I’ve been meaning to try overnight oats for quite some time. I hesitated because I sometimes don’t digest oats all that well. But this preparation is surprisingly fresh and light on the ol’ gut.

Enjoy!

Love, Shambhavi

Ingredients (for 1 serving)

• 1/2 cup gluten free rolled oats (don’t use instant oats or scottish oats)

• 1 tablespoon chia seeds

• 1 tablespoon golden raisins

• a sprinkling of goji berries

• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

• 1/4 teasoon cardamom

• 3/4 cup almond milk (or milk of choice)

• 1/2 cup yogurt - plain or flavor of your choice

• 1 small ripe banana or a half of a large banana, sliced or diced

• 1 tablespoon maple or vanilla syrup

Instructions

1. Add all ingredients to a quart jar and stir well.

2. Place the covered jar in the fridge overnight.

3. Remove from fridge and enjoy! I like to remove the jar from the fridge before I eat so that my breakfast is not too cold. It would be fine to warm slightly in a pot on the stove.

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Innovations

• Leave out the yogurt if you don’t want yogurt. The oats will turn out fine, but a little less digestible.

• Add a tablespoon of nut butter for a heavier breakfast with additional protein.

• Add chopped nuts before eating.

• Add blueberries, etc. before eating.

• Use thick poha (flattened rice) if you have trouble digesting oats.

• Stir in your favorite protein powder before eating. (I would hate the gluey texture, though.)

You can double or triple the recipe and eat it over a few days. A single recipe will fill 1/3 to 1/2 of a quart jar.

Kindred 108 is 100% supported by readers like you. If you benefit from the offerings here, please consider subscribing for free or with a donation. Thank you!

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Not quite ready to fire up a paid subscription, but want to show your appreciation?

Please join Shambhavi and the Jaya Kula community for satsang & kirtan every Sunday at 3:00pm Pacific. Come in person to 1215 SE 8th Ave, Portland, OR, or join Jaya Kula’s newsletter to get the Zoom link for satsang. You can also listen to my podcast—Satsang with Shambhavi—wherever podcasts are found.

I hated hummus, until now

The definition of hummus in the OED starts with the phrase “a thick paste. . .”

You know what else is a thick paste? Cement. Spackling compound. Basically stuff we use to glue stuff together.

Cold, dense, sticky, homogeneous, the color of a Portland sky in winter with an approaching storm.

Truth? Hummus was one of my least favorite foods. On Earth.

Enter hummus kassa, and my world comes unstuck. In a good way.

What is hummus kassa?

Hummus kassa is an ancient Egyptian concoction that I’m sure was only eaten by pharaohs, their favorite concubines, and whatever foreign dignitaries a particular pharaoh wanted to impress.

It has more ingredients than pretty much anything I’ve ever cooked. And somehow this leads to a magical, layered complexity of distinct flavors that cuts through the canonical pastiness of more normative hummus.

This slightly adapted hummus recipe hails from Treasure Trove of Benefits and Variety at the Table (Kanz al-fawa’id fi tanwi al-mawa’id), a 14th-century Egyptian cookbook. And we know that by the time things get written down, they’ve actually been around for a lot longer.

Hummus kassa calls for an overwhelming number of ingredients. I enjoy being overwhelmed.

But if you don’t, you could leave out some of them. Just DO NOT leave out the mint, rose, caraway, cinnamon, or Atraf al-tib spice mix.

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Ingredients

• 1 cup dried chickpeas

• 1/4 cup tahini

• 1/4 cup walnuts

• 1/4 cup almonds

• 1/4 cup pistachios

• 1/4 cup hazelnuts

• 2 tablespoons white wine or rice wine vinegar

• 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

• 3 tablespoons fresh mint (chopped)

• 3 tablespoons fresh parsley (chopped)

• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon - Ceylon is best

• 1/4 teaspoon ground caraway seeds

• 1/4 teaspoon ground coriander

• 1 teaspoon salt - less if including olives

• Juice of 1 small to medium-sized lemon

• 1/2 cup olives (chopped) (optional—I left these out both times I made the hummus)

• 1 teaspoon atraf al-tib (a medieval spice mix. See recipe below)

Preparation

• Soak chickpeas in water for 8 hours, drain, and cook until very soft (about 90 minutes). You can also put the unsoaked beans and 3 cups of water in an instant pot. Cook at high pressure for 50 minutes and let the pressure release naturally. Drain off the water and rinse before grinding the beans.

• Crush or chop all nuts.

• Process chickpeas in a food processor until smooth or mash them by hand.

• Add 1/2 cup water and all other ingredients to the mashed chickpeas. Blend until smooth or leave slightly coarse for a rustic texture.

• Refrigerate overnight to allow flavors to meld. This step will make your hummus flavors dazzle.

• Serve at room temperature garnished with rose petals and a drizzle of olive oil. Accompany with raw veggie sticks, flatbread, or crackers.

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Atraf al-tib

Atraf al-tīb (أطراف الطِّيب) is a medieval aromatic spice blend used in cooking in various Arab countries of yore. It smells heavenly. I imagine it would be a delicious seasoner of meats, condiments, and maybe even tea or coffee.

Grind very finely, then mix:

• 1 teaspoon black pepper

• 1/2 teaspoon long pepper (or an extra 1/2 teaspoon black pepper if unavailable)

• 1/2 teaspoon ginger

• 1/4 teaspoon cloves

• 1/2 teaspoon cardamom seeds (from green pods)

• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

• 1/4 teaspoon mace (or increase nutmeg slightly)

• 1 teaspoon dried rose petals or buds (culinary-grade)

• 1 small bay leaf, crumbled

• 1/2 teaspoon dried spikenard (if you can find it; otherwise omit)

Store airtight.

Classical ingredient list (for reference)

Arabic sources describe atraf al-tib as sometimes including lavender, betel nut, and beechnut in addition to the ingredients listed above.

Enjoy!

With infinite love,

Shambhavi

Kindred 108 is 100% supported by readers like you. If you benefit from the offerings here, please consider subscribing. Thank you!

Subscribe to K108 >>

Not quite ready to fire up a paid subscription, but want to show your appreciation?

Please join Shambhavi and the Jaya Kula community for satsang & kirtan every Sunday at 3:00pm Pacific. Come in person to 1215 SE 8th Ave, Portland, OR, or join Jaya Kula’s newsletter to get the Zoom link for satsang. You can also listen to my podcast—Satsang with Shambhavi—wherever podcasts are found.

Yay! I moved into a new apartment. It’s twice as big as my old place. For the first time in eight years, I have room to unpack all of my cook books, pots and pans, ceramics, and appliances.

So let’s get cooking!

How to enjoy your food and digest better

According to Ayurveda (and me), when we shop for food, prepare ingredients, and experience the qualities of a dish before we physically eat it, we are already enjoying and beginning the process of digestion.

Here are a few principles.

• Cook with your imagination as you stroll the aisles at the grocery store. Let yourself pre-combine ingredients in your mind, imagining how they will taste together. Then you can be creative and flexible, switching up recipes or inventing them on the spot.

• Activate all of your senses and “eat” the colors, shapes, textures, and smell of your ingredients before you taste them with your tongue

• Take the time while cooking to observe and wonder at the transformational processes of heat, emulsification, fermentation, proofing, pulverizing, slicing, and even simple mixing.

• Step back when a meal is finished and enjoy the uncanny experience of gazing from a distance at something beautiful and nourishing that you created.

• Before you dig in, gaze at your plate and take in the smells, sights, temperatures, colors, and forms. This supercharges your digestion and incites happiness.

Word cooking

Preparing food, creating in general, and getting more woke spiritually are all described as “cooking.”

For instance, if we are creating anything, we might say, “I”m cooking something up.” Spiritual practitioners in my traditions who are further along in the process of having their limitations destroyed are said to be “cooked.”

As a word cooker, I also taste the weight, texture, and vibrations of words in my mouth as I speak them aloud or in my mind.

Bloomed Saffron.

A former teacher of mind claimed that you couldn’t be a Tantrika if you didn’t enjoy cooking. Actual cooking helps us to notice and enjoy processes of transformation, of impermanence. Then we can better enjoy the moving banquet of life.

Blooming saffron

Bloom saffron by soaking it in a small amount of warm water before adding it to your recipe. Soaking brings out the full flavor of this delicate and expensive plant.

1. Gently crush 10 or so saffron threads using a mortar and pestle. You are just breaking them up a bit, not pulverizing them.

2. Place the crushed threads in a very small cup or jar.

3. Add 2 tablespoons of warm, not boiling water. Don’t add more water than this.

4. Soak the saffron for 15 minutes.

5. Pour the bloomed saffron and the water into the food processor or blender where you are going to grind your pesto.

Bloomed saffron pesto

Ingredients

• Bloomed saffron with its liquid

• ‘1 bunch italian parsley—just the leaves

• 1 cup walnuts

• 1/2 cup castelvetrano, picholine, or other mild, green olives, sliced

• 1 tablespoon capers

• Good quality olive oil

• Possibly salt, but taste before you add! Capers are very salty.

Instructions

1. Put all ingredients other than the olive oil into a food processor or blender. (You can also make this using a mortar and pestle if you have the time and energy.) Pulse grind until the chop is rough. You may need to remove the lid and scrape the sides once or twice.

