Tenzo Note 13: The Benevolent Way of Cooking and Eating in Winter

Winter is the season of slowing down, introspection, authorized pleasures and melancholy. In connection with nature, our rhythm slows down and offers a different perception, a different space. Winter is also a form of mourning, the year that's gone, a cycle that's coming to an end, and the moment to make way for the new to come. Like all seasons, it's a transition, often an invisible process, when authorized it can be at the root of great seeds.

But it's not always easy to appreciate winter in all its possibilities when the religion of productivity and efficiency invades even our subconscious.

Taking a weekend off or if available, doing on online retreat, enables us to reconnect to the simple joy of nourishment to better integrate it into our daily lives.

Those moments are an opportunity to embody who we are, beings nourished by the earth and its fruits.

The proposition here is to cook from the approach that has been developed in Zen tradition during 800 years. This tradition has developed a way to cook from the begging practice of the monks that they then brought back to temples.

In Soto Zen monasteries, one among numerous Buddhist schools, they developed a specific articulation around 3 bowls called Oryoki. (you can find the meaning of the name here).

The menus below can be updated according to your situation and adjusted to a plate in the extraordinary practice of your ordinary life.

The 3 Bases Frame

·       A breakdown of the menu items in 3 basics served in 3 bowls during retreats, and on a plate on a daily basis

·       An attention to the variety among the bowls

·       A sobriety with stimulating savors: no Liliaceae during retreats (garlic, onions, shallots) and according to centered intuition on a daily basis 

·       An avoidance of ingredients from killed animals in Oryoki (including dairy products or eggs which involve the elimination of males). If needed (outside retreats), welcome in the spirit of respect for the life of these animals (suggestion to refuse to buy animal products raised for industry and distributed in supermarkets).

The Spirit of the Benevolent Kitchen 

·       Practice of the situation: “doing with what you have”

·       The spirit of the beggar who receives the outstretched bowl

·       No waste: use what you have to cook including peels (when organic don't peel most vegetables) and recycle leftovers

·       Cooking with radical enthusiasm

·       Non-judgment (of oneself or one's kitchen)

·       Dynamic presence to what is with “beingwithness”

·       Dance with what comes (judgment or desires or fear of not knowing etc.)

·       Trust in the food that cooks us rather than us cooking food to have a good meal

The (non) Methodology of Benevolent Kitchen

·       Take winter and local vegetables (carrots, turnips, parsnips, all cabbages, including broccoli, potatoes, beets and cucurbits) from the market

·       Start by cooking the middle bowl by combining 1 or more vegetables + 1 bean (dried beans or processed like tofu, tempeh, dried proteins)

·       Adjust: in winter prefer simmered cooking, vegetables stews, soups

·       Choose the cereal (in winter half or brown rice / bulgur or spelt) for the second bowl

·       Choose raw vegetables for the third

·       Measure the ingredients according to calculations below

Basic measurements

Per person and per meal (in grams) to adapt to your needs (same for plates)  

Breakfasts 

• Porridge: 150 ml of vegetable milk + 20 g of starch (+ ¼ tsp oilseed puree) or 35 g of leftover mixed unseasoned cereals
• Compote: 130 g of fruit 
• Roasted seeds: 45 g of nuts and mixed dried fruits per person

Lunches and dinners

• Cereals

  • Quinoa, bulgur, spelt, white rice: 40 g
  • Various couscous: 50 g
  • Polenta: 25 g (and 5 times that volume for water)
  • Pasta: 90 g

• Legumes

  • Chickpeas, lentils, red beans, white beans: 40 g
  • Soy protein: 20 g
  • Tofu: 35 g
  • Tempeh: 35 g

• Vegetables for cooking: 180 g

• Raw vegetables: 130 g

Menu Directions

Breakfasts

In winter, the Porridge is served hot.

• Left bowl, bowl 1: mixed cereal or grain rice starch + vegetable milk (cook as a porridge)
• Middle bowl, bowl 2: fruit compote
• Right bowl, bowl 3: roasted seeds and nuts

Lunches

Bowl 1: Cook the cereal without salt

Bowl 2: Cooked vegetables and legumes - some ideas: 

• Winter stew (seasonal vegetables + white beans + bouquet garni)
• Fried tempeh + sautéed mushrooms + soy cream
• Lentil stew (cooked green lentils + a few diced smoked tofu + chopped carrots slices + bouquet garni + a touch of soy sauce, simmer everything for 30 minutes)

Bowl 3: Grate the vegetables for raw vegetables, massage them in a little salt to disgorge them and if necessary squeeze them, lastly season with a little vinegar + a few seeds or berries. Simplest idea is green salad with vinaigrette made out of oil, mustard, vinegar, brown miso and salt.

Can also include fruit, for example:

• Apples + endive + walnuts
• Kaki + turnip
• Beets + parsley
• Carrots + ginger and lemon 

Dinners

Take the leftovers, complete according to the measurements and transform bowl 2 into:

• A complete soup: mix the leftovers + complete with vegetables or legumes + a little miso + soy milk or water + tahini.

• A gratin: make a béchamel sauce with 120 ml of soy milk/person + 15 g of cornstarch + if you have ½ tsp of cashew puree or other oilseed (or otherwise non-homogenized margarine or neutral oil) + if you have 1 ½ tsp of white miso + malted yeast. Pour the sauce over the leftovers and cook in the oven for 20 minutes at 190°. 

A mindful food weekend (or online retreat) is an opportunity to cultivate the right measure. Depending on one’s needs for the day, a single bowl of soup made from leftovers and water is often appropriate. Otherwise complete with a cereal and raw vegetables. 

In winter and especially before or after the holidays, some might also want to practice frugality in order to relieve and regenerate his body. Avoiding stimulants such as coffee or tea is also a form of rest for the body which will appreciate the abundance to come even more.

At the beginning of the year, you can also enjoy this traditional 7 herb porridge made of new leaves. You can use what you find such as watercress, fennel, chervil, radishes, turnips, beets, arugula. Cook a warm rice porridge (1 volume of rice for 1 volume of water), cut leaves and mix them in. Salt with sesame salt made of sesame and 10 per cent of salt, heated for less than 2 minutes.

More details about this tradition in Japan that celebrates the birth of humans on January 7 on the temple kitchen website with the article du Nanakusa okayu or on the site just one cook book. It is a way to regenerate the body and soul after the excesses of New Year’s.

All of the above are merely some directions, including the measurements. The idea is to reconnect with the adjusted measure that your body will know intuitively with the practice of cooking. Those are not recipes, so there can’t be mistakes. It is just an invitation to feed yourselves according to what you have around you in a simple way - to leave space for all life to come within.

You can also visit the site of Valerie Dai Hatsu, The Benevolent Kitchen, for more ideas.