TV Channel

Today we are preparing very simple food: kadhī, or Mahāprabhujī soup, some bhindī (okra or ladyfingers), and some rotī or chapātī. I will start with the kadhī because it takes some time to cook. We take some besan āṭā (chickpea flour). At home, of course, I use a different bowl. First, we mix the chickpea flour with a little water so that there are no lumps. This mixture binds everything and makes it a bit thicker. We know it as kadhī or Mahāprabhujī soup. Then we add some yogurt. If you have your own homemade yogurt, that would be best. We do not use smetana; it is too fatty, so we use normal yogurt. And something very important: when you use yogurt and open these containers, please do not lick the aluminium foil or try to clean it with your tongue, because there are heavy metals inside. It is not good. I heard from my dentist that this is not good, and she tries to help people remove heavy metals from their bodies. Of course, some say it is a pity because there is often a lot of yogurt stuck in the lid, but it is better not to do it. Then we add water—enough for two persons, one person, three persons, just as you would at home. It is important to mix and mix and mix it well; we also have to keep mixing while it cooks. Next comes haldī, kurkumā, or yellow powder. It is very good to use turmeric in every meal. It has a lot of calcium and is a natural antibiotic, a natural disinfectant for everything. The colour is very nice, and the food becomes yellow. Add a little chilli if you like; you can put more or less as you prefer. Then salt. We use sea salt, the coarse kind. Add salt according to your taste; it is better to put a little less than too much. Mix everything well. Now prepare the cooking pot. Here, thanks to God, we have gas—real fire. Many of us have only a gas stove or an electric one, but lucky are those who can cook on a real fire. The food then has a different taste. I put a little olive oil in the pot. We prefer to cook with olive oil. Into the cold olive oil, we put some mustard seeds and some cumin seeds, then cover it and wait until they splutter. Olive oil is very good for the heart. Throughout the whole Mediterranean kitchen, people cook with olive oil because experience shows that olive oil has a good effect on the heart, and people who use it have fewer heart attacks and heart problems. The seeds come first in the oil, and then we add the kadhī—the mixture we prepared. We have to take care, because when it begins to boil, it very much likes to boil over. It becomes more and more, so we stir it, and this also prevents the yogurt and water from separating. So you have to stir until it is cooking, and when it starts to cook, you can reduce the heat and just let it cook. Later we will add some more ingredients; we will see. Just observe the kadhī, how it is doing. Now we start to prepare the bhindī or okra. Of course, when we have our own kitchen at home, we have more routine. We have prepared the okra, of course; there are different ways to cook bhindī. The bhindī look like this. This is a big bhindī, this a small one. When we cut the bhindī, we cut only the upper part, not the whole top; we cut only this little part. Otherwise it is a waste of vegetable. And then we cut it in that way, like this, into small pieces. Some people cut it also in this other way; everything is fine. And some people stuff the bhindī, so they cut them lengthwise and put the filling inside. It depends on how you prefer. I like this very much. Bhindī is very good for those people who have problems with the intestines. In the stomach, bhindī have a special mucus inside, and this is very, very good for the intestines. One thing: when you cook and cut bhindī, please wash them and dry them before cutting. When we cut them wet, they become slimy—this mucus comes out—and it is very hard to cook. And bhindī do not like water when you cook them. Just cook them slowly, slowly, and do not add water. There are two or three vegetables: bhindī, baingan (the melanzane, or eggplant), and karelā. They do not like water while cooking. They have enough liquid themselves, so we need not add water. Here again, olive oil. Thanks to God, we have cold-pressed, very virgin olive oil, very good, homemade. This is something very rare, so if you have this, use it. Then we put in some mustard seeds, just a little. We have to take care when we cook that we do not mix too many spices together, because every vegetable does not accept all spices. So, of course, it is also according to taste, according to the type of vegetable, according to the season, according to the country where we live; we have to use the right spices, ingredients, and vegetables. We try to cook seasonally. Also here in Europe, in Hungary, in Croatia, and in very southern countries, okra is growing, bhindī is growing. It is a very nice plant, a hibiscus plant; it belongs to the hibiscus family, and it is very, very healthy. Many people grow them in their garden. We cut the onion. We have red onion and white onion; I prefer the red onion. It is a little bit sweeter in taste, but it has more iron than the white onion. And we cut it just before cooking, not hours before, so that it does not get a bitter taste. At the same time, I am observing the kadhī. What is cooking here? We put the onion in the cold olive oil as well. If you have your tawā cooking place at home, you of course need a flat one like the one you use for crêpes. If you have a gas stove, you can use a chapātī tawā, an original one like this, or one made of iron. What you use is up to you, but the food should not stick; we have to take care of that. Ah, the okra get the cut green chillies inside, cut to the same size. We prepared some chapātī dough before, but in the meantime I will show how to make it. The right chapātī dough is like your ear—the soft part of your ear, so soft. That is how the chapātī dough should be, and it is always good if it can rest a little. So when we prepare it, we do it at the beginning, and we let it rest, putting a wet cloth over it. If we make fresh chapātī, we use whole grain flour if possible. If you can, use freshly ground flour. I just cleaned the pot here. Freshly ground chapātī flour is always the best—from wheat, from barley, from bājrā, we can put all kinds of grains inside. Put also a little haldī; it gives a good colour. I do not add salt because the vegetables are mostly very spicy. And when we eat the chapātī or rotīs with the vegetable, we save a little salt that way. So now we look here what the Indians are doing. Make the pieces small, small. They take in the spices themselves, and we put the salt and spices in later; otherwise they burn. Actually, we can take some more inside. Okay, there we have enough. So it will be. Cover it, keep the temperature low, and it will be. This will also help more liquid to come out and the tomatoes to be added. If you like tomatoes, put them in. If not, just leave them out; it is no problem. Some people eat tomatoes, some do not, so we leave it like this. Uncover again. Let’s see what the kadhī is doing. Good. Let it cook. Now we can put the green onion inside. We put in all these good vitamins. Then it is very hot. Many of these cooking techniques and many, many recipes we learn from Swāmījī directly. He is the best cook that I know, and also from Umetsinghī—he was from Rajasthan, from the village of Lūṇāvā. I learned many, many things to cook. Of course, from all my friends, from my mates in the Yoga and Daily Life group, and then the hunger, of course, is the best cook. So we just mix it and decorate with a little fresh, fresh coriander. If you have them, you can also use your home spices. We do not test the food before offering it to our master, to Swāmījī, or on our altar. And if you like, you can always add some salt. Of course, Gurujī said, Swāmījī Master, Gurujī said, you never put salt afterwards into the food, because it is not correct. But of course, if you want, you can always add some salt. As it turns out, as good as it is, it will be good. Swāmījī always said, the best cook is the one who sees the food and knows what is missing; who looks at the food and knows what is missing; who smells the food. Now you can put some ghee or oil if you want. Round round. Make the heat a little bit higher. In that case, I will not touch it because it is very hot.