2. Run the processor or blender on a low speed, or just continuously if it only has one speed. As it’s running, drizzle the olive oil in through the top chute or opening until you have the consistency you prefer. Most pesto is pretty thick. It shouldn’t be pourable.

3. Stop grinding, remove the lid, and taste. Add salt if needed.

4. Store in a tightly-lidded mason or other jar. It will last for a couple of weeks in the fridge if you don’t contaminate it with utensils that have food bits on them.

Making the pasta

Ingredients

• Pasta of your choice. I like to make some form of penne.

• Vegetables of your choosing. Broccoli, asparagus, green beans, sunchokes, radicchio, grilled squash, all good.

• Olive oil

• Shredded hard Italian cheese (romano, pecorino, parmesan, asiago, etc)

• Salt and pepper to taste

The amount of ingredients you use will depend on how many and what size servings you want.

Instructions

1. Boil salted water with a splurch of olive oil in a largish pot for the pasta. Cook pasta until al dente (a little chewy). Use a pot that’s a bit larger than what you need.

2. You can either steam or roast the vegetables separately, or you can add them to the pasta a few minutes before the pasta is done and boil everything in the same pot. Note: If you are using asparagus, it needs to be pan sautéed or grilled or broiled, not boiled.

3. Drain the pasta (and veg) and return to the pot. Coat with a small amount of olive oil.

4. Add the veggies to the pasta if they aren’t already in the pot. Add a healthy amount of the pesto. Stir until evenly coated.

5. Loosely stir in shredded cheese (optional).

6. Adjust salt and pepper.

Innovations

This pasta doesn’t lend itself to variations that include meat. I would suggest adding cubed, olive oil pan-fried paneer; crumbled, pan-fried, crispy tempeh; or toasted pumpkin seeds if you want more protein. Paneer especially is surprisingly delicious in pasta.

With infinite love,
Shambhavi

Kindred 108 is 99% free and 100% supported by readers like you. If you benefit from the offerings here, please consider subscribing. Thank you!

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Please join Shambhavi and the Jaya Kula community for satsang & kirtan every Sunday at 3:00pm Pacific. Come in person to 1215 SE 8th Ave, Portland, OR, or join Jaya Kula’s newsletter to get the Zoom link for satsang. You can also listen to my podcast—Satsang with Shambhavi—wherever podcasts are found.

I recently celebrated my 69th birthday. I’m officially referring to it as “70 minus one” because that’s the most interesting thing about turning 69.

We went out to dinner at one of my favorite Portland restaurants. Shout out to Bergerac, our friendly, neighborhood French bistro.

We had too many people, and we’re trying to be COVID-safer, so Bergerac staff set up a long table for us on the sidewalk. They even erected a large umbrella to block out the sun.

Okay, well, that blew over a few times until one of our handier friends strapped it to a tree. She just happened to have a strap in her bag. It was a sweet evening in Portland.

At one point, we got to talking about my years working as a cook, pastry chef, waiter, and occasional bartender. Next morning, I woke up and went through some recipes I learned while cooking in restaurants in my 20s!

I haven’t posted a recipe in a while, and I came across this beauty. It’s absolutely the least labor for the most flavor you are ever going to find in the recipe world. Enjoy!

The recipe: Collard greens, smoked ham hocks, and black-eyed peas

Originally from Tin Pan Alley, NYC circa 1980.

Ingredients

Adjust for the numbers of people you want to feed!

• Two, three, or four bunches of collards, washed and roughly chopped

• A half pound or pound or ? of dried black-eyed peas, rinsed

• A smoked ham hock or two

• A half-can or whole can of beer or a bottle of stout

• Water to cover by a few inches. You could also use broth of some sort.

• Ground pepper - lots

• Salt - you probably won’t need salt because of the smoked ham hocks. But if that doesn’t do it for you, add salt to taste

• A healthy swoosh of balsamic vinegar - don’t use other kinds of vinegar

• A small swoosh of tabasco sauce, optional

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Instructions

1. Throw everything except the pepper, salt, vinegar, and tabasco into a stock pot. You could also use a pressure cooker, but don’t ask me how.

2. Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer.

3. Cook with the lid on, stirring occasionally until the collards are soft and some of the beans are just starting to split open. You may have to add more water. The end result should be slightly soupy.

4. Remove from heat.

5. Scoop the ham hocks from the pot with a slotted spoon. Take off the skin and discard. Pull the meat off of the bones, and roughly chop. Add back to the pot.

6. Stir in the pepper, salt, vinegar, and optional tabasco.

Serve with rice and/or mashed potatoes or other mashed root veggies/ and or cornbread with plenty of butter. Jam is always nice.

Note: Smoked ham hocks are sometimes hard to find depending on where you live. If it comes to that, you can order them online direct from producers or speciality grocery stores. You could substitute high-quality smoked ham, but it won’t be the same.

Options

The broth will thicken slightly as the beans cook. Good enough for me. But if you want to get fancy, you could cook some of the black-eyed peas separately, blend them into a mash, and use to further thicken the broth. You could also use canned black-eyed peas for this purpose.

You don’t want to use canned beans for the whole dish. Collards take a looong time to cook. You couldn’t leave canned beans in the pot for that long because they’d turn to mush. So you’d have to add them near the end, which would result in an entirely different-tasting dish.

Shaka, a Jaya Kula community member, suggested a vegan version. Leave out the ham hocks, of course. Add some peanut butter made from roasted peanuts to the broth. I would add that you could toss in a handful of pan roasted red peanuts. You’ll definitely want to add salt if ham hocks are not included.

Enjoy!

Lots of love,
Shambhavi

Not quite ready to fire up a paid subscription, but want to show your appreciation?

Please join Shambhavi and the Jaya Kula community for satsang & kirtan every Sunday at 3:00pm Pacific. Come in person to 1215 SE 8th Ave, Portland, OR, or join Jaya Kula’s newsletter to get the Zoom link for satsang. You can also listen to my podcast—Satsang with Shambhavi—wherever podcasts are found.

At camp, we sang songs by Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, and Pete Seeger. Pete regularly visited and gave concerts for us kids.

When I saw the recent movie, A Complete Unknown, I was hit by a wave of memory and feeling. Music was a huge part of my younger years—all kinds of music—but this music particularly.

And it struck me how differently Bob Dylan’s The Times They Are A-changin’ sounds these days, and how fresh.

So I changed up a few words and got together with a tabla player. Here’s the result. I hope you feel it.

with infinite love,

Shambhavi

Vocals and harmonium - Shambhavi Sarasvati
Tabla - Charandas Batra
Lyrics (mostly) Bob Dylan

Not quite ready to fire up a paid subscription, but want to show your appreciation?

Please join Shambhavi and the Jaya Kula community for satsang & kirtan every Sunday at 3:00pm Pacific. Come in person to 1215 SE 8th Ave, Portland, OR, or join Jaya Kula’s newsletter to get the Zoom link for satsang. You can also listen to my podcast—Satsang with Shambhavi—wherever podcasts are found.

What is ghee?

Ghee is clarified butter cooked somewhat longer than the European variety. Every trace of water and milk protein is removed, and only the pure butter oil remains.

Ghee is a cooking staple in many parts of the world including India, the Middle East, North Africa, and the Caribbean. It’s known as samneh in Arabic. In India, ghee is made with either buffalo or cow’s milk.

When made correctly, melted ghee glows with warm golden goodness and is perfectly clear. Stored properly, ghee can last for more than 100 years without going rancid!

The spiritual side of ghee

According to Ayurveda, ghee is mainly an expression of earth and water elements—the elements that make up kapha dosha. Ghee helps us to feel grounded and nourished and experience the abundance, generosity, and continuity of life.

Ghee supports ojas, the more esoteric, expansive form of kapha. Ojas is the juice and strength of life. Healthy ojas grants good immunity and adaptability. It imparts cheerfulness and the ability to roll with the ups and downs of life.

In its most exalted expression, healthy ojas is a bridge to experiencing universal love.

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How is ghee used?

• Ghee is used in cooking and baking just as any other cooking oil. It’s also a main ingredient in many sweets from different parts of the world.

• Medicinal ghees are a staple in the Ayurvedic pharmacy. Some common medicinal ghees are triphala ghee, turmeric ghee, and shatavari ghee. Ghee helps herbs absorb deep into our tissues.

• Ghee gazing is an Ayurvedic treatment for depression. Just melt some homemade ghee and pour it into a glass or white ceramic bowl. Gaze into it for 20 minutes. Be sure to enjoy the smell!

• Ghee can be burned in the ritual lamps used for puja.

• For a special treat, try ghee as a supreme facial moisturizer.

How to Make Ghee

One pound of butter should take about 20-30 minutes to turn into ghee once it starts to simmer. It will take longer if you make a bigger batch or if your butter is not high quality.

Prepare a pint-sized glass jar by cleaning it thoroughly and letting it completely air dry. A mason jar works well. Both the jar and the lid must be free from any dirt or grease and must be absolutely dry.

1. Place one pound of fresh, unsalted, organic butter in a small pot. Different brands of butter contain different amounts of water and milk solids. This varies seasonally, also. The quality of the butter you begin with greatly affects the amount of butter oil (ghee) you will harvest. European-style cultured butter tends to yield a larger amount of ghee.

