Ghee or clarified butter is used in many Indian dishes. Ghee is a vital ingredient in Indian sweets and is used in biryanis, pulavs, fried rice and also in breakfasts like idli, sambar, pongal, upma, ghee roast dosa and other dishes. By adding ghee to any dish, the dish can be enhanced with extra flavour and taste. Homemade ghee is fragrant and gives extra richness to any dish.

Before I explain how to prepare ghee in an easy way, I would like to explain about the different ways to extract butter. Ghee is purely made from buffalo's milk or cow's milk in India. Ghee is made from butter and butter is extracted two ways:

The first method involves making cultured curd from pure raw milk and then churned in a traditional way to get the butter. This is considered to be the best and healthy butter (also in Ayurveda, they opt for the traditional one, which purifies and nourishes the body).

The second method involves making cultured cream and then churned to get butter. Cream is collected from milk by boiling raw milk, allowing it to cool and scoop of the layer of cream that is formed. A little curd is added during the collection period.

What does cultured cream and butter mean?

Dairy products, such as milk, butter or cream are said to be “cultured” when they go through a fermentation process that gives the product a slight tang.

In my childhood I used to see my mother and grandmother, taking the layer of cream from the boiled milk, which was kept to cool. The cream forms like a thick layer on top of the milk. This is collected in a bowl over a period of a week or 10 days. She used to add a little curd in between to culture and make it sour. This process is done until you get a good amount of cream. She used to take a churner (Indian whisker or dhal ghotni type) and whisk nearly more than 1/2 hr and only then only we used to get good butter. Alternatively, she used a blender (Indian mixer/grinder) to blend it and in few minutes we get good butter. She used to strain it or scoop out the butter from the top. She then cooked this butter to make ghee. The remaining residue which is left after taking out the butter is basically like a thick butter milk, which my mother used to give to her maid, who in turn used to eat it with rice or make spicy buttermilk by seasoning or adding tadka to it. Nothing goes waste in the process.

Both the methods, which I have explained above are very long and tiring process - takes up a lot of time and hard work. As we all know now-a-days, a lot of people are extremely busy and time-poor, but we can still have our own home made tasty ghee made from store-bought butter, if you follow the simple method.

To make ghee, the butter is melted down and heated/cooked to a point where all the moisture evaporates and the milk solids settle down. People allergic to milk protein can safely cook with pure ghee as the offending proteins are removed during the clarifying process. The lactose and other milk solids get removed and the liquid, which is left is pure ghee.

To make the ghee more flovoursome and full of aroma, just add some betel leaves or curry leaves or drumstick leaves while preparing ghee. The kitchen will be filled with freshness from the aroma of ghee. Once, my aunty taught me how to enjoy the ghee in a simple way when no side dish is available at home and you are feeling lazy to cook food for lunch, but you have some cooked rice in the fridge. She will drizzle 1 tsp of ghee on warm rice and south Indian mango pickle, mix both and eat it. It is so tasty and spicy as well, I have no words to describe, although not everyone may feel the same. So, prepare ghee my way and enjoy it the way you like.

If you are in the United Kingdom, try to get organic butter or cultured butter. If not, you can get any unsalted butter available. While making ghee, I always use unsalted butter.