After having talked about Sattvik and Rajasik foods in the last two posts, what follows is the quote about Tamasik food:
yāta-yāmaṁ gata-rasaṁ
pūti paryuṣitaṁ ca yat
ucchiṣṭam api cāmedhyaṁ
ucchiṣṭam api cāmedhyaṁ
bhojanaṁ tāmasa-priyam
which translates as:
that which is decaying and becoming tasteless
and that which gives out a bad odour and is spoilt
also remenants of what others eat and impure
foods are dear to those living in the mode of ignorance
In most translations of the Bhagawat Geeta, it is simply stated that food that is not consumed within three hours of being cooked is tamasik. Now as I was growing up I remember how my own mother was a fanatic about such rules. In my mom's kitchen, anything cooked for lunch would not be carried forward to dinner time.
Particularly rotis were served hot directly from the tawa to the plate, so many a times, mum would be in the kitchen while we ate at the table. I remember this because I have a particular fondness for those hot rotis.
If a tomato had a black spot, my mom would not cut out the rotting part and use half, she would throw off the entire tomato.
There were lots such practices which nobody ever questioned but everyone silently accepted or perhaps took for granted. I understand today that though on the surface, it may seem that my mother followed litterally what she read, she was actually responding to her own instincts or to that thing they call 'voice in the head'. Or you could say it was Krishna guiding her.
I also had this thing that when alone, I only ate my meals when my mom would be sitting next to me, no matter how cold the meal got. As a child food was something I only ate if I had company, particularly that of my mom. My mom would accompany me but would also fuss over my habits and labeled me as a fussy / picky eater for more than a few such reasons.
Then when I got married, it was the total opposite, in my mother-in-law's house, food that has been lying in the refrigerator is considered safe to consume for upto three days. Money is precious as is the physical food so nothing should be wasted. I am trying to say this in a subjective way without sounding judgemental. But it was Krishna guiding them too to act the way they do. There is no right or wrong here.
Today, I understand why I did those things I did and even why my mom or anyone did what they did. As I look at my own daughter growing, eating, I learn more about myself and feel humbled to give back what I learnt. I don't know for how long will I enjoy the pleasure of serving you good food because I know your father is too preoccupied with his material body and mind to ever consider the value of good homecooked food that is prepared with care but I know, I can do this without expecting anything in return because when I am working out of love, I am learning something every second and at that time, Krishna is always with me. Goodness, Passion and Ignorance are modes of nature people learn to or teach themselves to live in on account of their Karma. While its true that we can shape our destiny by the choices we make, it is also true that we become a product of all such choices we make everyday and every minute of our life.
Going back to the verse above and what this has to do with everything I say, let me tell you the logic behind the three hour rule. The food we eat is made of the same elements that we are made of only it is separated from its life support system so it starts decaying, or lets say digesting, at a faster rate the moment it comes to contact with the elements outside it. It is assumed that within healthy bodies, this food takes around 3 hours to get digested or decomposed that is if the body's agni is as strong as the fire the food is cooked in. Now cooking causes the foods to decompose at a quicker rate, so cooked food is best consumed within three hours of being prepared after which it has lost most if not all its life giving 'prana' or 'pranic energy' and is more tamasik in nature. And it is Tamas that drives us away from the truth and binds us to the material world. So, tamas has its importance but ignorance doesn't. We need this body for this journey of life but we also need the knowledge to make this journey worthwhile. Balance is the key.
Heres a wonderful recipe that my mother would prepare for breakfast and is one of my most favorites. This is the way I prepared Batata Poha. You can make it slightly dry like so:
Or slightly sticky like so:
There is no one right or wrong way to prepare any dish. A good cook works with instincts and intution and is in touch with the energies with-in and with-out all elements dominating the environment in which the food is cooked and consumed. My mother was an awesome cook but my dear father was an ignorant soul who believed specific dishes should only be cooked in the way his mom did (trust me on this your dad was worst because his ideals were streetfood sellers and restaurant owners. Now most men are like that, women are too, we are all prone to it, its only natural). My mother's ignorance would hurt her confidence @ times and she would get defensive, I did too until I had accumulated enough karma for the knowledge to sink in. Now when your dad fusses over my cooking, I just don't react or chant to secure my knowledge. If you ever find me reacting remind me of the magic words 'Hare Krishna Hare Krishna| Krishna Krishna Hare Hare|| Hare Rama Hare Rama| Rama Rama Hare Hare||'.