2. Melt the butter over medium-low heat. When the melted butter starts simmering, it begins to foam. Turn the heat a bit lower and continue at a low simmer with the pot uncovered.

3. As the simmering progresses, small blobs of milk solids appear on the surface, and the amount of foam slowly decreases. The solids progressively settle on the bottom of the pot, and the ghee becomes more golden and transparent.

4. When the ghee is finished, the milk solids in the bottom of the pot look a little “toasted.” The foam on the surface of the ghee greatly thins and dries out leaving a slightly toasted and broken up crust. The ghee will have a rich, pop-corny smell and deep yellow color.

5. Take the ghee off the heat at once as it can burn easily at this point. Allow it to cool a little while you prepare the jar.

6. Cut out a double- or triple-layer square of cheese cloth big enough to completely cover the mouth of the jar with some hanging over the sides. Whether you need a double or a triple layer will depend on the the weave of the cloth. Secure it over the mouth of the jar with a rubber band. Make sure you depress the cloth a little way into the mouth of the jar, forming a pocket in which to pour the ghee. You can also use a sieve or metal tea strainer lined with cheese cloth.

7. Pour the golden liquid slowly through the cloth into the jar. Discard the brownish curds at the bottom of the pot, or spread them on toast if you aren’t too concerned about your cholesterol! The finished ghee should be absolutely clear, golden butter oil.

8. Allow the ghee to cool thoroughly at room temperature before putting the lid on it. This prevents condensation from ruining the ghee. When the ghee is cool, put the lid on the jar. At this point, unless it is a very hot day, the ghee will have solidified.

9. DO NOT REFRIGERATE YOUR GHEE. This will cause condensation as you move between the fridge and the warmer temperature of your kitchen, opening and closing the jar. Properly made, ghee will keep for years at room temperature.

10. Always use a perfectly clean spoon to scoop out ghee for use in cooking. Never get any food particles or water in your ghee as this will cause it to go rancid and moldy.

Enjoy your ghee!

with infinite love,

Shambhavi

Not quite ready to fire up a paid subscription, but want to show your appreciation?

Please join Shambhavi and the Jaya Kula community for satsang & kirtan every Sunday at 3:00pm Pacific. Come in person to 1215 SE 8th Ave, Portland, OR, or join Jaya Kula’s newsletter to get the Zoom link for satsang. You can also listen to my podcast—Satsang with Shambhavi—wherever podcasts are found.

Hey there,

I recently started enjoying a bunch of new and new-to-me music. As the saying goes, the people need both “bread and roses.” So here are some super fresh roses. Enjoy! 🌹🌹🌹

with infinite love,
Shambhavi

Tune-Yards

Tune-Yards is a two-person outfit sited in Oakland, CA. They construct a lot of their own rig. They have a ton going on electronically, visually, musically, and movemently. Super playful and sweet.

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Esperanza Spalding

Esperanza Spalding is a bassist and native Portlander. Her voice is gorgeous and indefinably unusual. There’s a lot of jazz here, but also a collage of other musics. She’s won five GRAMMYs. So new to me, but maybe not to you!

Ablaye Cissoko & Cyrille Brotto

A magical collaboration between Senegalese Koro player, singer, and composer Ablaye Cissoko and Cyrille Brotto—a French musician and composer best known for his work on the diatonic accordion. They are playing together in Portland, Oregon on April 11th and 12th (2025).

Kimmortal

Kimmortal is a young, queer Filipino-Canadian musician, singer-songwriter and visual artist hailing from Vancouver, B.C. Her music combines activism, casual, but hard-hitting lyrics, movement, beauty, and playfulness.

The first video is a collaboration between Kimmortal (music) and SAMMAY (dance), a Filipinx American choreographer. It was created on Tongva Land and filmed by SAMMAY’s mama.

Kimmortal says: “Please feel free to light a candle to receive that abundance and send prayers for yourself and the community, send intentions out and in like the waves and cry if you want to.”

Velvet Shakes

So much great at-home music and dance happened when we were all in lockdown. Score another one for the pandemic.

Sylvette

A five-piece alternative rock band and choreographers (?) from Manchester. They’re “wordy,” which I like. The music has a somewhat porous wall of sound vibe.

Rachel’s

A student of mine thought I would like Rachel’s, and they were right. Unfortunately literally not around any more as a couple of the principal musicians passed away. But eternally gorgeous. Rachel's was an American chamber music group formed in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1991. They play a blend of classical, post-rock, and minimalist a la Terry Riley with a heavy dose of yearning a la Philip Glass. They featured instruments such as viola, cello, piano, guitars, and percussion.

Sofia Isella

I put this last because you might have “hung up” on me otherwise. This is actually one of Sofia’s least hard-hitting songs. She says things that need saying. Wildly popular, which is encouraging.

Not quite ready to fire up a paid subscription, but want to show your appreciation?

Please join Shambhavi and the Jaya Kula community for satsang & kirtan every Sunday at 3:00pm Pacific. Come in person to 1215 SE 8th Ave, Portland, OR, or join Jaya Kula’s newsletter to get the Zoom link for satsang. You can also listen to my podcast—Satsang with Shambhavi—wherever podcasts are found.

A Kindred108 first!

Hi friends,

This is the very first guest post on K108. Tess Brown-Lavoie is a poet, a teacher of literature and writing at Pratt Institute, and author of Lite Year— 2019 winner of the Fence Modern Poets Series.

Tess co-founded Sidewalk Ends Farm in 2011 in Providence, Rhode Island, and was recently the Anne Waldman Fellow at Naropa University’s Jack Kerouac School. Tess lives in Brooklyn and studies with me at Jaya Kula.

For your description2 — a poem by Tess

Many Jaya Kula community members are great cooks. Tess is one of ‘em. Thanks for sharing, Tess!

with infinite love,
Shambhavi

Pistou ~ a sauce for life

Pistou is a French condiment made with any number of greens, garlic, salt, and high-quality olive oil.

What can you do with Pistou? I literally always have this in the fridge.

• Dollop on salads of all kinds or whisk into salad dressing.

• Add to bowls of vegetables, grains, and proteins such as tofu, egg or whatever you please.

• Wrap into “handhelds” such as tacos, burritos, lettuce wraps, or vegetables and grains in rice paper wraps or even nori (onigiri-style).

• Float on the surface of boring vegetable soup to brighten the flavor.

• Fry an egg, or really anything in it.

• Coat meats with pistou before baking.

• Sneak into to other sauces to complexify and depthify them.

Your always-adaptable pistou recipe

Never experience sauce stagnancy!

Parsley is my go-to herb, but you can use basil, cilantro, dill, arugula, or any other green herbs to change up the flavor. Basil is most traditional.

And if you're part of a CSA, pistou is the best way to use herbs if they're piling up in your fridge. You can just throw any herbs in the blender with garlic, olive oil, and salt and it'll be really delicious and will preserve the herbs so they don't wilt and depress you!

Ingredients - only 4

• One or two bunches of a green herb—as much as you can stuff in a jar or blender

• Several cloves of garlic (depending on your taste!). I like four for a regular bunch of herbs.

• 2 tsp salt or to taste

• Cover with high-quality olive oil

Instruction - only 1

1. Puree all the ingredients together using a blender, food processor, or immersion blender.

The end. Except for the P.S.

P.S. It’s also gorgeous to chop the garlic and herbs on top of a pile of salt for a more rough-hewn slash rustic version.

P.P.S. Some fun optional additions: ground toasted hazelnuts or almonds, toasted ground pumpkin seeds, capers, grated cheese.

Store in the fridge (for like two weeks?), or freeze in ice cube trays and use at your leisure.

And now. . . (drumroll) more things you can make with pistou

1. Salad dressing

This is my go to salad dressing. I’m using the term “salad” broadly here to include greens with like a pile of warm rice in it or a whole cooked sweet potato or avocado or however you want to make it more hearty and delicious or even like a chopped salad with things like cabbage or grated carrots or boiled beets or … literally somebody stop me... 🤣

Ingredients

• ½ c pistou

• ½ c olive oil

• ½ c acid combo (I usually do half lemon juice half split between balsamic and apple cider vinegar but if you want to simplify just choose one acid)

• Salt to taste (Salt, miso, tamari—Don't be shy! Using enough salt is crucial to it being delicious.)

Fun options: nutritional yeast, tahini, sesame seeds, honey, chili flakes/chili oil, mustard, anchovies.

Instructions

1. Shake, whisk, or otherwise mix everything in a jar.

2. Pour all over your bowl and toss it.

2. Pistou-empowered peanut sauce

This peanut sauce permutation is good for noodles, or for a bowl of rice with steamed or roasted vegetables and tofu or and egg, or as a dipping sauce for umm basically anything. “Anything” is theme here.

Ingredients

• Big spoonful of pistou (Cilantro pistou is bomb in peanut sauce, parsley is good too.)

• 2 cloves of garlic minced on top of salt (This makes the garlic disperse better in the sauce.)

• Big spoonful of peanut butter or tahini

• Big spoonful of miso

• Toasted sesame oil

• Tamari

• Splash of apple cider vinegar

• Chili oil (see below) or any kind of hot sauce. Sambal is great in this, but really dealers choice.

Instructions

1. Put the pistou/garlic, nut butter, and miso into a bowl.

2. Mix in sesame oil, tamari, and enough warm water to make the sauce less thick so that it can spread all over your noodles or rice or vegetables.

