Ghee Whiz! How to make Ghee

Make your own Ghee

This recipe was a god-send. How cool is it to make your own Ghee. I have often seen instructions for it, but was never game enough to try until Timbo, my very precious friend, demonstrated at an Ayurvedic cooking class in Sydney. Since then I make Ghee for myself and others. I have been making it for about 7 years. Yes, it does take a few practice attempts to perfect, but once you have done it you will never buy ghee again. It is SO different.

Really, it is a very simple thing. All it requires is butter and mindfulness – it does need to be watched. No leaving the kitchen while this one is cooking. And I found the end point tricky to judge the first 2 times that I made it. But after that, you are a pro. It takes about 30 minutes all up. The amount of time that it takes depends on the amount of water in the butter.

What shocks me is the amount of Junk that comes out of the butter – we normally eat this???????? Wow.

Ghee is one of the most valuable foods and medicines around. It can be used in place of butter and oil. It adds a very special flavour of its own. It is the best cooking oil – it heats to high heats without burning – and keeps indefinitely without refrigeration. In fact it is better kept out of the fridge.

Ghee is said to be the essence of a cow – first the cow produces milk, then cream is made from the milk. The best of the milk is extracted to make butter and then the best of the butter extracted to make ghee. How close to “essence of cow” is that!

And as the cow is sacred to Hindus, the eating of Ghee is a very special thing.

The making of Ghee in my kitchen on the 15th October 2007

Having said all of that, I messed it up a little this time, just when I wanted to take some photos to show you. I had seen Danyse in the morning, and she had made some and that reminded me that I needed to replenish my supply. Imaging this – butter bubbling on the stove, I am watching it but taking photos and at the same time, unpacking the dishwasher. My pantry cupboard doors are open. ALL OF A SUDDEN, a glass jar L E A P S from the top shelf, bounces several times on the floor, frightens me out of my skin, and spreads glass shards for 9 metres. Yes, N I N E metres. It must have exploded somehow. It was pretty scary. And there I was without shoes on – my typical and reverent indoor state.

So, in the fascination of that event, I ever so slightly overcooked the ghee. Actually I don’t mind, I do love the extra caramelisation that it gives the ghee, but strictly speaking it is over cooked. How can I tell? Instead of being a wonderful golden colour it is darker than it should be.

How to use Ghee

• When cooking any Indian dish, use instead of oil or butter for sautéing or making the tadka at the end. If you cook Indian regularly, you will use it a lot.
• Drizzle one tsp of ghee on hot cooked rice. Anything with rice tastes so much better with ghee. Try cooking rice, then stirring through a couple of tablespoons of lemon juice and a tablespoon of ghee. Yum.
• Use it when preparing different types of fried rice.
• Sauté spices in ghee. Many spices only release their true flavour in oil, not water.
• On toast!
• And on boiled potatoes.
• Garlic roasted in ghee, spread on the bread is garlic-bread at its best.
• In Hindu temples, ghee is burned in fire ceremonies and used to anoint the devotees.
• Ghee is used as an internal and external remedy and also as a massage oil.

Anything with ghee is ghee-licious. You can’t go wrong.Keep in mind that ghee is not clarified butter. It goes much further than that, removing all milk solids and leaving only golden oil.

So have a go – here is the recipe. Practice and mindfulness makes perfect. And jars that refrain from leaping from your shelves.

It smells so good while it is cooking. Buttery and sweet.

Ghee – nature’s fabulous food.

ingredients
500g – 1 kg butter, unsalted organic if possible.
Optional: fenugreek seeds, cumin seeds, fresh curry leaves or sea salt

equipment
Heavy bottomed and deep saucepan.
Jug that can withstand high temperatures.
Sieve / Strainer
Piece of muslin

Note
Butters will vary in content, especially water content. The amount of froth and the times it takes to make your ghee may vary. Be mindful. Watch it carefully until you are used to making it.

Unsalted butter has fewer impurities, so use it if you can. However, you can make this with your normal brand of butter too – the impurities will be expelled in the process.

Place the butter into a heavy bottomed and deep stainless steel saucepan. Over a gentle heat, melt the butter, then continue to cook it over moderate heat so that it boils gently. It will seem a bit volcanic at first as the water boils off.

Foam will rise to the surface as the milk solids separate. This can be skimmed off, but will turn brown and settle to the bottom if you don’t, anyway. I don’t bother. Continue cooking for 20 – 30 minutes or more, and you will notice a coating forming on the bottom of the pan (you may not see it through the bubbles, but trust me, it is there).

More importantly, the foaming will die down considerably. This occurs after around 20 – 25 minutes, maybe even 30 minutes. Careful attention is needed here otherwise it will burn and ruin the taste.

Watch for all foaming to cease. The ghee will boil silently with only a trace of bubbles. The colour will be pure gold, and just as it is done, a rich aroma arises. Remove from the heat. Don’t miss that aroma – a beautiful buttery, almost brown-sugary smell.

You can allow to cool slightly and then pour the ghee carefully into a clean jar or pot through a fine sieve or muslin cloth, making sure that the sticky sediment on the bottom of the pan – the cooked milk solids – remains on the bottom of the pan. This sediment is discarded.

I generally strain the ghee immediately it is ready through a muslin lined strainer into a huge and temperature-proof measuring jug. I let it cool here a little and then pour into a container. You may find that if you leave the ghee on the stove to cool, it will continue to cook in its own heat. The bottom of the pan is fairly yucky – I rinse it later and stick it in the dishwasher. The muslin gets shaken out to remove some of the solids and then gets thrown in the washing machine.

Add a couple of fenugreek seeds, cumin seeds, a pinch of sea salt or some fresh curry leaves at the end for great flavour (optional).

Nourishing Indian Food says the following:

“In ancient days, betel leaves and curry leaves were usually added to the butter during the clarification process. But it is now recognized that these substances indeed possess antioxidant properties, which will not only improve the shelf life and taste of the product but also they are safe to consume. The resultant ghee has a wonderful aroma and grainy texture. Ghee implies a certain flavor profile, that continues to develop as it is stored for more than a year. So do not refrigerate ghee.”

Please be careful. The ghee is very very hot when you make it. Make sure that the container that you pour it into can take the high temperatures. Also – DO NOT leave it alone while it is cooking. It is an oil, after all.

Read some more

• http://cooking4allseasons.blogspot.com/2007/07/making-ghee-from-butter.html
  https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=7278237&postID=6053542892343342880
  http://macooks.wordpress.com/2006/11/04/ghee-glorious-ghee/
  http://www.nandyala.org/mahanandi/archives/2005/05/27/glorious-golden-ghee/
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghee
• Indira of Mahanandi has a wonderful post on Garlic Infused Ghee!
• The traditional way of making ghee was to use the cream from the top of boiled milk to make butter, then use that butter to make ghee. Khana Pina describes the method. I bet it tastes absolutely wonderful.