By Danavir Goswami
I may not be the only devotee who wondered what to do with leftover rice prasadam. For years, I have been in a quandary—should it be refrigerated and then served cold the next day?; or should it be refrigerated and reheated the next day?; or something else?
I finally decided to put the question to our revered Godsister Sri Yamuna devi dasi, the queen of prasadam cooking. Her answer is below:
As you know, Srila Prabhupada instructed his personal cooks to prepare his rice last in his lunch meal, it was to be finished minutes before he was ready to respect it.
Early on he mentioned to me that he considered rice that sat even 15 minutes after it was cooked—“baasi chaval,” or stale.
Amazing standard, huh?
Further, he instructed on a few occasions—do not re-heat rice.
Still in some circumstances, I have re-cycled offered-cooked-refrigerated
rice it into another preparation made from excess prasad.
Do that instead of throwing offered dishes away.
Most often re-cycle offered, refrigerated rice by mixing it into a salad without
reheating the rice.
It can be a chilled or room temperature salad.
I do this quite often.
One way to use room temp or chilled rice is to make a South Indian dish
called Dadhodana—a dish of ancient repose made with cooked rice, yogurt and
just about anything—classically shredded green mango, cucumber, even
banana—with an added chaunk. It can be made with virtually any shredded
raw or cooked vegetable.
A current full meal rice salad I make frequently, yesterday in fact,
consists of:
left-over refrigerated rice,
sprouted chick peas,
diced tomatoes, cucumbers and bell peppers,
bits of vinegar-free oil-cured black olives,
lots of chopped fresh tarragon,
slivered fresh ginger,
lemon juice, salt and pepper.
No oil or yogurt, easy to digest, and nourishing. Very nice.
Then you know about Srila Prabhupada’s 1967 Sunday Feast Rice using cooked
rice:
room temperature or chilled cooked basmati rice
drained diced fresh pineapple
currants,
whipped cream (alternately thick yogurt)
ground cinnamon, cardamom and cloves as desired
then: white sugar, as desired, (now I use organic unrefined cane sugar)
pinch of salt and black pepper
all mixed together to a soft mass, then garnished with slivered toasted
almonds.
This dished was a winner and frequently made on Vaishnava holidays,
weddings, and other festive occasions.
There are likely many answers you would get to your question.
This is just one.
Hope it is of use to you.
Your sincere servant,
Krsna Kirtan Jaya Prema Nidhan
Yamuna Devi
Reproduced with permission from Yamuna devi.
I seem to recall reading in Krsna book that Mother Yasoda would send Krsna out when He was young with rice mixed with yogurt and fruit and other ingredients, including new mown grass?
I seem to recall reading in Krsna book that Mother Yasoda would send Krsna out when He was young with rice mixed with yogurt and fruit and other ingredients, including new mown grass?
This is for the dvapara yuga. Now in kali yuga even the rice is off after an hour. This is confirmed in
SB 1.4.17, SB 1.4.18, SB 1.4.17-18
bhautikānām ca bhāvānām śakti-hrāsam ca tat-kṛtam
aśraddadhānān niḥsattvān durmedhān hrasitāyuṣaḥ
durbhagāmś ca janān vīkṣya munir divyena cakṣuṣā
sarva-varṇāśramāṇām yad dadhyau hitam amogha-dṛk
The great sage, who was fully equipped in knowledge, could see, through his transcendental vision, the deterioration of everything material, due to the influence of the age. He could also see that the faithless people in general would be reduced in duration of life and would be impatient due to lack of goodness. Thus he contemplated for the welfare of men in all statuses and orders of life.
PURPORT
The unmanifested forces of time are so powerful that they reduce all matter to oblivion in due course. In Kali-yuga, the last millennium of a round of four millenniums, the power of all material objects deteriorates by the influence of time. In this age the duration of the material body of the people in general is much reduced, and so is the memory. The action of matter has also not so much incentive.
I don’t know if it’s “bonafide” but when I ran Jagannath’s Cart restaurant in San Francisco we found a way to not waste the leftover prasadam rice. We would refridgerate it then the next day put the rice in a colander and place it in a big pot with water on the bottom and steam the rice, thereby cooking it with water as opposed to drying it by cooking out the moisture–which is what I understood to be the cause of the rice becoming unhealthy (was it leprosy or something that it caused?). All I know is the rice was fluffy, not crisp, and tasted wonderful.
I’m 1977 I was appointed as Temple Manager (Vice President) of Sri Sri Krishna Balaram Mandir.
That post had been held by Dhananjaya, then Hayhaya, then Mahavira (from Canada) and when he left I took over.
Prabhupada had instructed us to make Kitry every evening and pass out leaf-cups to all the visiting guests who came for Darshan of the Deities.
Every night He would ask “how many cups of Prasadam did you distribute?” And we would say 200 or 250 and Prabhupada would be very pleased.
Well, one day, most of the devotees in the Temple went to a program they were invited, and so there was nobody at lunch time to eat the Prasadam we cooked.
I called the Temple commander, an English devotee named Tarun Krishna and told him that instead of cooking Kitry for the guest that evening, just put the leftover Rice and Dahl from lunch into a big pot and mix it to turn it into Kitry.
Tarun Krishna did that and then we served it out to the guests in the evening.
When Srila Prabhupada found out, He called for me and chastised me so severely, telling me that
“You should NEVER heat up leftover Rice, it becomes poisonous”
I learned a good lesson and have never done it again.
