Why PowerCooking?

This may surprise you that at ‘PowerCooking’ we are going to mix three subjects : cooking, psychology and philosophy.

We cook food to taste better. We turn to philosophy when we want an inspiration to think differently. And we try to understand the psychology of our mind when we see something we don’t like or we don’t like the way we see it – both requiring further investigation. Often a key phrase or a key concept from the world of philosophy can help us in directing our mind in positive thinking.

In living our life we sometime face problems which lead to stress. This is due to the fact that our brain (under stress) often suppresses (deliberately) critical or valuable information and thus creates impediments to helpful decision-making. In a situation like this, we need a mechanism to steer our mind to calmer water for a reality check. If you have a flair for cooking you can do that very easily. By engaging yourself in cooking a favourite dish and inviting a few friends to share it, you can force your mind to be tension-free. Then you can look at things in the problem with a fresh look – in most cases, it will appear very different.

Such is the power of cooking. And what is more it could be used as a DIY tool in stress management as and when you need it.

At the end of each page we have provided a quotation from the philosophical work of the vedantic tradition, on: wealth, work, love, peace, anger, religion and beauty. These are only a few examples of how positive thinking can begin.

In powercooking we have provided recipes which have not appeared in any other places. Thus, you can surprise your friends and family with your culinary skills. With your cooking creativity, you are rewarding your mind so that it will loosenup its grip on you and then you can do some free thinking.

We have focused on vegetarian cooking as it is not well developed in this country. We have also provided some new sauces which could be used with meat, fish or veg. Using these two approaches, you can be further innovative in your own way.

Most of our recipes come from a small  place in India called Calcutta. The state of West Bengal has many kinds of seasonal vegetables. People living there are obsessed with eating and entertaining and this prompted them to develop varieties of recipes in veg cooking. Interestingly, families there don’t have recipe book – they cook their dishes from memory, handed down by elders and enriched by young ones. Thus, the same dish, cooked by two households often taste very different.

On wealth: Accumulated riches are but means to doing good to others and should not become the goal of life.