One of the things I use a lot in dairy free cooking, that I had never even heard of before I went dairy free is ghee. Ghee, for those of you who are as stumped about it as I was, is clarified butter. I'm sure that just cleared it up for you, right? Ghee is actually made from cow's milk. It is an ancient process used mainly by people in India, Pakistan, and areas of Asia. To prepare ghee, butter is melted in a pot over medium heat. The butter begins to melt, forming a white froth on top. It is then simmered and stirred slowly until the color of the butter changes to pale yellow. Then it is cooked on low heat until it turns golden. The residue settles at the bottom and the ghee, which is now clear, golden, translucent and fragrant, is ready. The ghee is then filtered and it solidifies when completely cool. There is your science/cooking lesson for the day. What is amazing is that after all of that, ghee then becomes both lactose and casein free.
The kind of ghee I buy is from Purity Farms. It looks like butter doesn't it?!
I love it because it not only looks like butter, but it acts like butter. I used it in cookies at Christmas, and it worked amazingly well. I made a powdered sugar frosting for a cake for my dad, and my parents still talk about my frosting. It was the ghee! We use it on our veggies, on toast, on pancakes, on popcorn. Basically anything you would use butter for, we use ghee for. Ghee has a long shelf-life and needs no refrigeration if the jar is sealed tightly. I haven't figured out how long it will last because we use it up pretty quickly. I buy it from either vitacost.com or luckyvitamin.com, as it is much better priced. A 13 ounce jar is about $8.00. I would love to be able to figure out how to make my own, but I'm not sure how cost-effective it would be. I would think you would need a lot of butter to make a small amount of ghee. I may have to look into that!
Its a pleassure to follow your blog dear Jan , no matter what you post :)
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