3. Adjust saltiness by adding more tamari or miso or salt.

4. Add chili oil/hot sauce to taste.

3. Coconut pistou sauce

This is incredible on a noodles or rice bowl sitch.

Ingredients

• 1 can coconut milk

• 1 big spoonful pistou (especially if made with basil, thai basil, or cilantro)

• 2 cloves garlic minced on a little salt mound

• 1-2 tablespoons lime juice (or lemon if that's what you have)

• 1 tablespoon tamari or miso or miso-tamari

• 1 tablesppon toasted sesame oil

• Salt to taste

• Chili oil OR a fresh hot pepper, minced (dealers choice)

• Add a spoonful of honey and/or minced ginger if you want and/or keffir lime leaves.

Instructions

1. Put a can of coconut milk into a bowl or jar.

2. Add a big spoonful of pistou.

3. Add minced garlic, minced hot pepper, lime juice, tamari, toasted sesame oil, and stir together.

4. You can add some honey to sweeten.

5. Add salt to taste, and if you have chili oil, it will taste so good and also look nice in the top of the sauce.

4. Crunchy chili oil with Szechuan peppercorns

This doesn't have to be refrigerated. If you put it into liquidy sauces, it’ll be crunchy at first and then the fried garlic and onions will soften—which is a different texture but still adds really yummy flavor.

Ingredients

• 1 cup fried onions or shallots

• ½ cup fried garlic

• ½ cup sesame seeds

• ¼ cup Szechuan peppercorns

• ½ cup chili flakes (or less)

• 2 tsp salt

• ½ cup toasted sesame oil

• 2 cups oil of your choosing (I use olive oil)

Instructions

1. Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl.

2. Mix the sesame oil in and then cover the rest of the dry stuff with the other kind of oil.

3. Let marinate at least overnight.

4. Once it marinates for a while, use the oil to cook with and/or scoop out the crunchy stuff to use as a standalone condiment or add it to another sauce and create something more flavorful and spicy.

Download the recipes!

Tess Pistou Original Version

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Tess Pistou Kindred 108 Version

3.93MB ∙ PDF file

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Remember: Everything works. Anything goes.

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Hi Friends,

Up until last week, myself and our non-profit, Jaya Kula, used Spotify for our music streaming needs.

I’ve been looking for an alternative because Spotify pays one of the lowest rates of compensation to artists, and I learned that Tidal pays one of the highest.

Last month, the news broke that Spotify donated 150k to the Trump inauguration fund and hosted Trump’s inauguration brunch.

On the other hand, Block, Tidal’s parent company, has donated tens of millions to Black Lives Matter and other racial equality, indigenous rights, social impact, and solar power initiatives both in the U.S. and internationally.

And. . . Tidal has higher fidelity streaming music. What are you waiting for?

Movin’ on over

Now that myself and Jaya Kula have made the move to Tidal, I want to share some of my favorite artists. Enjoy!

with infinite love,
Shambhavi

Pandit Pran Nath

Pandit Pran Nath was an Indian classical singer in the Kirana gharana style and a master tanpura player. Despite being somewhat of a legend, he exemplified the heart of discipleship.

Pandit Pran Nath spent time teaching in Portland, Oregon and the Bay Area. He bequeathed us a group of wonderfully-trained contemporary musicians and composers.

Visit Pandit Pran Nath on Tidal

Watch this inspiring documentary about Pran Nath’s life

Bang on a Can Allstars

A contemporary music sextet or quintet depending on the year. They created a gorgeous acoustic version of Brian Eno’s Music for Airports, one of my all-time favorite compositions.

Visit Bang on a Can on Tidal

Cheb i Sabbah

Cheb i Sabbah was a composer, a convener of musicians from around the world, a creator of musical and theatrical “happenings,” and a DJ. His collage-like approach to composition combined Pan-Asian, Arabian, and African instruments and sounds.

Cheb i Sabbah was born in Algeria and called both Paris and the San Francisco Bay Area home. I lived in the Bay Area when he was staging his weekly rave-ish events. But I never went because I couldn’t bring myself to stay up that late! My bad.

Visit Cheb i Sabbah on Tidal

Abel Selaocoe

South African cellist, composer, songwriter, and genre-defying phenom will have you jumping out of your seat and maybe your skin!

Visit Abel Selacoe on Tidal

Yasuaki Shimizu & Saxophonettes

Yasuaki Shimizu is a Japanese composer, saxophonist and producer who collaborates with a wide range of contemporary musicians. I especially like the album Pentatonica which many of you have heard me play before satsang.

Visit Yasuaki Shimizu on Tidal

Kitka & Laboratorium Pieśni

These are a couple of beloved all-female, a cappella groups that offer haunting, traditional music.

Kitka has been around for decades with a changing roster of singers and traditional tunes from Russia, the Baltics, and Eastern Europe. Their music is lush and multi-layered with magical harmonies. Kitka is based in Oakland, California.

Visit Kitka on Tidal

Laboratorium Pieśni hails from Poland. They’re a feisty bunch who drum and deliver high-octane, righteous female energy along with pagan vibes.

Visit Laboratorium Pieśni on Tidal

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Please join Shambhavi and the Jaya Kula community for satsang & kirtan every Sunday at 3:00pm Pacific. Come in person to 1215 SE 8th Ave, Portland, OR, or join Jaya Kula’s newsletter to get the Zoom link for satsang. You can also listen to my podcast—Satsang with Shambhavi—wherever podcasts are found.

I’ve been developing café drinks for (embarrassingly) a quarter-century at this point. Y’know, for that café I’m always threatening to open. I also love science fiction.

When creators imagine future and/or alien cultures, they go heavy on the food and drink. I couldn’t be happier.

So I thought I’d bring my beloveds together for a tour of some of the most famous (or infamous) science-fictional beverages.

I’ve tweaked the recipes so that you can enjoy them without alcohol. Or not.

with infinite love and hijinks,

Shambhavi

Star Trek: Raktajino a.k.a. masala coffee

Raktajino is Klingon coffee. As a culinary phenom, its popularity has spread throughout the galaxy. Or it will.

No recipe for Raktajino is given in Star Trek canon. The only known characteristic of Klingon coffee is that it’s strong. Maybe for this reason, many fan-imagined recipes involve a dark, spicy espresso. Or maybe it’s because rakta means blood in Sanskrit.

In India, putting spice masala in coffee is definitely a thing. It’s like a reverse dirty chai. So delicious.

Here’s a basic recipe for Raktajino as it’s prepared on Earth at this time.

• Mix strong espresso and hot milk laced with a medly of powdered spices such as ginger, cardamom, and cinnamon.

• Add plenty of sweetener of your choice.

• Get your Klingon on!

GhIj qet jaghmeyjaj!
(Klingon for: May your enemies flee in terror.)

P.S. If you find some of the recipes in this post to be a bit of a stretch, believe me, you will thank me for the Raktajino. It’s the bomb.

Babylon 5: Jovian Sunspot

Babylon 5 is one of my very most beloved science fiction series, and there is a lot of human and alien food featured on the show. The Jovian Sunspot hails from our human family in the future.

Rumor has it that the drink first took form at Zeus, a gritty little spaceport bar on Io, one of the moons of Jupiter. Babylon 5’s second-in-command Susan Ivanova is credited with co-creating the beverage.

Ivanova is also a participant in the show’s only lesbian relationship, one of the earliest to be depicted on U.S. television. The show’s creator, J. Michael Straczynski, later went on to collaborate with the Wachowskis to make Sense 8. If you know, you know.

Here’s the widely accepted recipe for the Jovian Sunspot. I only tweaked it a little. It’s “traditionally” made in layers and then stirred before drinking. Add the layers to your glass in this order.

1. 2 oz. Coconut Cream

2. 1 oz. Mango Juice

3. 1 oz. Vodka (You can substitute one of the non-alcoholic versions of “vodka” or sparkling water or just leave it out.)

4. 1.5 oz. Cranapple Juice

Want more? Check out the Babylon 5 Cookbook: Dining on Babylon 5.

Battlestar Galactica: Ambrosia

Ambrosia is the favorite brandy-esque beverage of alcoholics in both the original and reimagined BSG. Said to be fluorescent green in color. It looks something like Chartreuse. Blech!

Here’s a completely new, non-alcoholic addition to canon invented by moi.

Shambhavi’s Ambrosia a.k.a. Really Really Green Tea Cooler

• 1/2 cup brewed jasmine green tea, cooled

• 1/4 teaspoon matcha whisked into 1/2 cup of room temperature water

• Lime syrup to taste

• Extra sweetener of your choice

• Fresh mint leaves, macerated with a mortar and pestle

• 1/2 cup sparkling water

• Pour over ice and stir thoroughly.

Can be served topped with fresh pomegranate seeds if you want to be really fancy.

Firefly: Mudder’s Milk

Mudder’s Milk is a working class smoothie from the iconic science fiction series Firefly. Mudder’s Milk is meant to be a meal-as-a-beverage and also alcoholic pacification for the masses.

Here’s a recipe from The Geeky Chef. And below is my amended version sans alcohol! A juice bar I frequent in Portland serves a smoothie pretty much like this. I wonder if they know.

Mudder’s Milk Recipe

• 1/2 cup blueberry juice or frozen blueberries.

