Monday, January 30, 2012

Ghee: A step above clarified butter

If you've never made ghee, you need to, and I'm not just talking about for Indian food.  Yes, you can buy it, but why?  Why!  Once you make this clarified butter on steroids, you'll always want some in your fridge.  Imagine clarified butter that can be used at any temperature that tastes and smells nutty......You can use it for anything, but I simply love to fry eggs in it.  YUM!  And, it's easy!

Ghee
Place one (or more) pound of good quality unsalted  butter in a heavy bottomed pot.  Turn the heat to medium low.  As the butter melts, you will find foam rising to the top.  Skim off as much of this foam from the top as possible and discard (these are the milk solids).  Some will fall to the bottom.  Leave them alone. Over the course of about 45 minutes to 1 hour, you will start to see that these solids on the bottom of the pot have turned golden brown and when you smell the butter, it will smell distinctly nutty.  Besides skimming, you need do nothing until this point.  At this point, strain the butter and put into a storage container with a tight fitting lid, such as a jar.  Enjoy on nearly anything!


2 comments:

  1. Oh the ghee. Unfortunately, not during our vegan cooking spree. We have discovered the joy of coconut oil, though. In Kerala coconut oil is used instead of ghee all of the time. They claim it is is the reason they are the most healthy part of India—lower BP, heart disease, dementia. And recently I read that it is thought that coconut oil (pure not hydrogenated) may reverse effects of dementia. At least I think that is what I read. I should go back and check, and perhaps have more coconut oil..... Here is a link to an article. http://www.naturalnews.com/035045_coconut_oil_Alzheimers_brain_function.html

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  2. Thank you! I too have heard about the mental benefits of virgin coconut oil. This is a superb idea as so many of the flavors of Indian food marry so well with coconut. In fact, in trying to use more virgin coconut oil, I have not even thought of this. Excellent! My next Indian cooking feast will give this a try.

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