June
13th, we celebrated the birthday of our beloved Satguru Sri Swami Vishwananda.
In different corners of the world devotees and disciples rejoiced, having fun,
performed puja and yagna, singing bhajans and giving thanks to God.
Brahmanda bhramite kona bhagyavan jiva
Guru Krishna prasade paya bhakti lata bija
"According to their karma, all living entities are wandering throughout the entire universe. Some of them are being elevated to the upper planetary systems, and some are going down into lower planetary systems. Out of many millions of wandering living entities, one who is very fortunate gets an opportunity to associate with a bona fide spiritual master by the grace of Krishna. By the mercy of both Krishna and the spiritual master, such a person receives the seed of the creeper of devotional service."
(Srī Caitanya Caritāmrita, Madhya lila, chapter 19.151)
The
greatest gift of God is meeting with the Master. It is a great blessing that
our Satguru came for all of us, to awakens us, and to opens our hearts. Guruji
helps everyone, without expecting anything in return; He loves everyone with unconditional divine love.
From
our part we can only faithfully serve the lotus feet of our Master- Just as the
Sri Guru Gita always states- service, service, and once again only service.
Sādhakena pradātavyam
Guru santosa kārakam
Guror ārādhanam kāryam
Svajīvitvam nivedayet
„The Guru shoul be pleased
and should be made happy. One should dedicate one’s entire life to the Guru’s
service.”
(Sri Guru Gita. Sri Swami Vishwananda.)
And
our service in the kitchen – of course is cooking! And on this special day -
the birthday of Gurudev - cooking prasadam. You can see it now in the photos....
Preparing
birthday cake for the morning puja
and this is preparing a large birthday cake for
the evening celebration
and
mastering of a new type of coating cake
and
this is the result
And
we have prepared small chocolate cakes with monogrammed letters, SV
But today
we share with you the prasadam recipe, which we also prepared for Guruji
birthday. This is Gulab Jamuns. Gulab Jamun is easily the most
popular and loved dessert in India.
The term "Gulab Jamun" literally translates into "Rose Berries". “Gulab” means rose and
“jamuns” are deep purple colored berries available in India. This dessert's shape and color (orb shaped and purple tone) is likened to the Jamun berry and since it uses Rose water essence to provide it's addictive flavor, hence the name.
Ingredients:
2½ cups milk powder
½
cup all-purpose flour
½
pint heavy whipping cream
A
pinch of baking soda
3
cups sugar
5
½ cups of water
6-7
cardamom (elaichi) powder
1
tablespoon rose water
Vegetable
oil or ghee for frying (P.S. traditionally gulab jamuns are fried in ghee. you can go the traditional way if you want or just fry them in oil like we have done.)
1 cup = 235 ml
Instruction:
1.
Prepare
all the ingredients.
2.
Mix
milk powder, all-purpose flour, baking soda and half of cardamom in a bowl.
3.
Add
whipping cream and knead well. This will be consistency of soft dough, if it is too dry add 1
to 2 spoons of milk as needed, not the cream. Dough should be very soft and
sticking to fingers, as dough sits milk powder absorbed the extra cream
4. Cover
and let the dough rest for about 10 minutes.
5. Make
the sugar syrup. In a pan add water, sugar and cardamom. Let it boil, stir until
the sugar has dissolved, about 4-6 minutes. Add rose water. Turn off the heat. Set
the syrup aside.
6. Knead the dough. But before working with the dough, grease your
hands with a small amount of vegetable oil, the dough is not stuck to hands. Take
small portion of dough and shape it into round balls, each in the same size in
diameter of about 1 inch. It is important that they get a smooth surface
without any cracks. Put them on a non-stick surface. From the kneaded dough
should get about 40-50 balls. After you have rolled up balls, cover them with a
damp towel.
7. Heat the oil in a frying pan on high heat and immediately turn
them down to the very small.
8. Place the 5-7 gulab jamuns in the frying pan, so they don’t
disturb each other. Using a skimmer / slotted spoon, start to turn it to avoid
sticking to the bottom and giving them the opportunity to fry on all sides. Approximately
after 15 seconds they are themselves will float on the surface, but still keep
their turn.
9. Continue to fry them on a very low heat for about 10-15 minutes.
They slowly will darken to dark brown. If the gulab jamuns are fried on
high heat, they will become hard inside and not fully cooked.
10. When the gulab jamuns are ready, blot the excess oil with a
napkin.
11. Placing them in the hot syrup for about 24 hours. Don’t place
the gulab jamuns in the syrup immediately after frying. This will cause the
gulab jamuns to lose their shape. They should be soft and juicy, having
absorbed a large amount of syrup.
12. Serve.
Serve, Give, Thanks
Meditate, practice Atma kriya
Just Love.
With Love from Shree Peetha Nilaya.