• 1/2 cup milk of any sort

• 1/2 cup plain yogurt

• 1 banana

• 2 tablespoons peanut or almond butter

• 1/4 cup pan-toasted rolled oats or quinoa flakes

• A handful of ice (optional)

• Honey to taste

• Cinnamon to taste

• Combine all ingredients in a blender and enjoy!

Additions that will make you a more energized laborer (or anti-empire rebel): maca powder, protein powder, cacao nibs.

The Expanse: Coffee n’ Matches

I really don’t recommend this. But on the spaceship the Canterbury (the Cant), it’s customary to add pulverized match heads to the extremely bad coffee. Supposedly, the phosphorous makes the coffee taste more like, well, coffee, and it reduces the bitterness, too.

Luckily, once the crew of the Cant trades up to their new “borrowed” Martian warship, they also inherit the ship’s store of higher-grade coffee. No more match heads needed.

100 drinks you might find at a space bar

I found this list on Reddit. It’s totally a thought experiment, but a really charming thought experiment.

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Please join Shambhavi and the Jaya Kula community for satsang & kirtan every Sunday at 3:00pm Pacific. Come in person to 1215 SE 8th Ave, Portland, OR, or join Jaya Kula’s newsletter to get the Zoom link for satsang. You can also listen to my podcast—Satsang with Shambhavi—wherever podcasts are found.

Dukkha and Za’atar are hugely versatile spice, nut, and seed mixtures from Southwest Asia (the Middle East). Read to the end for many suggestions about how to enjoy them!

Curry Leaf Dukkha

from Ottolenghi, slightly adapted from here.

Curry leaves are a staple seasoning, especially in South Indian food. They don’t taste like “curry.” Their aroma and taste are mysterious, deep, smoky, and just indescribable. I adore them.

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup raw cashews

• 1/4 cup raw peanuts - with or without skins - I use red, valencia peanuts

• 1/4 cup raw almonds - blanched or with skins

• 1/4 cup raw hazelnuts

• Olive oil for frying curry leaves and shallots

• 1/4 cup thinly sliced, crispy fried shallots (optional)

• 10-15 fried fresh curry leaves (You can also use dried leaves)

• 1 T coriander seeds

• 1/4 tsp chili flakes (optional)

• Flaked salt to taste

Instructions

1. Toast the nuts in a dry skillet until slightly browned and fragrant. Set aside.

2. Put about 1 tablespoon of oil into the skillet and place on a medium-low heat. Add the fresh curry leaves and cook until crisp. If using dried leaves, sauté briefly until strongly fragrant.

3. Remove with a slotted spoon and place on paper towel to soak up remaining oil.

4. Sauté thinly sliced shallots until crispy in the same oil.

5. Remove with a slotted spoon and and place on paper towel to dry.

6. Once everything is cool, transfer to a food processor.

7. Add the coriander seeds, along with the curry leaves, crispy fried shallots, chili flakes and salt. Pulse to form a coarse crumble and transfer to a small bowl for serving. Can be stored in an air tight jar for up to a week.

Egyptian Dukkha

Adapted from here.

Ingredients

• 1/2 c raw almonds

• 1/2 c raw hazelnuts

• 1/4 c sesame seeds

• 1 tsp coriander seeds

• 1 tsp cumin seeds

• 1 tsp fennel seeds

• 1 tsp salt

• 1/2 tsp ground long pepper or black pepper

Variations: Add sumac, chili flakes, smoked salt, dried thyme, smoked paprika

Directions

1. Pulse nuts and seeds in a food processor and pulse on and off rapidly until coarsely ground. If you grind continuously, you’ll end up with nut butter instead of a crumble.

2. Place them in a dry skillet and toast until fragrant and golden brown.

3. Let cool completely and store in a sealed jar.

Palestinian Za'atar

Adapted from here.

Za'atar refers to both a plant from Palestine and the spice blend. It is comprised of a mixture of dried za'atar leaves, sumac, toasted sesame seeds, and salt.

Za’atar is in the oregano family, but it is not identical to the oregano available in the U.S. Most recipes for use in the West call for a mix of oregano and thyme. Some include a bit of marjoram, too.

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup dried oregano leaves

• 1/8 cup dried thyme leaves

• 1/8 cup marjoram (fine to use a total of 1/4 cup thyme if you don’t have marjoram handy)

• 3 tablespoons sesame seeds

• 2 tablespoon ground sumac - indispensible!

• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt, flaked preferred

Instructions

1. Place sesame seeds in a dry skillet. Stir constantly until golden brown and fragrant. Set aside to cool.

2. Place dried oregano and thyme leaves in a spice grinder, and grind coarsely. They should not be as finely ground as commercially ground spices.

3. Place all ingredients in a bowl and mix well.

4. Store in a lidded jar.

Notes

• If you can, dry your oregano and thyme from fresh leaves, your za’atar will taste much better!

• Don’t use pre-ground oregano and thyme. Off-the-shelf ground spices are often stale even if not out of date. They are also ground too finely for za’atar.

Ways to use dukkha and za'atar

• Tear hunks of your favorite bread and dip in high-quality olive oil and then in dukkha or za'atar. Flatbread is most commonly used in Palestine.

• Sprinkle over avocado toasts or cheese sandwiches, especially melty ones.

• Mix with olive oil and spread over bread before putting the bread in a toaster oven or broiling.

• Sprinkle over any egg dish.

• Along with olive oil, use as a topper for fresh cheese, hummus, or any spread.

• Season chicken or fish with either dukkha or za’atar.

• Use as a topper for pesto-y or cheesy pasta.

Enjoy!

with infinite love,
Shambhavi

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Please join Shambhavi and the Jaya Kula community for satsang & kirtan every Sunday at 3:00pm Pacific. Come in person to 1215 SE 8th Ave, Portland, OR, or join Jaya Kula’s newsletter to get the Zoom link for satsang. You can also listen to my podcast—Satsang with Shambhavi—wherever podcasts are found.

Millet is the grain most eaten by my immediate ancestors, and it’s the grain I digest most easily. Maybe that’s because it boasts four of the six tastes. Millet is mostly sweet, but also gives hints of salty, bitter, and astringent. In other words: it’s pretty good for you compared to other grains.

This porridge has many possible variations. Well, that’s the nature of porridge. I’ve put a big old list of them at the end. Enjoy!

Serves: 2-4

Ingredients

• 1 cup unsweetened milk or milk alternative

• ¾ cup coconut milk

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 2 tablespoons or more of maple syrup or sweetener of your choice

• 1/8 teaspoon salt

• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

• 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom

• 2 cups cooked millet

• 5 tablespoons unsweetened flaked coconut

• 2 tablespoons chopped nuts of your choice. I like toasted hazelnuts.

Instructions

1. In a saucepan whisk together milk, coconut milk, vanilla, maple syrup, salt, cinnamon and cardamom.

2. Stir in millet and 3 tablespoons of the coconut flakes.

3. Bring to a boil, and lower to simmer.

4. Simmer for 10 or so minutes—stirring regularly and breaking up any clumps of millet—until thickened.

5. Toast remaining coconut flakes if desired.

6. Remove from heat and serve with chopped nuts and the toasted coconut flakes.

Options

• Instead of mixing canned coconut milk with cow or plant-based milks, you can use a coconut plant-based milk or mixture. For instance, I use a cashew-coconut milk that’s available in grocery stores where I live.

• Stir in a beaten egg in the final moments of cooking for extra protein.

• Add protein powder — you’ll need to add more liquid to the porridge to accommodate this.

• Leave out the salt, and slice some sausage into the porridge while cooking.

• Cook bacon strips until crispy and cut into pieces. Top off your porridge with the bacon, and add some extra maple syrup on top.

• Whisk an egg or two and pan fry separately in the shape of a large flat omelette. Slide from the pan onto cutting board, and slice into “noodles.” Leave out the maple syrup when cooking your porridge. Add ghee and a little extra salt after you put your porridge into your bowl. Top with the egg noodles for a savory breakfast.

• Add a tablespoon or two of tahini.

• Add saffron and / or turmeric powder.

• Add goji berries and / or raisins and / or diced apple.

• Top with fresh blueberries or other fruit.

• Top with a dollop of crema or creme fraiche.

• Top with ghee or coconut oil.

• Top with vanilla syrup or maple syrup if you like extra sweetness.

with infinite love,

Shambhavi

Not quite ready to fire up a paid subscription, but want to show your appreciation?

Please join Shambhavi and the Jaya Kula community for satsang & kirtan every Sunday at 3:00pm Pacific. Come in person to 1215 SE 8th Ave, Portland, OR, or join Jaya Kula’s newsletter to get the Zoom link for satsang. You can also listen to my podcast—Satsang with Shambhavi—wherever podcasts are found.

I don’t really like dinner. Or I just want to have a smaller meal by the time evening rolls around. Nut butter toasts are one of my go-tos.

At my advanced stage of culinary haute-iness, the standard peanut butter and jelly feels too sticky in my mouth and too heavy in my tummy.

Here are an excess of alternatives. I like almond butter because it’s not so gluey and the taste is sweeter and smokier than peanuts. But feel free to use the nut butters you love.

