Over on my cooking yesterday I posted about gruel, referencing the famous New Vrindavan Oat Water.
Ahhh, the memories. Not for me but for some longtime New V residents. While the stories I've heard about the oat water never sounded so yummy (and usually included phrases like, "You were lucky if you got a raisin!"), Ghosh and Soma Prabhus have different memories. And they were even gracious enough to share recipes. In quantity!
And there was no mention that the oats used were from animal feed sacks as I heard. Just see how important prajalpa niyamagraha is.
Okay...so here are the comments...for the pleasure of the Vaisnavas. May your new year be filled with devotion and oat water!
Madhava Gosh said...
"just oatwater" ?
Apparently you have never had real oatwater.
It happens to be the one thing I do know how to cook, having been the one who first made it and taught the regular cooks how to do it.
Kirtanananda told me how to do it so I did and introduced it to the other devotees.
About half the normal amount of oats to water, it was cooked for 1-2 hours at a simmer until the oats lose their form and become one with the water, creamy. A few raisins added later but soon enough that they plump up. Some ginger and a bit of salt, and a tablespoon of ghee per gallon.
"Oat water" was a bad marketing choice for a name, oat broth or cream of oats would have conveyed the idea better.
Oat water was great, not an austerity, when taken hot.
December 30, 2008 11:41 PM
Soma said...
ahhh... oatwater, it is my favorite breakfast. I would eat it everyday if i could. I have such warm memories of it. We rarely ate oat water by itself. It was used like gravy on the rice. And it was an unbelievable improvement from the previous fare. it was one part of the day that we all looked forward to. Personally i didn't like the raisins or dates in the oatwater. but because they would sink to the bottom i could just scoop it off the top and miss the raisins and dates.
anyway, i cooked the oat water for a few months in 1985. i still have the recipe that Amburisha prabhu wrote on a scrap of paper for me.
here it is;
14 gal. water
1 overflowing gal. of oats
3/4 cup of salt
2 cup rasin or dates
ginger and gee impurites if any.
(for the rice)
4 1/2 gal. rice
6 gal water(slightly less)
2 cups salt.
gee impurities if any
that's the historical recipe from 1985.
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3 comments:
Oh man, oatwater. I remember that in New Vrndavan. Oat Water and (somehow) burned soggy rice. Not my favorite though, that is for sure.
finally....the other side of oat water has spoken!!!
It was good, especially when the oat water was very hot. Yeah, the stuff on the bottom of the bowl was not so great. Of course, the Gurukula kids hated oat water. You have to remember that we were eating ALOT of maha prasad in those days. So the oat water was a counterbalance to all the ghee, sugar and milk sweets that came along with breakfast.
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