My Culinary Trial Room

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Homemade a.k.a Desi Ghee | How to make ghee at home

It is time for the festival of lights and Diwali snacks and sweets have started cropping up in most of the Indian blogs. I have planned my share too and since the huss is a big fan of ghee sweets, I might be posting just sweets this time... But lets see, how its gonna be. I thought that I could start off with the basics first. Like Mawa/khoya and ghee to name few. We all know that ghee is a quintessential ingredient of most of the Indian sweets&cooking and we all know that ghee costs quite a bomb here in the US. That left me with no other option than to make it at home.

Back in India, amma makes ghee from store bought unsalted butter like aavin. Note the point, it has always been amma who makes ghee for me. Even the thought of trying it once had never crossed my mind. Why should it, when I had amma with me. Ever since kutty was born, we have been making ghee at home. Before coming to the US, one thing that I asked my huss to buy from the Indian store was ghee cos I knew that I would need it atleast for kutty's sake. But when he told me the cost, I knew that that would be the last time I buy store-bought ghee.

Making ghee at home is a breeze but it needs patience and attention. I burnt my first batch a wee bit and so the second time started with a test batch to get the hang of it. Making ghee at home fills your house with a sweet smell which you will surely love and finally making ghee at home is way better than buying it from the store a) it is cheaper and b) you know what you are putting into the kadai.

After making the ghee, you will be leftover with the milk solids, you could either mix it with rice and have it with dhal or you could make laddoos out of the lot. Check out my next post on how to use it.

~*What U Need*~
Unsalted Butter - 1 pound or as needed
Buttermilk - few drops
Muslin cloth
Heavy bottomed vessel

How I Made it:
Take a heavy bottomed vessel, which is large and broad preferably. Heat the butter in the vessel in medium flame. Once the butter melts completely, you will see a pale yellow foam forming on top. As you heat more, the foam will split and the butter will start boiling with a sizzling sound.

After heating more the sound will stop and the butter will start to form bubbles. Now sprinkle a few drops of buttermilk. This will help the milk solids to settle. At this point you will be able to see a clear liquid with the brown solids settling down. Once it cools down, sieve the ghee through a fine muslin cloth into an airtight container. Click on the picture to have a better view.

Store in an airtight container!!!

** My Notes:
** Since this was my first time, I first ran a test batch and hence used a small vessel. But if you are using a huge amount use a big vessel
** You can also add curry leave and drumstick leaves to make it more flavorful
** Amma always makes a small batch for my kid in which she adds a pinch of cumin seeds and crushed peppercorns.

So thats it Folks...
With Love,