Almond Butter, Hazelnut, and Miso Toast (and variations)

Ingredients

• bread of choice

• unsalted, smooth almond butter 

• white or red miso paste

• toasted, chopped hazelnuts

• raw honey

Instructions

1. Toast your bread.

2. Spread miso on the bread.

3. Layer with almond butter.

4. Sprinkle with toasted hazelnuts and drizzle on honey.

Variations

• Instead of miso, start with a layer of good quality olive oil and top the sandwich with salt flakes (this is actually my favorite version).

• Add thinly sliced apple.

• Add slices of good quality sharp English cheddar: the more aged, drier, flaky kind, not the young, dense, mushy American kind.

• Use sweet or hot mango chutney instead of or with the honey.

A note to K108 readers (especially the new folks)

Why recipes? Cooking has always been a part of how I express my fascination with the feast of the senses that is manifest life. The colors, the textures, the shapes, the smells, and how everything transforms when combined: these are what make cooking a perfect celebration of the magical artistry of this world.

If you want to read more about why K108 is so eclectic, check out my first K108 post: Little Red Books.

Please join Shambhavi and the Jaya Kula community for satsang & kirtan every Sunday at 3:00pm Pacific. Come in person to 1215 SE 8th Ave, Portland, OR, or join Jaya Kula’s newsletter to get the Zoom link for satsang. You can also listen to my podcast—Satsang with Shambhavi—wherever podcasts are found.

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Poha is flattened rice. It looks more like pillow stuffing than food, imho, but it makes a wonderful savory breakfast or sweet snack. It’s also loved by Lord Ganesha and is offered to him in puja, with jaggery sugar, of course. P.S. The photo is from a spring version.

This version of my poha recipe features winter veggies and spices! There are quite a few ingredients, but once you get the hang of it, from start to finish will only take you about 15 minutes.

Size: 1 serving

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup thick poha

• 1 tablespoon ghee

• 1 small diced potato

• 1/4 cup sliced green beans.

• Any other veggies you want to add. For winter, I like cauliflower, delicata squash, green peas, and/or winter greens. (optional)

• 12 unsalted raw red peanuts - basically “some.”

• 6 whole unsalted cashews (roasted or unroasted)(optional)

• 3-5 curry leaves, dried or fresh

• paneer, cut into small cubes (optional)

• 1 scallion sliced

• 1/4 tsp brown or black mustard seed

• 1/2 tsp turmeric

• 1/4 tsp ground fenugreek

• 1/4 tsp ground coriander

• 1/4 tsp ground cumin

• salt to taste

• juice from 1/4 lemon

• 1/4 cup water

• 1 tsp sugar or jaggery (optional)

• 1 egg

• chopped cilantro

Instructions

1. Heat 2 teaspoons of ghee in a skillet.

2. Add the potatoes and sauté until nearly done.

3. Add the green beans and other veggies and sautée until done. 

4. Add the nuts and sliced scallion. Sauté until slightly browned

5. Add all of the spices, including the salt and sugar if you are using sugar. Mix well and cook for an additional few minutes until fragrant.

6. Add the paneer and cook a bit more until cheese is slightly browned.

7. Add lemon juice and poha. Mix well so spices coat the poha.

8. Add the water and cook while stirring until the poha softens and the water is evaporated. Poha varies greatly, so you may need more or less water. You want the poha to be softened, but not mushy.

9. Move everything into the bowl you are going to eat from.

10. Fry an egg in the remaining ghee. I like to puncture the yolk and turn it once. You do it your way.

11. Serve the poha topped with the fried egg and chopped cilantro.

Lots of love,

Shambhavi

Want more? Please join me and the Jaya Kula community for satsang & kirtan every Sunday at 3:00pm Pacific. Come in person to 1215 SE 8th Ave, Portland, OR, or join Jaya Kula’s newsletter to get the Zoom link for satsang. You can also listen to my podcast—Satsang with Shambhavi—wherever podcasts are found.

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k

Me ‘n tea

If my digestion were less finicky, breakfast and dinner would consist of tea and biscuits or scones with a healthy lunch in between.

I can go into raptures over Chinese and Japanese barely-sweet cookies, and of course, who doesn’t love nitpicking the varieties of scones and their aberrations?

I even confess to loving the cheapo digestive “bickies” you find all over India. Don’t look at the heart attack-inducing ingredient list, just enjoy!

But more than the biscuits and scones themselves, I’m really into tea: learning about the history and cultivation of different kinds of teas, understanding their properties, preparing teas, serving tea, tea pots, and tea cups. One day maybe I’ll learn about prognosticating with tea.

Tea is a wisdom tradition holder and a teacher, but I’m not saying anything that generation upon generation of tea cultivators and drinkers don’t already know.

Where I buy tea

• My go-to Indian tea purveyor is Teabox, a farm-to-you outfit in West Bengal. Their teas are high quality and fresh, and they actively support the creation of better conditions for tea plantation workers and more sustainable growing practices.

• If Chinese teas are your thing, check out Song Tea in San Francisco. For a very special (but not expensive) treat, try their soba tea. It’s a blend of roasted buckwheat, Peruvian cocoa nibs, Chinese licorice, and a hint of oolong. Fully organic.

• Another wonderful Chinese tea seller and tea educator is Grass People Tree. Founder Rui Liu is dedicated to preserving indigenous tea practices, including the harvesting of wild tea, and breaking colonialist influences on our relationship to tea.

Both Song Tea and Grass People Tree sell tea ceramics. But if you have a hankering for traditional clay tea cups from India, you can find several styles at Pure Indian Foods.

The Teahouse

Rui Liu of Grass People Tree says that the Chinese teahouse is the pub of Chinese culture. I’ve been lucky enough to spend time in a variety of teahouses over the years.

My two favorites have been the Imperial Tea Court, formerly in Berkeley, California and Heaven’s Tea right here in Portland, Oregon.

The Imperial Tea Court is owned by tea connoisseur and educator Roy Fong and family. They sell wonderful teas online, so have at it.

Their original teahouse in Berkeley was a slightly funky, cozy haven serving up traditional Chinese tea and a changing menu of absolutely delicious homemade food. It was fun to hang out there for an afternoon with friends and many rounds of tea. The small plates of curry with homemade noodles were my favorite.

The Imperial Tea Court still runs a teahouse at the Ferry Building in San Francisco. Definitely worth a visit, but given the uber-fancy, touristic location, I can’t imagine it’s as tempting as the original.

Heavens Tea School of Tea Arts

Presided over by tea mystic extraordinaire, Po Rosenberg, Heavens Tea isn’t a public teahouse exactly, but you can schedule magical and medicinal tea journeys with Po and a group of friends, or go solo!

Heavens Tea offers both an indoor teahouse encircled by mountains of rare teas and an outdoor tea pavilion.

Matri’s Russian Tea Cakes

No cuppa would be complete (imho) without a not-too-sweet biscuit or tea cake of some variety. Here is a recipe for a Jaya Kula favorite.

Ingredients

• 1 stick unsalted butter, softened

• 1/4 cup maple syrup

• 1 tsp almond extract

• 1/2 t vanilla extract

• 3 cups superfine almond flour

• 1/2 cup oat flour

• 1/3 c tapioca flour or starch of choice

• 2/3 cup raw walnuts, finely ground (or pecans)

• 1/4 t salt

• 1/2 t cardamon (and/or other spices if you wish)

• Sugar of your choice for rolling

Instructions

1. Whip butter with a mixer on medium speed for a minute or so.

2. Add the rest of the ingredients, and mix until well combined.

3. Form balls about 1 to 1.5 inches in diameter and place on a buttered baking sheet.

4. Place tray of dough balls in the freezer and freeze for 15 minutes.

5. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

6. Roll each ball of dough in the sweetener of choice.

7. Bake 12 to 15 minutes, just until cookies begin turning slightly golden-brown.

Not quite ready to fire up a paid subscription, but want to show your appreciation?

Please join Shambhavi and the Jaya Kula community for satsang & kirtan every Sunday at 3:00pm Pacific. Come in person to 1215 SE 8th Ave, Portland, OR, or join Jaya Kula’s newsletter to get the Zoom link for satsang. You can also listen to my podcast—Satsang with Shambhavi—wherever podcasts are found.

The Story

A teacher once said to me, “You can’t be a Tantrika if you don’t like to cook.”

I doubt this is true, but I get the underlying sentiment.

Many of my students are wonderful cooks, and we love sharing and testing recipes together.

I’ve been an ardent cook since I was a little girl. Later, I worked as a pastry chef, prep cook, caterer, and as sole cook for a couple of one-person restaurant kitchens in NYC.

I could tell you lots of stories about my professional cooking days. But that’s a whole ‘nother post.

I’ll just plop a story here about the time I catered a party for a NYC socialite. The guest list included Jackie O., Robert Redford, Diane Keaton, and Woody Allen. One thing I remember is that when Jackie greeted me, she tilted her head toward me in a rather queen-like half-nod, and not a single hair on her head moved. It was like she was wearing a helmet.

Anyways, only a few hours before I was to begin cooking, the socialite informed me that the guest list had nearly doubled. She didn’t want to pay me more, and I couldn’t refuse as, at the time, I was pretty broke.

It was also too late to hire help, and the increased number of guests was really too much for one person. But I soldiered through.

If you don’t know, professional cooking is pretty hard labor. By the time everything was done and served, I was wrecked.

