Indian Clarified Butter - Ghee

Those of you who know me good enough will know that I am a person who always puts convenience and comfort to the front seat, especially when it comes to cooking. I guess I am little spoiled by the husband who would argue that there is no point slogging over something that are easily available in the stores. Though he accepts that we cannot afford our health to eating out every day, he believes and forces me to believe that cooking up even the basic things (sauce, bread, sweets etc) is not worth the time and efforts.No amount of health lectures can convince him.

But there are certain things that I cannot compromise...

Certain things for which I am ready to put back my comfort and convenience… (Trust me, it is a huge thing coming from me.)

Certain things that store bought products can never compete with homemade ones…

For instance, few of my favorite evening snacks like this murukku, or the Indian yogurt or GHEE…..

Speaking of ghee, my paati (grand mom) would never make ghee from store bought butter, but would only make them from the cream of milk that she would have patiently skimmed over the weeks while making yogurt . But again, for the sake of comfort and convenience, I resort to organic cultured butter available in the market.

Making ghee is really simple. The flavor and aroma it has is to die for! Once you make your own ghee, I bet there is no turning back to store bought ones, not that your taste buds would let you to!

Ingredients:

Butter - I have tried with both salted and unsalted.Both works but my take would be unsalted for no particular reason. Though not a rule of the thumb, organic cultured butter would make the best ghee.

Method:

1. Heat a heavy bottomed deep pan and add butter.

2. Allow the butter to melt slowly and completely on medium heat (takes around 5 minutes)

3. Lower the heat when bubbles and foam appear.

4. Stir often to make sure you do not burn the ghee.

5. Turn off the stove when the bubbles ceases with some foam left on top and ghee is golden color .Make sue you do not overcook the ghee which will result in color turning dark brown. It happened to me once but then changed color (light brown) with time.

There will be brown milk solids left that my mom would mix with rice flour and sugar which my sister and I would fondly enjoy as 'maavu-chakra' translated as 'flour-sugar' ( that is how we call but I am sure it has some other name).

The next time you toast your bread, use liberal amount of ghee and toast it to perfection or spread on toasts/rotis/bagels,stir into hot dhal (Indian Lentil Soup) or try it on hot rice (my personal favorite)