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.
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.
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! :-)
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.
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.
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:
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! :-)
I love these spiritual relationship guidelines, I had to type them up and post them! :-)
"To develop meaningful relationships with members of the opposite sex, we must become whole human beings who have no need to look outside of ourselves for solutions. Instead we must learn to turn within ourselves and connect with higher spiritual realities. How do we make such connections?
The following 17 points and practices, which summarize much of our discussion so far (in the book this is quoted from), offer guidelines for attaining the wholeness that can serve as a foundation for a strong, enduring relationship with a partner.
1.1. Love is necessary for good physical and spiritual health.
Someone who is not part of a loving relationship is ten times more likely to experience chronic disease, and five times more likely to have a mental breakdown.
2.2. Love is not a business arrangement or a contract with an escape clause for difficult circumstances.
We should not have this attitude or mood with our partner and surely not with God. We cannot approach the Lord in a mood of bargaining, and we should not begin our meditations and prayers with a long shopping list. Prayers of this nature are not based on unmotivated, unconditional love, and do not help us to develop the higher consciousness necessary to make us whole.
3.3. Love is a decision that we can personally make at any time and under any circumstance.
No one has the power to make someone else love him or her, but each person can always give away love.
4.4. Love is learning to love our true selves.
Those who do not care for themselves cannot love others deeply. The first love affair we must consummate must be with ourselves. One aspect of self-love is to observe four basic principles: no drugs or intoxication, no gambling, no illicit sex, and no meat eating. All these indulgences can weaken our basic constitution. The more we allow ourselves to live according to natural laws, the more we will become surrendered to the will of God. If we lack self esteem, we are refusing to see ourselves as children of God and do not have sufficient love and devotion to share with anyone else.
5.5. Love is about a quest for wholeness, and if necessary, having a partner to share ones wholeness with.
People who think that some other person will make them complete, or people who are waiting for love to come their way will remain impoverished and waiting. The more we become loving and whole, the more we will draw similar connections from the universe.
6.6. Love is not about two desperate people, who are only trying to find fulfillment for themselves, coming together to rob each other.
Two extremely needy, selfish people coming together cannot make each other happy. They are too busy trying to take and get something for themselves at the expense of the other.
7.7. Love is a holy relationship in which partners come together to serve and reveal their weaknesses and strengths for betterment.
In an unholy relationship, everyone especially hides their weaknesses. Such people are normally interested in erotic love (lust) rather than responsible, selfless love.
8.8. Love is really the energy and hunger of the soul. When we are asking for love, we are asking for a connection with the soul, which is part and parcel of God.
We should not expect love to descend on us like an attack of epilepsy. It must be rediscovered at every moment by transforming lust into love, thus connecting us with our own soul and the souls of others. We are all starving for true unconditional love.
9.9. Love is seeing our partner as a gift from God. We must go beyond merely loving our neighbors as ourselves.
We should actually love others – especially our mates – even more than we love ourselves. When we love our partners that much, we realize that they have been given to us as gifts from God and that we do not own them. We are merely caretakers on behalf of the Lord, and our responsibility is to fulfill the Lords wishes concerning them. Any attempt to dominate them becomes distasteful. Instead we should make efforts to bring out their higher qualities – a practice that will bring out our own higher nature.
10 10. Love is seeing our mates as a pathway through which we can return our love to God.
The love we receive from our mate actually comes from the Lord, and our job is to send it back. Others channel Gods love to us, and we channel Gods love to others. The Lord is engaging us in play to see what we will do with His love. We can reciprocate Gods love by caring for our partners with great devotion, as if God Himself were present.
11 11. Love is sharing your realizations with your mate, which will help raise their consciousness as well as your own.
Then your relationship will become one of growth and acceleration. If you and your partner are not growing together spiritually, there will eventually be a breakdown in the relationship. Sometimes we fear surrender in spiritual life, afraid of having to give up our identity or afraid of losing our partner. But we should understand that surrender to the Supreme is an opportunity to regain our full identity. Without a spiritual dimension to our lives, we are not integrated and cannot experience deep love.
