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Boba Recipe For Bubble Tea Given Below
Principles Of Annam Or Food
In sanskrit, annam means food. Anu is a cell and annam is that which allows the functioning of an anu to its fullest capacity. Annapurna and Annalakshmi are goddesses who not only provide us with food, but an abundance that leads to harmony and keeps us prosperous on many levels. Below are the 7 cardinal rules of how to approach Annapurna, the goddess of nourishment.
How to Approach Annapurna - 7 Cardinal Rules:
1. How do you eat?
Are you eating in a hurry? When you worry? Or are you taking the time to be thankful for the divine, in food form in front of you, and then eat consciously. No dinner table fights please!
2. When do you eat?
The time when agni or digestive fire is at its best is between 11 AM and 3 PM. Try to have your main meal during this time and not eat after sun down, unless you’re on a fast. Even then, eat light.
3. How much do you eat?
One on the yogic path is a mithahari or eats in moderation. The stomach is half full leaving a quarter space for water and a quarter for gases. Do not drink water immediately as it could dilute stomach juices. Also, drink warm water and not cold.
4. Why do you eat?
Many people eat when they are emotionally stressed or overeat due to addictions and taste. Or some eat just out of habit even when they are not hungry. Some eat out of fear that there might not be enough. Or you may eat only what feels right, have reverence for and savour the food. Please be mindful of your reason each time.
5. Where do you eat?
Annalakshmi is our divine mother and hence food is a way of reaching that divinity within us. Even if we eat in a simple place we need to remember that it is a means to nurture our inner temple and becomes a ritual of worship. So if you choose to eat in front of the TV or hurriedly when you are finishing off work, you do not get the full benefits.
6. What do you eat?
The type of food you eat is important. See last week’s blog for classifications of the three gunas or qualities.
7. How is the food produced and how do you make a living to buy the food?
This aspect is ignored by many people when we are not informed about how the food is produced. Are they using organic products? Is the farm using child slave labour or is it fair trade? Also how are we making our living? Is it harming others or helping others?
All these factors need to be taken into consideration. With awareness we make better choices as we are not looking at things just on a superficial level but also realise the deeper impact on ourselves and the collective.
It is important to wisely choose what feeds us. Foods feed not just our bellies but our emotions and mind and impact us in more ways than we can imagine. May we choose whole and wholesome foods that nurture and uplift not only us but all beings and the earth. May the food we eat be the building blocks for clarity and consciousness to awaken so we serve all life.
- Yogacharini Maitreyi
The above is an excerpt from an old article I wrote. Bringing awareness to these seven factors enables us to have a reverential attitude towards food and not treat it callously.
Grace Before Meals
Many religions and traditions have the ritual of offering thanks to the divine and holding positive intentions at the dinner table. When people gather together, the collective focus opens doorways to that which is focused on. Hence if we focus on offering the food to that which is whole, the food and we are aligned with this wholeness.
Annapurna And Annalakshmi
In India, Shakthi or the divine manifestation as power and as the feminine, is given a lot of importance. Those on both ends of the spectrum can sometimes ignore her. For example: the ones who are unconscious and plunder the earth and her fruits; those that are too self-absorbed and waste what is given; those who do not connect to their food; those who lead too ascetic a life taking pride in being spiritual and negating the material; or those who think the way to salvation is suffering and extreme self-flogging and deprivation.
Annapurna and her power cannot find their way into any of those constructs as she is natural and easy, not a construct of how to be, look or be “super spiritual.” So if you find yourself trapped in any story of what it means to be spiritual or are a bit too self-indulgent, then you will not imbibe the prana or life force from food.
One of the beautiful stories illustrates how the divine mother disappears or removes one of her manifestations from earth. One of her material manifestations is food. She does that as a group of sages decide consciousness, or Shiva, is everything and negate Shakthi. When food disappears, not just the sages but everyone who serves them also suffers. They then see their folly and implore her to return. She returns as Annapurna.
Annam means “food that nourishes us.” Purna is “complete and whole.” Lakshmi comes from the root lakshya or “higher goal.” Lakshmi is the mother of abundance. She reminds us that Shiva without Shakthi is Shava - a corpse. Remove "i" or Shakthi from Shiva and only shava, or a corpse, remains.
Let us always remember to honour that spirit of the divine mother and pay respects to those who have nourished us. Not just worship wealth or high flown concepts.
Organic Food
Where you source your food is important as well as what it contains. If food is laden with pesticides and chemicals that is what we are eating. Organic also means we are creating a sustainable ecosystem as we cultivate the land. The natural biorhythms that we follow when we till mother earth and reap of her fruits, help us balance our own inner cycles. If we eat food from land that has been over exploited and then artificial fertilisers are used, it will not help us regenerate and harmonise our own earth element within. So we need to be mindful of not just the mechanics of how things are done but the energetics of how reverentially the land is treated as well. That is what we imbibe as we eat. In India the land was treated like the divine. Even before building a house the plot is treated like a living entity and tuned into. A good vaasthu practitioner will not only understand the technicalities of the positioning of each room, but also the subtleties of how each piece of land has a life of its own and what it wants built on it.
Making Boba For Bubble Tea
I love bubble tea but find it a bit too sweet for my liking. So I set out to make a healthy version of those beautiful tapioca balls.
Instead of white or brown sugar I used coconut sugar as it has a low glycemic index. Instead of food colouring or cocoa powder to make the balls brown or darker, I used beetroot powder and black sesame. I also added moringa and as much as I loved it, will ask those who are not used to its taste to skip it. Voila! Beautiful healthy pearls in bubble tea. Also the tea I made was non-caffeinated.
Recipe To Make Boba
Preparation time: 10 mins
Cooking time : 25 mins
Ingredients
3 tsp tapioca starch
2 tsp coconut sugar
2 tsp beetroot powder
1 tsp black sesame powder ( optional)
3 to 4 tsp water
1/2 tsp Moringa powder (optional)
2 tbsp any flour like rice, amaranth or blue corn flour. I had a combination of brown rice, amaranth and blue corn flour that I used.
1 tbsp tapioca flour
You can eliminate the rice flour and add more tapioca flour instead if you like
Extra coconut sugar for sugar syrup to soak the balls in
Method
Mix in the first 4 ingredients and heat in a non stick pan. On low heat keep stirring. The tapioca will thicken and become stretchy.
Turn off the stove. Add the other flours slowly and mix in. When the heat is less start to knead the dough like making roti.
Make into small balls, around 5 mm. For those from south India who have made seedai, this will be easy.
In another pot or pan boil water. Add the balls to boiling water for 20 mins.
Remove from the water and add to the pan in which 2 tbsp of sugar and 4 tbsp of water have been added. Let simmer for 5 mins. I sometimes skip this process as I do not need much sugar in my drinks.
Add to any herbal tea you make and enjoy. I prefer it in my turmeric, beetroot and faux coffee lattes. Enjoy!
