Modern science has now conceded what Ayurveda had advocated for thousands of years: – Ghee has a host of health and cooking benefits and is good for the mind and spirit. It’s irreplaceable taste and aroma has so many nutrients and actually good for weight loss – unlike what was widely publicized. And if it is home made then nothing can beat this pure liquid Gold in terms of taste & health benefits .
It hardly takes much effort to make home made ghee if you follow these steps – So why not try out and give yourself & family all the goodness of ghee !
All of us buy milk and boil it .After boiling and cooling milk you get a layer of cream (saaya in Konkani ) – you get more cream with milk bought from the milkman or from the Full cream milk packets . Refrigerating after cooling for some hours helps form a thicker layer of cream .
Remove the layer of cream to a container and add a teaspoon of curd . Refrigerate it . Keep adding the cream as & when you boil milk and cool it . Keep adding a teaspoon of curd in between ,.In a week or 10 days – you should be able to get a sufficient quantity . Now when the container is almost full add a spoon of curd ., mix well and keep it at room temperature for about 4 hours .
Than with a spoon whisk the cream for about two minutes – Yes ..just whisk with a spoon – no need of any whipper or mixer . your butter will be formed from the curd. whisk until the butter has formed into single lump .
Now add some fresh water in a bowl and add the butter to it to remove traces of curd ,
Collect it all and place it in a Kadai . Don’t throw away the water as you can use it to make buttermilk – as explained later .
Now place the kadai on a stove and switch on .
The butter will start melting and foaming like this
While foaming it will start to rise up . reduce flame to minimum and continue cooking .
Keep cleaning the sides with the spoon as the butter is reducing . soon you can see it changing colour to a lovely yellow ,
Soon you can see the ghee separating from the solids ,
You can see a lot of the ghee has now separated. Give close attention now .
You can find the solids turning brown slowly .
Switch off when the solids have turned a dark brown , some like it to turn black too . Wait for some time until the solids have settled down and cool too. Now pour off the clear ghee into a well dried glass bottle , You can use the solid too .so dont throw it off . Many like to eat it with rice , I add them in sambhars or similar dals for the most amazing flavours .
Enjoy your fresh home made ghee with hot rice or on chapatis .
You may use the leftover curd by adding a smooth paste of green chillies , ginger , curry leaves , salt and enough water to make soothing buttermilk !
Konkani Khann Anik Jevan 