In the Kitchen

Aum.

With Chinnu having returned to India, our monks now have the opportunity to do more cooking. Currently, different monks rotate through meal prep every other day, providing a good amount of variety in styles and culinary creativity. We of course have large amounts of fresh vegetables coming in daily from our gardens and green houses, lending a high standard to the term "farm to table." With all this we're able to enjoy mouth-watering curries, rices, dals and other edible creations. Here, you can explore a few of the day's dishes. Aum.

Some bright tomatoes from our green houses to begin our morning.

It\

s a sunny, clear and brisk day today at the aadheenam. Time to fill the morning air with the smells of Indian spices!'

Today rice is black \"forbidden\" rice. Apparently named so because long ago in China only the wealthy and those in the forbidden city could afford it, thus it was essentially forbidden to those that couldn\

t. '

While many days see a more complex rice dish, we\

d like to know how this unique rice fairs without flavorings. Into the instant pot it goes!'

It comes out a deep and rich purple, with a wonderful texture.

time to process some vegetables!

Many south Indian dishes call for the basics of onions, tomatoes, chilis, ginger and garlic. Oh and of course most of the spice rack along with some curry leaves from our tree just outside.

These onions will make a nice base for today\

s Brinjal Curry and Channa Dal'

When feeding a bunch of monks, it\

s good to prepare a healthy heap of each ingredient'

Ginger from our gardens

Garlic, Ginger and green chilis (today we\

re using serranos) all ready to go'

Those same bright tomatoes you saw before

And some limes from our many citrus trees.

Today\

s greens were picked in the green house and brought directly to the kitchen. Talk about fresh!'

Chopped and at the ready!

For our greens we\

ll do an adaptation of a very easy but tasty sambol from Sri Lanka which would normally use pennywort as the green. '

It begins with green chilis and then receives onions, grated coconut, tomato, salt and lime juice. Simple and delicious.

Finally the greens are added and sautéed a little and it\

s ready to go!'

Next we\

ll make the Dal. These split chic peas were placed in an instant pot to cook beforehand. But (spoiler) it doesn\'t work very well if you forget to press the \"cook\" button. '

This Channa Dal starts with chilis and ginger. We like to take our time to diffuse their spice into the oil very well.

Then cumin seeds and a heap of garlic go in for the tempering process.

After that, our onions

Then some turmeric, coriander powder and red chili powder (we\

re using smoked paprika in this case)'

Mix it in and enjoy a kitchen filled with aromas

Then the tomatoes

With our mearly-soaked dal, we finished the dish the old fashioned way and boiled it until they were cooked.

Finally, onto one of our favorites. Our spin on Sri Lankan Brinjal Curry.

You\

ll need eggplant of course'

tossed in salt and oil and baked golden

We didn\

t have enough fresh eggplant on hand, so we added some okra'

It gets the same treatment. For those that don\

t know, baking okra like this is one great way of ridding it of its infamous slime. '

The dish starts with ginger, garlic, curry leaves, mustard seeds, onion and tomato

Then we add cardamom, coriander, red chili and cumin powders. Also a little clove powder and some black pepper.

Cook all that in and add the coconut milk. You can also add a little something sweet at this point to round the flavors, but the coconut milk is sweet enough for us.

Finally, mix in your baked veggies to rehydrate them with this flavor bomb of coconut-infused awesomeness. Jai!

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