In order to prepare your stomach for the Indian cuisine, some recipes for cooking at home are presented here from time to time. It is also very good to prepare the stomach with ginger a month before the trip. Hot ginger tea and ginger water highly dosed. Also include a lot of ginger in your cooking.

 

So today "Kadai Paneer" is on the menu.

Kadai means "Indian wok" and "paneer" is the Indian cheese, similar to our cottage cheese. I'll tell you how to make paneer yourself below. (It's very easy and you don't need to buy cheese anymore). Go vegan is best anyway. However, cheese is still part of the traditional Ayurvedic cuisine in India. 

 

Well firstKadai Paneer:

and here again the ingredients for 4 people in German: 

- 1 green and 1 red pepper

- 3 tomatoes

- 250 gr paneer (or a little more)

- 1 green chilli

- 1 small head of ginger

-3 tbsp oil

-3 tsp cumin seeds = cumin

-1.5 tsp ground coriander

-1 half tsp tumeric = turmeric

-1 half tsp cayenne pepper

-2 EL geschnittene Fenuegreekseed leaves = Bockshornkleeblätter, alternativ geht auch     _cc781905-5cde-3194 -bb3b-136bad5cf58d_  dandelion. If that's too bitter for you, use parsley leaves.

-1 tsp salt

 

Paneer Jhalfrezi is very similar and also delicious.hereyou get a funny impression.

 

How do Ipaneer.

very easily.

You need milk, let it boil. Afterwards the juice from

Add about 4 lemons  (to 2 liters) .

The milk coagulates immediately from the citric acid.

skim off. Sieve in a fine cloth. Finished.

 

The cow makes milk for you.

Milkable on every corner in India. But something for the calf

leave. Here the cowherds say, two teats for the calf,

one for the farmer and one for the neighbors.

 

Basically, home-cooked a la Mama tastes best in India. In the restaurant you get all dishes a little greasy. In the ahram, everything tends to be more liquid as more water is added, and the dishes are not as spicy as the simple food is said to aid meditation and calm the mind. The food is mostly well-cooked, it is rarely firm to the bite. The food should be eaten by everyone in the family, the child and the old man without teeth. Indians don't quibble about their food. What is on the table is eaten. Food comes from God and is offered to God. We accept what is given to us. Especially in the ashram, cleanliness (saf) is the top priority. The food is prepared for God. Food is offered to him before we eat. That means no tastings during the cooking process. One does not eat until God has eaten. It is also said that our samskaras, which are our karma and impressions from the past and past lives, are passed on to others through the mouth. Therefore, speaking while cooking is also not allowed. Since we have enough to do with our own Samskaras, we_cc781905-5cde-3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d9_057 Samskaras_057 Add -5cde-3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_ to this. Traditional India has many rules. And all are spiritually based. A chef must be "prathiahara" (able to control one's senses). He is therefore a very highly respected yogi.

 

When you order a dish, it's always a little different than you thought. This is exactly what is typical of India. Everything is always a little bit different than imagined and we learn from the Indians to keep our minds flexible. 

 

I've been at the Santosh Puri Ashram in Haridwar for 3 weeks, where we even learn Indian cooking. It is wonderful. The days are filled with warm sunshine. It gets cold at night and early in the morning. It will be similar in March, so remember the thick sweater again. Although, yesterday I went on a trip to Rishikesh with my ashramis, and there are wonderful hand-knitted hats, woolen scarves, sweaters and socks with extra large toes for the flip-flops. The calm in winter is sublime. All the tourists are now in the south and bathing in Goa and you can see all the magic of Rishikesh in the silence. It gets busier in March.

 

Unfortunately, the heavy flood also caused severe damage in Rishikesh and Haridwar. A dam in the mountains burst in the summer, washing away entire streets and flooding the banks of rivers in the towns below. In Varanasi we were up to our shoulders in water and many temples and ashrams along the Ganges were submerged. The Indians have again dealt with it with admirable composure and not much fuss has been made about it. I still admire the man who stood in water up to his chest and still read his newspaper in a quite relaxed backbend. Om namah Shivaja!

 

The impressive Shiva statue that stood in the Ganges in Rishikesh (see photo gallery Rishikesh) has been washed away. The Beatles Ashram, an abandoned paradise of flowers and ornaments, was submerged and is being restored. The Santosh Puri Ashram in Haridwar is even closer to the Ganges than before. The marijuana forest that was in front of it has been washed away and the water came right up to the ashram gate. Many Babbas who lived there in self-made huts lost what little they had. One can certainly think about what we do to nature and how it teaches us allerorts lessons. We don't need to have western pity. Even the much-discussed misery, which you can see on every corner in India, is simply carried strong and relaxed. The caste system still exists and from a social point of view it is certainly a disaster. Spiritually, everyone carries their karma, does not complain, and plays their earthly game royally in any position. However, we westerners in India are the ones who keep complaining. I am also very often confronted with evaluating things once again from my western world view. However, this only leads me to a dead end  and thank God there is always this wise and constantly forgiving teacher Shakti, in so many forms, who has graced me here in India  takes me by the hand and forgives my arrogance. We'll soon get to know them here together :-) Hari om tat sat.