Just so as not to scare anybody, my comment about leprosy concerns mixing milk and salt, as in the quote from Prabhupada I found on the Vedabase below:
“Milk and salt should never be mixed, it is improper, and will cause leprosy. But salt can be mixed with yogurt.”
I couldn’t find anything about reheating rice.
PRABHUPADA instructed to not reheat rice ,that does it for me- in india left over rice is given to the cows and dogs, never ever used again, in our western world where we keep things refrigiated for “millions of years” , in Srila Prabhupadas own humerous comment. I believe if you ask any Ayurdevic doctor ,rice should not be served again on the following day, this is what I personally have heard from DR Kamalesh who is a well known ayurvedic doctor from Lucknow…India-Prasadam or not ,rice is not te be served again…this is what I have learned
PAMHO, AGTSP!
Regarding milk with salt, then why in our bona fide (?) Hare Krishna cook books there are recipes – like vegetable soup with milk (milli juli sabji ka soup) , or different kinds of milky sauces…etc etc. Are all this again just some western spekulations? Have somebody some knowledge about that? Thanks.
Quote from Pancaratra-Pradipa:
Forbidden foods
Common forbidden foods include meat, fish, eggs, onions, mushrooms, garlic, masur-dal (red lentils), burned rice, white eggplant, hemp (marijuana), citron,* saps from trees (if not boiled first), buffalo- and goat-milk products, and milk with salt* in it.
* Salty preparations like soup which include milk are allowed.
The INSIDER Summary:
The NHS (National Health Service) says that leftover rice can be bad for you.
Uncooked rice can contain spores that can survive when the rice is cooked.
If the rice stands at room temperature for too long, those spores turn into bacteria.
That in turn can cause food poisoning.
Store your rice as quickly as possible once you're done eating it.
Leftover rice can actually be scarily bad for you, the NHS says.
Because if you didn't already know, you can get a pretty grim case of food poisoning from eating reheated rice; it's not the reheating that causes the problem, but instead the way the rice has been stored after being cooked the first time.
So uncooked rice often contains spores (cells capable of reproducing quickly) of Bacillus cereus — a bacteria strand that can cause food poisoning — that can survive when rice is cooked.
And if the rice is left standing at room temperature after it's been boiled, the spores can grow into bacteria, which will ultimately multiply and may produce toxins that cause vomiting or diarrhea.
The longer cooked rice is left at room temperature, the more likely it is that the bacteria will make the rice unsafe to eat — meaning it's vital that you store your rice at the right way quickly if you're hoping to reheat it later.
So, how do you increase the chances of avoiding food poisoning all together? First off, serve rice as soon as it's been cooked, and cool any leftovers as quickly as possible. The NHS recommends within an hour, ideally. You can then keep the rice in the fridge (but for no more than one day) before reheating.
Here we read to keep rice hot:
Laghu-vaiṣṇava-toṣaṇī
(Commentary by Jīva Gosvāmī on Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Tenth
Canto)
Text 10.42.25
“avaniktānghri-yugalau bhuktvā kṣīropasecanam ūṣatus tām sukham rātrim
jnātvā kamsa-cikīrṣitam
Translation
After Kṛṣṇa’s and Balarāma’s feet were bathed, the two Lords ate rice with milk. Then,
although knowing whatKamsa intended to do, they spent the night there comfortably.
Having had their feet washed by servants, they ate rice mixed with milk, which had
been prepared by Yaśodā for them to eat in the evening. This had been kept in pots on
stoves within the carts.”
Rice-cookers have 2 options. Boiling. And warm. That is ok rice?
Then the sweet-rice before the mangala aratrika, cooked the day or night before, is off when offered at 3.40 am. And off at breakfast 9.00 am. Better make pudding, or tapioca.
Hare Krishna…. I dont understand the instructions Yamuna devi has given on using leftover prasadam rice as if we mix prasadam rice with the other items in the recipe does that make all the ingredients prasadam or do we have to offer the other ingredients seperately and then mix them with the leftover rice… its very confusing to mix prasadam and bhoga items together.. i would like to understand that process..ys
I am surprised that there was no mention of distinguishing between White Rice and Brown Rice. And how in todays modern ways of processing foods in general much of the nutritional values of white rice are depleted. I guide devotees to the Book called "Tsunami of Diseases, Know your food before Time runs out" ( A devotee written Book). Then to chapter 62 called "White Rice, The Dead Food" and to a general heading that White foods such as Flour, Rice and Sugars are all un-nutritional foods and are positively bad for you today. When rice is made it is first de-husked and that produces Brown Rice, which is a good wholesome food, but as the processing methods continue the husk, bran and germ are removed and then the White Rice is polished with Glucose to make the rice shiny and white in appearance. And at that stage White Rice is nutritionally dead.
On the contrary Brown Rice is fabulous in taste and nutrition. And does not spoil like White Rice. In todays food dynamics so much has changed since Srila Prabhupada was with us in the 1960's and 70's and many foods are just not recognizable today, and especially the body does not recognize these foods, as they have lost their natural qualities and are highly processed foods.
You may think that Rice is Rice is Rice but that just is not true any more, and many foods today have just been "molecularly" changed because of modern processing such as very high temperatures, very high pressures and extrusion. All in the rush to keep foods longer on the shelves than ever before.
Cooking Oils have suffered so much that it is practically a dead food, lots of Dairy products too.
Orange Juice, Processed Milks, Spreads, Cereals, Soft Drinks, Hydrogenated Fats, and Plastics in Foods. Should all be steered clear of. And processed Salts.!!!!!!!! Contains Aluminum today to make it pour better.