Unbeknownst to me, at these super-fancy catered events, the cooks are supposed to take a bow. Cooks are also supposed to change into clean clothes before taking said bow.

But I went out in front of the fanciest of the fancy in a filthy apron, probably with something stuck in my hair, and definitely looking frazzled.

I remember the sound of the clapping and their perfect smiles.

And then there was the time I critiqued a caesar salad and pissed off Lauren Bacall. . .

Vidhra’s Sprouted Grain Blender Bread

Wet Ingredients

• 4 large eggs

• 1.25 cups raw whole grain. Vidhra uses half quinoa and half raw buckwheat groats, soaked 8 - 12 hours and very well drained

• 3 tbsp apple cider vinegar

• 6 tbsp ghee (can sub another fat)

• 1.5 tsp salt

• 3 tbsp maple or date syrup

• 1/2 cup chia seeds

Dry Ingredients

• 1 tsp baking soda

• 1 tbsp nutritional yeast

• 2/3 cup whole pumpkin seeds

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350º F. 

2. Line a 9 x 5 loaf pan with parchment paper so it hangs over the sides.

3. In any blender, add the eggs and soaked seeds or grain, very well drained. Blend until almost liquefied and fairly smooth.

4. Add vinegar, oil, salt, and syrup. Blend well.

5. Add chia seeds and continue to blend. The mixture will begin to thicken. You may need to stop the blender occasionally and stir.

6. Add baking soda, nutritional yeast, and pumpkin seeds, Blend very briefly so the pumpkin seeds stay in big chunks. 

7. Pour into the pan and bake for 40 to 45 minutes. 

8. Remove from the oven and allow to cool 20 minutes.

Slice and enjoy!

Sangita’s Vegan Almond Keto Bread

Ingredients

• 2 cups + 1 tbsp almond flour or almond meal

• ⅓ cup finely ground pumpkin seeds

• 3 tbsp ground flaxseeds

• 6 tbsp whole psyllium husks

• 2 tsp baking powder

• 1 tsp salt

• 2 tbsp avocado or olive oil

• 1.3 cups warm water

• 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar

• sunflower seeds to garnish (optional)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400°F

2. In a large bowl, mix the almond flour, pumpkin seed flour, ground flaxseeds, psyllium husk, baking powder, and salt. Whisk together.

3. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients. Add the oil, water, and apple cider vinegar to the well and mix with a spatula or wooden spoon, folding the ingredients until they hold together.

4. Knead with your hands briefly until a dough forms.

5. Set aside for 1-2 minutes to allow the fiber to absorb the liquid so that the dough is easier to shape.

6. Sangita uses an 8” loaf pan, but any similarly sized baking pan will do. Gently, shape the dough into a loaf or whatever shape you desire so that's a little smaller than your pan. Use minimal force when shaping the dough so that it does not become too dense.

7. Gently, smooth out the surface of the loaf with damp hands.

8. Place the loaf on a piece of parchment paper and lift it into the pan. The parchment should be large enough that it drapes slightly over the sides of the pan.

9. Sprinkle the loaf with sunflower seeds as desired and bake for 60-70 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the center of your loaf comes out clean.

10. Allow to cool for 10 minutes and then gently lift out of the pan.

Want more? Please join me and the Jaya Kula community for satsang & kirtan every Sunday at 3:00pm Pacific. Come in person to 1215 SE 8th Ave, Portland, OR, or join Jaya Kula’s newsletter to get the Zoom link for satsang. You can also listen to my podcast—Satsang with Shambhavi—wherever podcasts are found.

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The Story

I was introduced to Mexican and Salvadoran Crema in the 1980s in New York City via my undying passion for plantains and pupusas. Crema is often served with these dishes although, much to my horror, I was recently served a “cream” of water and powdered sugar with my pupusas. I guess it’s a regional thing.

Due to the prevalence of sour cream in my mother’s cuisine, I was already primed to love all of the variations from sour cream to crema to creme fraiche, the thicker French version. But after discovering crema, I had a new obsession.

So what’s so great about crema? Well, in terms of thickness, crema is smooth, glossy, and slightly pourable. Sour cream weighs in next on the thick-o-meter. Creme fraiche, my least favorite, is saturated sludge.

Crema is also the least sour. Sour cream is. . . actually sour. Creme fraiche and crema are similarly mildly sour, but crema just tastes a little bit fresher. I find it to be magical.

Some hints about ingredients

Crema is ridiculously easy to make. It’s also hard to buy unless you live near a grocery store with a high proportion of clientele from Latin America. The ingredients you use will determine the degree of thickness and tanginess.

• I use Alexandre heavy cream. It’s made with A2/A2 milk, but it may not be available in your area. Any organic heavy cream will do. You can also use half & half, but my experience is that the result will be tangier.

• As for fermentation starters, buttermilk will result in the smoothest, lightest, least sour crema. Next comes alt-yogurt. I’ve tried unflavored coconut yogurt. The result is thicker than buttermilk, ever-so slightly sweeter, and marginally more sour. Cow yogurt will result in the thickest and most sour crema, but still less sour than sour cream.

• It’s important to use a fermenting agent that is newly or recently opened and not out of date, otherwise the fermenting activity may have subsided. So don’t draw from a yogurt container that’s been in the fridge for a couple of weeks. Buttermilk tends to remain active for longer.

• You can freeze buttermilk in small-sized ice cube trays. This is handy unless you intend to drink the remaining buttermilk after you make your crema. But the fermentation activity does decrease. So double the amount you use if it’s been frozen.

Ingredients

This amount will fit in a pint mason jar. Feel free to increase amounts if you want more, but remember that crema lasts for at most two weeks in the fridge.

• 12 oz heavy cream

• 2 tablespoons buttermilk or unflavored alt or cow yogurt.

• 1/8 tsp salt

• 1-2 tsp lemon juice (optional - I never use it, but many crema recipes call for this.)

Instructions

1. Slightly warm up the heavy cream in a saucepan—just enough to take off the refrigerator chill. Try not to heat past room temperature.

2. Put the heavy cream into a mason or other jar.

3. Whisk in the buttermilk or yogurt. 

4. Leave for 8 hours in a loosely covered jar in the oven with the oven light turned on. You can also use a proofing box on low or an Instapot with a yogurt setting.
   Note: Crema will thicken to a degree in the oven. But it will really firm up in the fridge.

5. Refrigerate until cool before using.

How to use crema

• Crema is traditionally served with pupusas, plantains, arepas, tacos, nachos, and enchiladas. I’m sure there are other Latin American foods that are delicious with crema.

• You can make salad dressings such as green goddess and russian dressing with crema for a fresher taste.

• It’s delicious with any potato dish as a condiment.

• Of course you could use crema instead of sour cream with cold borscht!

• You can serve crema on the side of stir fry or baked dishes for dipping or co-forking. I don’t recommend stirring crema into hot dishes as it’s delicate and tends to disappear and not add much to the flavor.

Enjoy!

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Please join Shambhavi and the Jaya Kula community for satsang & kirtan every Sunday at 3:00pm Pacific. Come in person to 1215 SE 8th Ave, Portland, OR, or join Jaya Kula’s newsletter to get the Zoom link for satsang. You can also listen to my podcast—Satsang with Shambhavi—wherever podcasts are found.

A student first made me this delicious curry. I’ve since adapted it. As with any such culturally foundational food, it’s tweaktastic. Nearly every ingredient can be swapped out, except for the curry spices and liquid. I mean, you could swap those out, but then it might not be curry. Fine by me.

Enjoy, and please do share your favorite curry recipe in the comments, or make this one and let us know how you like it!

Ingredients

• 4 tablespoons coconut oil or ghee

• 2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken meat OR firm fish OR firm tofu OR tempeh, all cubed, OR cooked chickpeas OR just veggies

• 1 large onion, chopped

• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

• 1 tablespoon finely chopped peeled fresh ginger

• 2 carrots, peeled and cut into chunks

• 1 cup diced tomatoes, fresh or canned

• 4 cups or more of chunky-cut vegetables, e.g. cauliflower, root veggies, mushrooms, green beans, eggplant, spinach, gold or sweet potatoes. If you are doing vegetarian or vegan, I suggest adding more potatoes.

• 1 ½ cups chicken or vegetable stock

• 1 cup coconut milk - be sure to blend the fat back into the coconut milk before measuring out a cup and adding to the pot. You can also heat the whole can and whisk so that the fat re-incorporates.

• ½ cup cashews, pan roasted and ground to a paste, or just buy roasted cashews and grind them, or buy roasted cashew butter. All of these should be unsalted.

• 1 tablespoon ground coriander

• 1 tablespoon ground cumin

• 1 tablespoon ground turmeric

• 1 teaspoon ground fenugreek

• 1/2 teaspoon red chili powder (optional)

• 8-10 fresh or dried curry leaves (optional)

• 2 teaspoons salt

• 1 teaspoon ground long pepper or black pepper

• ¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro

Instructions

1. If you are using chicken or fish or tofu or tempeh this step is for you. Otherwise, you can skip it!  Heat 3 tablespoons of the oil or ghee in a large pot over medium heat. Add your main protein ingredient in batches and lightly brown. Remove with a slotted spoon to a plate and continue cooking all pieces are browned in the same manner.

2. Add the onion, garlic and ginger to the pot and cook, stirring until softened. Add the carrots and remaining vegetables. Cook another few minutes while stirring.

