin trays, and bake for approx 30 mins or til dark golden. To test if its done, press your finger tip lightly on the top and if it springs back when you release then its ready. Serve cool.

Stuffed Shells and Sauce

These stuffed shells are delicious!!!!! :-) I first learned how to make stuffed shells from my friend Kunti devi, and my version of the recipe follows. Have fun!

Ingredients and Method:

3/4 pk Jumbo pasta shells (of a 340 gram pk - Barilla brand)
2 pks (425 gram x 2) organic ricotta cheese
I pk (453 gram) frozen spinach
Approx 1 TBSP smoked Spanish paprika
1-2 tsp asafoetida
Approx 3/4 cup nutritional yeast
3/4 TBSP sea salt
Approx 1 cup shredded Monterry Jack cheddar cheese

Cook spinach for 10 mins or so, and strain through a sieve or fine colander. When it has cooled sufficiently take handfuls and squeeze the water out. Add to a mixing bowl with the ricotta cheese, asafoetida, paprika,
nutritional yeast, salt, and cheddar cheese.

Add pasta to boiling water with salt and oil added), and cook til al dente. Pour off the hot water, rinse with cold water and drain well.

Tomato sauce to pour over stuffed shells:

2 cans/jars tomato sauce (794 gram per can/jar)
1 TBSP organic apple cider vinegar or alternative
1/4 cup organic molasses
2 TBSP organic maple syrup
1 TBSP dried basil
1 tsp old bay spice
1 tsp asafoetida
1 TBSP sea salt or to taste
1/4 cup olive oil

Cook all sauce ingredients down til thickened, approx 30-40 mins on low heat.

Add a ladle of sauce into a large ceramic/glass baking dish and cover the base in a similar manner as you would when you oil a tray for baking.

Fill the shells with the ricotta cheese mixture and arrange in rows in the baking dish.When the dish is full pour the sauce evenly on top. Bake for approx 30-40 mins in a preheated oven at 425 degrees Fahrenheit.

Serve hot with a salad and vegetables of your choice. Serves 6-8 generous portions.

Why is Religion so often a Source of Conflict?

Check out this neat video with Radhanath Swami answering this timeless question on the link below:

http://radhanathswami.com/2010/09/why-is-religion-so-often-a-source-of-conflict/

LA Talk radio / Radhanath Swami

 Hi there folks,

Here is a what I hope you find to be a spiritually enriching radio discussion between Eliakim and Radhanath Swami on LA talk radio. Its a little slow to start, but well worth the wait, really great, so hang in there! Totally loved this, see the following link:

http://radhanathswami.com/2010/10/la-talk-radio/

Wheat-free Muffins

I conjured up these muffins today for a friend who has a gluten intolerance. I am happy to say that she loved them. They are fluffy,scrumptious and filled with healthy ingredients. Best of all they do not taste like buckwheat at all - you would never know there is no wheat in them!! :-)

Ingredients

Approx 2 1/2 cups freshly & finely ground almonds
Approx 1 1/2 cups buckwheat flour
Approx 1 cup tapioca flour
Approx 1 cup gluten free pancake mix (Red Mill brand)
1 level Tbsp baking soda
1 level tsp aluminum free baking powder
4 TBSP cinnamon powder
1 tsp nutmeg (optional)
2-3 TBSP vanilla essence
1 1/3 cup maple syrup
3/4 cup safflower oil
2 pureed bananas
Approx 3-4 cups of water
1 1/2 cups cranberries
1 1/2 cups carob chips
3/4 cup flax seeds

Method

Preheat oven - 385 Fahrenheit

Mix all dry ingredients in a big bowl. Blend together the wet ingredients and pour into the dry ones. Mix well.
The dough should be medium runny and kind of goopy.

Grease muffin trays and fill with the dough. Bake approx 30 mins, til muffins are a lovely chocolate color. If the muffin springs back when you lightly press your finger into the surface its ready. Allow to sit awhile to steam themselves loose from the edges of their cups -- this especially if you filled the muffin dough in generously to the brim -- then they will come out of the muffin tray quite easily.

Serve warm or cool, as you like. Makes 18 - 20 muffins. Very more-ish, these wont sit around for long! :-)