12 12. Love is a relationship with your mate in which you visualize a triangle with points A, B and C. You are point A, your partner is B and the Lord is C – all of your activities are God centered.
Make an agreement with your partner to form this triangle as a permanent bond between you, so that whenever you meditate, chant or pray, you are in connection with your partner and with the Lord. You do not necessarily have to meditate together or think about the connection simultaneously. Your agreement will work any time and any place. In this way, you always keep God in the center of the relationship in all reflections and activities.
13 13. Love is always viewing ourselves as love in action and carrying love wherever we go.
We want to be so filled with love that it naturally overflows to everyone we meet. In this frame of mind, we serve as representatives of the Divine in every aspect of our lives, consequently functioning as vigilant spiritual warriors. We can practice love in action through the breath. As we inhale we visualize ourselves absorbing the pain and frustration of our loved ones; as we exhale we send happiness, joy, love and peace back to them. Actually this is not just a practice to help those close to us, but also the entire world. We inhale; we are concerned. We exhale; we are breathing out love, compassion and healing. This is not just an idle exercise. It has a powerful impact, and if we monitor the process over time, we will witness the beneficial effects on others.
14 14. Love is about developing competitive, selfless relationships.
At first this may sound strange and contradictory. How can we talk about cooperation, sharing and selflessness, and then advocate competition? But, actually, no contradiction exists. In a spiritual context, competition means that we strive to be more selfless than our partner, seeing who can give more. We compete in reminding our mate about the Supreme and encouraging that person to move faster toward the Lord. The purpose of the competition is to assist one another in spiritual growth. This process is only for people who want to be spiritual, who seek higher experiences beyond the flickering pleasures of material life. Such a competition in selflessness encourages partners to remember why they are in this body – to become once again loving entities devoted to the Lord.
15 15.Love is about offering the same quality of love you feel for your mate to everyone – but without the sexual component.
In other words, to extend to others the love you have for the most loveable being in your life. We may wonder how to subtract the sexual element. Just remember that sex and love are not necessarily synonymous. Our love for our children can be extremely intense without any sexual overtones. No matter what the circumstances, try to develop that same kind of love in each of your relationships. We all know the sweetness of loving just one person. Can you imagine how much sweeter it would be to have those feelings for everyone? Think of the loving exchanges that could develop, the reciprocation that would enrich our own lives and the lives of others. Unimaginable happiness, joy, and satisfaction would be our daily quota. We would no longer rely on particular individuals to give us this experience, because we would understand that we are really seeking God. The more we understand that God is in each person, the more we experience the Divine, and the more the Divine will make us whole.
16 16. Love is having or looking for a partner to heal the world – not escape it.
Normally many people seek out a partner to escape the world. They are miserable with life, and they feel that everything else can be tolerated or fixed if they somehow or other find that special person. We cannot heal the world if we are too wounded ourselves.
17 17. Love is about treating all relationships as practice in preparation for the ultimate relationship in the kingdom of God.
We should see all our relationships as God sending us a partner to fix whatever has to be fixed before we join up with Him eternally. This means that we should practice seeing our mate as an agent of God, recognizing our own divine nature, and remembering that we are children of God for whom great realizations and pleasures are available. Only in the kingdom of God will we find the love and the eternal relationships we long for so deeply."
Ref: Quoted from Spiritual Warrior 2, Excerpt from Chapter 6, Hari Nama Press, Bhakti Tirtha Swami
Gourmet Gopi features purely vegetarian and vegan recipes, some of which I've taught at our weekly University of Maryland cooking class. Apart from that you will find occasional ramblings, kitchen experiments, etc., and lots of thought provoking links. Come with an open mind and heart (and empty stomach, lol - credit to Bhaven for that quote!) :-D ys Gopi
Upcoming Events 2014
Our University of Maryland cooking classes became so popular, its more of a free meal for all than a cooking class because 200+ people simply don't fit into that small space!! :-) But our meals continue this Spring in the Co-op kitchen at 7pm. They run every week on Thursdays except during holidays and breaks.
Our Bhagavad-Gita Club continues on Tuesdays at 8pm in the Art & Sociology Building. Everyone is welcome. :-)
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