3. Add your protein option.

4. Add the stock and coconut milk and bring to a simmer. Cover the pot and simmer gently, stirring occasionally until your protein option and veggies are cooked thoroughly.

5. Add the cashew butter to the curry along with the coconut milk, and simmer gently uncovered, stirring until sauce is thickened, about 5-10 minutes.

6. In a separate pan, heat the remaining 1 tablespoon of oil or ghee. Add all of the spices, including the salt, pepper, and curry leaves if you are using them. Sauté at a low-medium heat while stirring continuously until the spices are sizzling and fragrant.

7. Pour the hot spices into the curry and stir.

8. Garnish with chopped cilantro.

9. Serve with rice or noodles of your choice.

Voila!

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Please join Shambhavi and the Jaya Kula community for satsang & kirtan every Sunday at 3:00pm Pacific. Come in person to 1215 SE 8th Ave, Portland, OR, or join Jaya Kula’s newsletter to get the Zoom link for satsang. You can also listen to my podcast—Satsang with Shambhavi—wherever podcasts are found.

The Story

Different types of tea are best brewed at different temperatures. Imagine the grid has collapsed, and you no longer have electricity to power your Japanese multi-temperature water boiler. Of course, your cooking thermometer has been lost in the apocalyptic kerfluffle.

Or, alternatively, you’ve rented an Airbnb that lacks a suitable electric kettle because settler colonialist culture is collapsing. Never fear.

These instructions for visually recognizing the State of Water hail from my friend Liu Ming, a Daoist teacher and dedicated tea ceremonialist. Whether you are heating water for your tea on a stovetop or an open-air fire, you can produce the perfect cuppa every time.

Ming was both an enjoyer of consummate luxury and (theoretically) prepared to rough it with grace.

Once he returned from a trip and complained angrily to me about the “tepid” water in a hotel shower. I said, “We complain about hotel amenities, but if we were in Mongolia camping out on the steppe, we’d think nothing of pouring cold water over our heads from a bucket.

“So true,” Ming answered. We both laughed and then looked at each other wryly in recognition that we might be happier never having to test this theory.

Showers aside, Ming’s ritual and deeply affectional relationship to tea was undoubtable. He loved to remind people that his first drink was tea mixed with mother’s milk. I have utter confidence that he was exquisitely prepared to boil water and make tea in any and all conditions!

The Method

“You can absolutely rely on these five stages of bringing water to a boil.” ~ Liu Ming

Small pinhead bubbles

When you first start seeing small, pinhead-sized bubbles in the water, the temperature is around 155–165°F. This is perfect for green teas.

Large pinhead bubbles

When slightly larger bubbles form, and small wisps of steam start to rise from the hot water, the temperature is roughly 165–175°F. This is perfect for yellow teas. Yellow teas are rather rare, though.

Small pearls

At this stage, the water bubbles will be the size of small pearls. The rising steam will be stronger. This water is roughly 175–185°F, perfect for white teas. 

Streaming pearls

Now bubbles should be streaming to the surface of the water, and it should almost be boiling. This water is around 185–200°F, perfect for oolong tea.

Raging torrent

The water is bubbling violently, swirling and roiling like a raging river. The temperature is 200–212°F, perfect for Assam, pu-erh, any robust black tea, and also most herbal teas. Note: I never witnessed Liu Ming drinking herbal tea.

Now you are thoroughly prepared, come what may. You’re welcome.

with infinite love,
Shambhavi

Not quite ready to fire up a paid subscription, but want to show your appreciation?

Please join Shambhavi and the Jaya Kula community for satsang & kirtan every Sunday at 3:00pm Pacific. Come in person to 1215 SE 8th Ave, Portland, OR, or join Jaya Kula’s newsletter to get the Zoom link for satsang. You can also listen to my podcast—Satsang with Shambhavi—wherever podcasts are found.

The Story

When I was a young girl, I treated my mom’s kitchen like my personal chemistry lab. I would mix random ingredients and spices together just to see what would happen.

A teacher once said to me, “I don’t trust a Tantrika who doesn’t like to cook.” Spiritual life has often been described as a process of “cooking”: transforming, leavening, heating, cooling, and alchemizing. But I also just love to cook food.

At the age of five, I prepared my first family dinner party. Mom had a Julia Child cookbook with holiday menus in the back. I told her that I wanted to cook the English Christmas menu. It consisted of roast beef, yorkshire pudding, and some sides and fixings.

Mom was understandably skeptical, but she went along with it and bought the ingredients. The dinner turned out beautifully. And I never forgot my feeling of amazement at the transformation of the yorkshire puddings from humble blobs of egg, milk, and flour to towering toothsome perfection.

I kept on cooking and even put in some time baking and cooking in restaurants. Now I still love to throw dinner parties, read food blogs and, yes, talk about food in excruciating (to some) detail.

I discovered food blogs early on in the evolution of the blogosphere. Here are a few of my more recent finds. Enjoy, and may the cooking continue!

Roving Haggis

One of the things I learned from a certain former Scottish girlfriend is that haggis and neeps is the national dish of Scotland. Neeps are turnips. Haggis consists of boiled sheep's or calf's offal mixed with suet, oatmeal, and seasonings. Ew, or “ewe”, but to each their own.

Ali Stoner is the delightfully entertaining host of the eclectic Instagram food blog, Roving Haggis. The food is Scottish-adjacent and fun to prepare without being fussy.

I made this👇🏼 potato and brussel sprouts dish, Rumbledethumps, for a community dinner. It was delicious.

Here’s the receipe written out!

Johnny Kyunghwo aka The Fermenter Guy

No one other than me calls Johnny Kyunghwo the Fermenter Guy. Just to keep things honest.

But seriously, this young British Korean cook will get you inspired to concoct all kinds of fermentations including stuff you’ve probably never heard of such as “milky soda,” “pumpkin syrup,” and “ginseng fermented honey.” He often shepherds his herd of fermentations over several videos because the process takes awhile!

Johnny is super-experimental and most of the time doesn’t exactly know what the result is going to be. That makes him an honorary Tantrika in my book.

Johnny starts up the pumpkin syrup!

Chefji’s traditional Palestine palette

Gibran Alcocer of Chefji’s Kitchen is from Palestine. Although he skillfully practices intersectionality in the kitchen with food from other cultures, his more traditional Palestinian recipes are inspired. He plans to start up cooking lessons soon.

A vegetarian pasta with lentils from Palestine

The Indian Food Blogosphere

My earliest memories of food blogs are of encounters with the wildly diverse offerings from Indian women living both in India and the diaspora.

I was wowed by the opportunities to learn to cook a seemingly infinite range of foods from all over India. But I was also moved by the supportive communities that the women bloggers formed. It was a real socio-cultural movement.

Women helped each other to create businesses and learn the ins and outs of website design and food photography. There was a lot of friendly cross-promotion. Now that those intrepid Indian women have forged the path, many other cooks have followed along.

A few of my favorite Indian food blogs

Edible Garden

Edible garden is offered by Nags, a full-time mom hailing from Kerala and currently living in Singapore. Nags’ recipes are often of the South Indian variety and are quick, healthy, and delicious. Nothing too difficult.

Pesarattu dosa is one of my favorites from Edible Garden. It’s made with whole green mung bean and does not require fermentation.

Spice Girl Kitchen

Spice Girl Kitchen from Shubhra Ramineni offers traditional Indian recipes adapted for busy folk like us. Shubhra has published a number of cookbooks: Entice with Spice, Easy and Quick Indian Recipes for Beginners, and Healthy Indian Vegetarian Cooking.

Thandai is a spectacularly delish summer beverage: nutty, floral, and cooling.

Hebbar’s Kitchen

Heavy on the Indian sweets and all veg, Hebbar’s Kitchen has been a go-to of mine. There’s no bio on the site, just lots and lots of photos of yummy food.

Anyone who claims to know me knows how much I love the Indian sweet gajar ka halwah (carrot halva). Here’s Hebbar’s version, video included!

Monsoon Eats

Monsoon Eats is the creation of Jheel Eguren. Her blog is inspired by her mom’s cooking and memories of the monsoon season in India. The recipes are beautiful, creative, and often incorporate accents from the Southwest U.S. where Jheel now dances, cooks, and lives.

Check out Jheel’s Amritsari Chole, a traditional street food based on humble garbanzo beans, but here alluringly fancied up.

Pure Indian Foods Blog

So Pure Indian Foods Blog is a project of Pure Indian Foods, my favorite purveyor of organic and speciality foodstuffs and spices from India. Of course they are building recipes from ingredients that they sell in their store. But you won’t mind because the food is just so good.

The recipes are dead-simple and entirely wholesome. For instance, Indian rice with saffron and cashews.

If I’ve piqued your interest in Indian food blogs, there are literally thousands of other options. But these are good places to begin!

with infinite love,
Shambhavi

Not quite ready to fire up a paid subscription, but want to show your appreciation?

Please join Shambhavi and the Jaya Kula community for satsang & kirtan every Sunday at 3:00pm Pacific. Come in person to 1215 SE 8th Ave, Portland, OR, or join Jaya Kula’s newsletter to get the Zoom link for satsang. You can also listen to my podcast—Satsang with Shambhavi—wherever podcasts are found.