Today being New Years Eve, and with the weather cold and wet, I decided to stay indoors and practice my cooking, by learning how to cook Kachoris, which is basically a pastry with filling, for the Lord. I have only actually made them a few times, although I have eaten countless kachoris at various feasts. So I searched for some recipes in our cookbooks and on the Internet and found a nice selection of recipes for different types of Kachoris at harekrsna.com. So I have posted many nice Kachori recipes or variations, and will pick one to cook today for our New years eve offering.
Prasadam: Food for the Body, Food for the Soul and Food for God
by Kirtanananda Swami
Recipes contributed by Sridama das Brahmacari
from Back to Godhead Magazine Vol. 1, Number 32, 1970
Prasadam means food for the body, food for the soul and food for God. More specifically, it is food which has been sanctified by special selection and preparation and then offered to Krsna, God, in love and devotion. Cooking for God? How absurd that sounds to the sophisticates of this modern age! How anthropomorphic! Even most transcendentalists will smile a smile of condescension at the suggestion: cooking for God! But why not? We cook for every conceivable nonsensical purpose. Why not cook instead for the Lord? Why shouldn’t this most important and central activity of life be dedicated to the Supreme? Why not cook transcendentally?
I must have woke up hungry, because my meditation this morning was on wholesome, nurturing foods in the mode of goodness.
…The purpose of food is to increase the duration of life, purify the mind and aid bodily strength. This is its only purpose. (from purport to Bg. 17.8-10)
Foods in the mode of goodness increase the duration of life, purify one’s existence and give strength, health, happiness and satisfaction. Such nourishing foods are sweet, juicy, fattening and palatable. Foods that are too bitter, too sour, salty, pungent, dry and hot, are liked by people in the modes of passion. Such foods cause pain, distress, and disease. Food cooked more than three hours before being eaten, which is tasteless, stale, putrid, decomposed and unclean, is food liked by people in the mode of ignorance. (Bhagavad-gita As It Is 17.8-10)
Ran across this fine devotee cookbook on the Sampradaya Sun sometime back, and thought we should share it with our readers. The recipes did in fact remind us of the early “love feasts”, and devotee diet in the early days of the Hare Krishna Movement. Very Nice!
The following cookbook manuscript, which contains a wonderful collection of vintage Hare Krsna recipes, was reproduced from an old photocopy. While the manuscript doesn’t bear the author’s name, we’re told that it was likely compiled in the early 1970’s by Revatinanda dasa.
1970’s Devotee Cookbook
“This is a very limited presentation of recipes for prasadam offerings that I have become practiced in preparing over the last few years. The ingredients and basic techniques used in the preparations are according to parampara tradition. Whether the details are as Srila Prabhupada would have exactly instructed, I do not know, but I have experienced on many occasions that He has been pleased by some of these exact preparations. Also I have experienced that devotees especially, and usually karmies (non-devotees) as well, are very much attracted by my preparations. For these reasons – to increase the attractiveness of our offerings to Sri Sri Radha and Krishna, and to increase the satisfaction of both the devotees and karmies with the prasadam they take to purify their existence – I have prepared this small cook-book. It is simply an offering of one devotee’s experience in the matter of prasadam preparation.
click on link at bottom to download entire book in pdf format
The Hare Krsna Cookbook
1973 Bhaktivedanta Book Trust
Compiled by Krsna devi dasi and Sama devi dasi
“The Hare Krsna Cookbook”, originally published in 1973, was the first widely distributed book of vegetarian recipes, throughout the Movement. This was the book myself and many early devotees learned to cook from, and remains today my all time favorite cookbook, and is a constant companion in our kitchen. We offer the complete book on a PDF Format as a gift to all our readers this Holiday Season.
Dedication
Prasadam means mercy, and this Prasadam Cookbook is dedicated to the fountainhead of all mercy, the spiritual master, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. He is by nature kind to every living entity, but that ocean of mercy becomes fully visible in his devotees.
Srila Prabhupada has not given us some dry, canned philosophy to chew; he has given us the nectar for which we have sought so long: he has taught us how to render transcendental loving service to the Lord in all our daily activities. This book illustrates on of them.
The Process of Krsna Consciousness is usually described as one of dinging, dancing and feasting. We have already demonstrated to the world how anyone can sing and dance to the holy names of God, Hare Krsna, and now, with the publication of this Prasadam Cookbook, we hope that the whole world will feast in honor of the Supreme Lord. That will make this world like Vrndavana, the transcendental abode of Krsna, where Krsna, Balarama and the monkeys visit every kitchen with thieving intend and bless the devotees with pure love of God. (Dedication from The Hare Krsna Cookbook)
