If there’s anything yogis know, it’s that the cardinal yogic sin is to eat meat. Occasionally they’ll admit their transgression in hushed apologetic tones to others who may understand. Well, frankly, I’m not there yet, and I’ve never had much desire to be. Anybody who’s seen the enormous plants grown at Findhorn with the help of loving conversation with them knows that vegetables are living things too. So perhaps vegetarians might want to reconsider harming their vegetables and just fasting on water. Just make sure to put little labels on the bottles that say “love” and “peace” so the molecules won’t be too ugly under the microscope. I do think a lot of these dietary practices are quite charming, but I haven’t really felt a huge change in my life when I followed a vegetarian diet, and I’ve never been drawn to the dietary cleansing obsession that’s so prevalent in yogic circles, and I really think Mr. Emoto is quite nuts, though not as much as the people who buy wholeheartedly into his “science.”
I decided to cook up a little storm tonight, some of which is quite 3HO inspired, some not. When people go to summer solstice in Espanola, a lot of people make a big deal about putting black pepper on their watermelon, but I don’t really think anybody really is bothered too much by that. I think they’re really trying to distract people’s attention from the onion soup that is nearly universally disliked. I, however, was not terribly bothered by it. I was almost always so hungry by meal time that I’d have eaten anything. Well, almost. I met someone who bought a ticket to summer solstice, arrived and decided he didn’t like “the scene” and hiked into the Jemez mountains with two gallons of water and went on a “piss fast.” “Any time you feel a cold coming on, just drink a cup of piss, and, BOOM – it’s gone.” Uh, OK, if you say so! Anyway, people say the onion soup is really good at cleaning out your system and toning your nerves, and is really restorative throughout and after three days of White Tantric Yoga. (When are dingbats going to quit saying that White Tantric is a sexual practice? None of the journalists seem to have a clue what they’re writing about! Even the NY Times said White Tantric is a sexual practice in their obituary for Yogi Bhajan!)
Tonight I made a big pot of onion soup; onions, potatoes, celery, carrots, and the other two trident roots; garlic and ginger. The third trident root is the onion; together, all three are supposed to help your immune system, but they also boost your libido.
I also made a pot of mung beans and rice, which is also supposed to fortify your nervous system. Then I made some steamed greens; lettuce, herb salad mix, and broccoli, and a sauce of yogurt, turmeric, and the trident roots. I usually buy a sweet organic yogurt at Trader Joes with vanilla and banana in it. I usually add Trader Joe’s Southern Greens Blend too, but the package in the fridge had gone bad.
I made a pot of homemade yogi tea; I almost always have a pot on the stove and drink it constantly. The recipe is 1/3 cup of cloves, 1/3 cup of black pepper – which helps with allergies, 1/3 cup of cardamon, 12 crushed cinnamon sticks, and 1/2 lb. of chopped fresh ginger. Sometimes I add almond milk and a bit of turmeric to make golden milk, which helps heal your joints, and usually gets a bit of honey added to it for a yummy healthy drink. The real yogi tea recipe from Yogi Bhajan says to add 4 black tea bags and only to use real milk with it, not almond milk. Golden milk is usually made with milk and almond OIL added to it, but I don’t drink much milk, so it usually goes bad before I use it up, and I’ve never been inclined to buy almond oil. Some 3HO friends add Yerba maté to the yogi tea for a little caffeinated kick.
Then the sin; I made a pot of chicken curry with tuna, broccoli, potatoes, onion, carrot, green pepper, coconut milk, green Thai curry paste, and added a lot of the mung beans and rice to it. My last batch of seafood curry was almost identical except for the Trader Joe’s seafood mix and some corn, which added a really nice texture to the curry. I’m almost always disappointed by the curry in Thai restaurants now because it never has enough vegetables in it for me and often gives me a sugar crash shortly after eating it.
When people make prasad for Gurdwara, they usually play Japji while cooking it. I played Japji and Jap Sahib while cooking all this. I didn’t make prasad today, but when I first learned to make it, I looked it up online, and the recipe called for ghee (clarified butter), flour, honey, water, and sugar, sometimes with a bit of cinnamon. After struggling to make the ghee for the first time, I finally succeeded. I tasted my freshly cooked prasad, and it was yummy. Then I brought it to morning sadhana, and afterwards my friend Jeremy eagerly was about to bite into it, but the sugar had solidified and it was so rock solid that it couldn’t be eaten. I later learned that honey is usually used in 3HO circles instead, although sugar is often used in India. I guess it has to be kept warm until eaten though. Prasad is usually an equal mix of all the ingredients, although the amount of water and honey varies depending upon how well the mix is cooking. Technically, I think any blessed food served after morning Gurdwara is called prasad, but this sweet floury dessert is what we usually call prasad.
Well, all the garlic in these dishes will certainly chase any vampires away! Hopefully not any friends, though.