Cookbook | Recipes | Ingredients 

| Basic foodstuff | Dairy | Oil

Ghee, or clarified butter, is butterfat that has been separated from the water, proteins, and salt in butter. Ghee is used heavily in Indian cuisine. It is considered an extremely pure food in South Asia, and may be used to anoint representations of the deities, both in home worship, performed by laity, and in Temple worship, performed by Brahmin priests.

Ghee Leila

Recipe I

Ingredients

  • Unsalted butter (depends on how much Ghee you want to make)

Procedure

  1. Using a medium saucepan, heat butter on medium heat.
  2. Allow butter to melt and bring to a boil, stirring constantly. You will notice that the oil will separate itself. The top will begin to froth; remove froth.
  3. Allow the oil to become clear. Once clear, remove from heat and allow to cool for 15 minutes.
  4. After cooling, strain ghee through a very fine strainer into container or jar, or through 3-5 layers of cheesecloth.
  5. Put lid on container and store on shelf.

Recipe II

Ingredients

  • Unsalted butter
  • sorghum flour
  • Hardwood of grape vine (or hickory wood) - optional -

Procedure

  1. Take pan and butter, and melt the butter on a low flame
  2. Let it boil moderately for 5 minutes
  3. For adding additional flavor to butter, take a broken potsherd and heat it in fire until it becomes red hot
  4. Take quantity of sorghum flour the size of the potsherd and place on plate
  5. Lay the hot potsherd on top of the sorghum flour in the plate, and reverse it (by turning it over) while laid over the sorghum flour
  6. Throw the potsherd into the pot of melted butter, while cast out the sorghum flour which remains in the plate
  7. Leave potsherd in butter for about 2 or 3 minutes, so as to impart its flavor, while the pot remains on the fire, and covered by a lid
  8. Some add roasted fenugreek seeds to the boiling butter and, afterwards, strain the butter from the fenugreek
  9. Strain the butter while it simmers on a low heat, skimmering away all fatty solid particles, and allowing the whey to evaporate; afterwards, place in a new container
  10. Wash the potsherd to be used a second time
  11. Once the clarified has been stored in its new container, add a smoldering piece of wood vine to impart its smoked-taste to butter (optional)

NOTE: The butter was stored in a cool place (pantry shelves, cellar, etc.).

Recipe III

Ingredients

  • 3–4 pkgs. (600g–800g) of margarine (with taste of milk)
  • 3 pkgs. (600g) unsalted butter
  • ½ C semolina
  • Hardwood of grape vine (or hickory wood) - optional -
  • 1 T fenugreek seeds - optional -

Procedure

  1. Combine and bring to boil the margarine and the real butter
  2. Strain by using fine strainer
  3. Add farina
  4. Take smoking piece of grapevine wood or hickory wood and place in empty sealed jar (optional)
  5. Add the butter and margarine. Some add wheat flour and 1 tablespoon of roasted fenugreek seeds that have been ground to powder

Notes

  • Many people refrigerate the Ghee to separate it from solids. The lactose remains with the watery portions and this form can be used by people who are Lactose intolerant.
  • Ghee also requires a very high temperature before it smokes, and will keep longer than unclarified butter, as bacteria cannot digest a pure oil.
  • Variations of Ghee include Cocoa butter, Dalda and other cooking fats.
  • In some East African societies, butter was flavored by adding crushed garlic, fenugreek, turmeric, cardamom and ginger. Sautéed over a low heat.
  • In Yemen, where the butter was produced at home, the butter was made by adding hot water to the churn containing the milk, which helps the butter congeal, and when the butter is removed from the churn and put into a different vessel, wheat flour or ground fenugreek seeds mixed with wheat flour are then added and the whole is cooked together over a fire. The butter is then strained, put into a vessel and stored.[1]

References

  1. ↑ Badiḥi, Yiḥya (2011). Yosef Ḥen. ed (in Hebrew). Ḥen Ṭov. Bene Berak: Nosaḥ Teman. p. 206 (responsum no. 48–beth). OCLC 768305430.
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