I have been thinking about making ghee (clarified butter) from scratch (using raw milk) for a while now but I haven’t had enough homemade raw cream from our daily milk supply to actually make it. Luckily, my sister has been stocking up on some cream over the past couple of weeks and she was kind enough to share it. Ghee is one of those super foods – a traditional food that is common place in many nilotic homes – it has a high melting point so it’s great for cooking and has an incredible flavor.
It is also great for your hair, skin, nails, teeth and a good source of Vitamin K. People who have a low tolerance for dairy are more likely to handle ghee better. Bonus – you don’t need to refrigerate it!
What You Need:
– Cream
– Sieve
– Metal bowl
– Spoon
– A storage jar (glass preferred)
– Water
Process:
– Put the cream in a bowl.
– Stir the cream with your spoon(i used a potato masher) until you start to see it turn to a more shiny yellow color and the butter starts to separate from the liquid (buttermilk). This can take a while (took me about 20 minutes of constant string/beating the cream). You can use a blender/mixer to do this but you have to be careful and only run it for short spats of time otherwise it will heat up the cream.
– Collect the buttermilk in a different container for use elsewhere – store in the fridge (I used it to make Ugali)
– Now add water to the bowl and rinse out all of the buttermilk. Repeat until the water is clear (I did mine 3 times).
– What you have left in the bowl should be smooth and velvet like – that is butter! (I put some aside for our use – i added salt, oregano & garlic and stored in the fridge)
– Put the butter in a non stick pot over medium heat until it melts then lower the heat. The butter will start to separate into milk solids and clarified butter with foam on top.
– Cook for 10/15 minutes until the clarified butter is a gold color and the milk solids are at the bottom of the pan and have a brown/reddish in color.
– Let it stand to cool for a few minutes then poor the clarified butter through a sieve into your storage container.
– Ghee will last a long time on your shelf and probably longer in your fridge.
– The reddish milk solids can either be eaten as is, added to your vegetables/ugali or in my case, I made a modified sweet indian treat (laddu) for dessert.
– To make laddu – heat up a cup of corn flour on very low heat(make sure it doesn’t burn). In another pan heat up half a cup of water and add a cup of sugar when it boils. When all the water has evaporated, add the corn flour and mix it really good. Now add the milk solids, stir, then pour it out onto a baking sheet about 1/2 inch thick. Let it cool on your counter, it should solidify like toffee and taste just like it!
Enjoy!