This is my first post after relocating to Kolkata from Gurgaon! A small jar full of homemade Ghee that I made from Homemade Butter just before shifting my base to Kolkata! Ghee or Clarified Butter is almost an inseparable part of Indian Cuisine. From using in various vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes to the majority of Indian Sweets to using it as a spread to Roti to the Bong way of having Melted Ghee with Hot Plain Rice and Aloo Bhate and even having Ghee with Gur/ Jaggery during the winters. A specialty of North India!
Ghee has its own place in almost every Indian kitchen in every part of the country. In fact, not only India but in other South Asian countries including Pakistan, Bangladesh etc. use of Ghee is equally popular. For Bongs Boiled Rice along with a dollop of Ghee supplemented with Boiled Eggs and Aloo Bhate (Mashed Potato) is nothing but comfort food!
Though Ghee is mainly prepared from Milk cream, however, the flavor significantly varied with the type of milk for e.g. taste of Ghee prepared from Cow milk is different from Goat milk and same is applies to Buffalo’s Milk. In Kolkata both Gawa Ghee (Ghee prepared from Cow’s milk) and Bhaisha Ghee (Ghee prepared form Buffalo’s milk) are equally popular and easily available however in North India I mostly found Cow Ghee. In the Southern part of the country, they add curry leaves or drumstick leaves while making Ghee and that gives an amazing flavor to the Ghee.
Baba used to purchase Ghee from a shop called Kamala Bhandar in the Boubazar Area in Kolkata and that Ghee is famous as Adyapith er Ghee and for me Adyapith er Ghee is the ultimate and I used to carry at least 500 ml Ghee every time returning from Kolkata! I don’t like the flavor of packaged Ghee found here in Gurgaon and whenever I found myself out of stock of Ghee I just prepared Ghee at home and prefer to add Curry leaves while making Ghee. I mostly use Unsalted Butter prepared at home from cream extracted from everyday milk to prepare my Homemade Ghee. Sometimes I use store bought Full Cream to prepare Ghee to avoid purchase Ghee directly.
I made Ghee almost in hurry last week with the Cream that I stored in my Refrigerator since last 15 days as I need to utilize that before shifting from Gurgaon to Kolkata! I am planning to share the entire shifting episode in a future blog post. The recipe that I am going to share here is starting from making Ghee from Homemade Butter. In case you don’t need Butter but only Ghee then follows the process mentioned in Homemade Butter followed by Ghee making process is given below:
- Unsalted Butter: 250 g
- Curry Leaves: 5-8
- Make Unsalted Butter following the process mentioned in one of my previous post on Homemade Butter.
- Take Unsalted Butter at room temperature in a Non-stick pan and start heating the butter on low flame.
- Stir the melted butter using a spatula every now and then.
- Some froth will appear on the top of the butter when it melts completely. In this stage, the butter will turn from Cream color to a Brownish Golden liquid.
- At this stage add 6-8 Curry leaves.
- Let the Butter boil until the froth and floating particles formed initially settle down in the bottom of the pan.
- Switch the Flame off. Let the Ghee cooled down for 5 minutes.
- Using a strainer strain the Ghee from the Pan and store it in a container.
- Proper Ghee should solidify and turn Yellow after sometimes.
Have you tried the Homemade Ghee Recipe from Debjanir Rannaghar!
Do let me know how it came out. Also, I would love to see a picture of the same which you can share here on dolonchttrj@gmail.com. On Instagram you can use my hashtag #debjanirrannaghar or you, in addition, you can tag me at @foodofdebjani.
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