Heres what you need:
2/3rd cup Poha (Can use white or brown)
1 small potato
A Tablespoon or more of oil
1 small piece of ginger (cut in 1/2cm cubes)
1/2 small green chilli (deseeded and cut)
A teaspoon of mustard seeds and a few curry leaves
Turmeric powder and Sendha namak.
A handful of peanuts and Corriander leaves and a few drops of lemon juice
And heres what you do:
Peel, Chop into cubes and soak potatoes in a bowl of water. Also soak the poha in a bowl of water (brown poha needs to be washed, drained and soaked for a small bit longer).
Once the poha has soaked up a little water, quickly drain it and leave in a seive for extra water to drain out. If you like it dry, drain out as quickly as you soak else allow to rest for a few seconds/ minutes. There is no fixed timing to keep in mind, follow ur intution (remember time is always relative to the space you occupy - like Einstein taught the educated lot).
Heat oil in a non-stick kadai, once hot, add the mustard seeds, ginger, green chillies, peanuts and curry leaves and stir continuously for a few seconds. Lower the flame to medium. Drain and add potatoes, stir constantly.
Cover for a few seconds if required. Once potatoes have begun to cook on the outside, add salt and stir. Once softened a bit, add the drained poha and 1/8th to 1/4th tsp of turmeric powder. Mix till all the poha has colored evenly. Add chopped corriander leaves and lemon juice before serving.
And now a little more about why we do what we do:
Rice is said to be the most Sattvik of foods and is also good for balancing all three doshas. Flattened Rice or poha is more easily digestible and thus makes an ideal breakfast. Potatoes, cooked in oil are also Sattvik and balance the sweetness of rice. Both are 'Shita' in nature so Mustard, Ginger and Chillies add 'Ushna' to the dish. Oil provides the Rajas element here.
Salt and Turmeric further aid in easier digestion or decomposition and thus provide necessary tamas to this dish. How they work is an interesting area of chemistry. They both have a sort of decomposing effect. Take the example of salt, when the cells in your food come into contact with salt, osmosis starts to take place slowly, while water moves out of the cell, salt moves in to equalize the salt content inside and outside the cell. This process goes on till enough water is removed for the cell so no bacteria can survive and this causes the cell to become dead. Dead cells or dead food is what we describe as tamasik. And water is the element which provides taste to our food, anything that has a taste has water in it. Water is Sattvik. Sattva is thus what maintains, Rajas creates while Tamas destroys.
The other ingredients help complete the six tastes which make a meal complete.
and that which gives out a bad odour and is spoilt
also remenants of what others eat and impure
foods are dear to those living in the mode of ignorance
In most translations of the Bhagawat Geeta, it is simply stated that food that is not consumed within three hours of being cooked is tamasik. Now as I was growing up I remember how my own mother was a fanatic about such rules. In my mom's kitchen, anything cooked for lunch would not be carried forward to dinner time.
Particularly rotis were served hot directly from the tawa to the plate, so many a times, mum would be in the kitchen while we ate at the table. I remember this because I have a particular fondness for those hot rotis.
If a tomato had a black spot, my mom would not cut out the rotting part and use half, she would throw off the entire tomato.
There were lots such practices which nobody ever questioned but everyone silently accepted or perhaps took for granted. I understand today that though on the surface, it may seem that my mother followed litterally what she read, she was actually responding to her own instincts or to that thing they call 'voice in the head'. Or you could say it was Krishna guiding her.
I also had this thing that when alone, I only ate my meals when my mom would be sitting next to me, no matter how cold the meal got. As a child food was something I only ate if I had company, particularly that of my mom. My mom would accompany me but would also fuss over my habits and labeled me as a fussy / picky eater for more than a few such reasons.
Then when I got married, it was the total opposite, in my mother-in-law's house, food that has been lying in the refrigerator is considered safe to consume for upto three days. Money is precious as is the physical food so nothing should be wasted. I am trying to say this in a subjective way without sounding judgemental. But it was Krishna guiding them too to act the way they do. There is no right or wrong here.
Today, I understand why I did those things I did and even why my mom or anyone did what they did. As I look at my own daughter growing, eating, I learn more about myself and feel humbled to give back what I learnt. I don't know for how long will I enjoy the pleasure of serving you good food because I know your father is too preoccupied with his material body and mind to ever consider the value of good homecooked food that is prepared with care but I know, I can do this without expecting anything in return because when I am working out of love, I am learning something every second and at that time, Krishna is always with me. Goodness, Passion and Ignorance are modes of nature people learn to or teach themselves to live in on account of their Karma. While its true that we can shape our destiny by the choices we make, it is also true that we become a product of all such choices we make everyday and every minute of our life.
Going back to the verse above and what this has to do with everything I say, let me tell you the logic behind the three hour rule. The food we eat is made of the same elements that we are made of only it is separated from its life support system so it starts decaying, or lets say digesting, at a faster rate the moment it comes to contact with the elements outside it. It is assumed that within healthy bodies, this food takes around 3 hours to get digested or decomposed that is if the body's agni is as strong as the fire the food is cooked in. Now cooking causes the foods to decompose at a quicker rate, so cooked food is best consumed within three hours of being prepared after which it has lost most if not all its life giving 'prana' or 'pranic energy' and is more tamasik in nature. And it is Tamas that drives us away from the truth and binds us to the material world. So, tamas has its importance but ignorance doesn't. We need this body for this journey of life but we also need the knowledge to make this journey worthwhile. Balance is the key.
Heres a wonderful recipe that my mother would prepare for breakfast and is one of my most favorites. This is the way I prepared Batata Poha. You can make it slightly dry like so:
Or slightly sticky like so:
There is no one right or wrong way to prepare any dish. A good cook works with instincts and intution and is in touch with the energies with-in and with-out all elements dominating the environment in which the food is cooked and consumed. My mother was an awesome cook but my dear father was an ignorant soul who believed specific dishes should only be cooked in the way his mom did (trust me on this your dad was worst because his ideals were streetfood sellers and restaurant owners. Now most men are like that, women are too, we are all prone to it, its only natural). My mother's ignorance would hurt her confidence @ times and she would get defensive, I did too until I had accumulated enough karma for the knowledge to sink in. Now when your dad fusses over my cooking, I just don't react or chant to secure my knowledge. If you ever find me reacting remind me of the magic words 'Hare Krishna Hare Krishna| Krishna Krishna Hare Hare|| Hare Rama Hare Rama| Rama Rama Hare Hare||'.
Heres what you need:
2/3rd cup Poha (Can use white or brown)
1 small potato
A Tablespoon or more of oil
1 small piece of ginger (cut in 1/2cm cubes)
1/2 small green chilli (deseeded and cut)
A teaspoon of mustard seeds and a few curry leaves
Turmeric powder and Sendha namak.
A handful of peanuts and Corriander leaves and a few drops of lemon juice
And heres what you do:
Peel, Chop into cubes and soak potatoes in a bowl of water. Also soak the poha in a bowl of water (brown poha needs to be washed, drained and soaked for a small bit longer).
Once the poha has soaked up a little water, quickly drain it and leave in a seive for extra water to drain out. If you like it dry, drain out as quickly as you soak else allow to rest for a few seconds/ minutes. There is no fixed timing to keep in mind, follow ur intution (remember time is always relative to the space you occupy - like Einstein taught the educated lot).
Heat oil in a non-stick kadai, once hot, add the mustard seeds, ginger, green chillies, peanuts and curry leaves and stir continuously for a few seconds. Lower the flame to medium. Drain and add potatoes, stir constantly.
Cover for a few seconds if required. Once potatoes have begun to cook on the outside, add salt and stir. Once softened a bit, add the drained poha and 1/8th to 1/4th tsp of turmeric powder. Mix till all the poha has colored evenly. Add chopped corriander leaves and lemon juice before serving.
And now a little more about why we do what we do:
Rice is said to be the most Sattvik of foods and is also good for balancing all three doshas. Flattened Rice or poha is more easily digestible and thus makes an ideal breakfast. Potatoes, cooked in oil are also Sattvik and balance the sweetness of rice. Both are 'Shita' in nature so Mustard, Ginger and Chillies add 'Ushna' to the dish. Oil provides the Rajas element here.
Salt and Turmeric further aid in easier digestion or decomposition and thus provide necessary tamas to this dish. How they work is an interesting area of chemistry. They both have a sort of decomposing effect. Take the example of salt, when the cells in your food come into contact with salt, osmosis starts to take place slowly, while water moves out of the cell, salt moves in to equalize the salt content inside and outside the cell. This process goes on till enough water is removed for the cell so no bacteria can survive and this causes the cell to become dead. Dead cells or dead food is what we describe as tamasik. And water is the element which provides taste to our food, anything that has a taste has water in it. Water is Sattvik. Sattva is thus what maintains, Rajas creates while Tamas destroys.
The other ingredients help complete the six tastes which make a meal complete.
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