How To Make Ghee from Malai at Home

There are certain sights and aromas that directly take you back in memory lane to your childhood. Ghee for me is one of them. Born into a Punjabi family who are famous for the liberal use of ghee, few of my childhood memories include eating a Tandoori Paratha smeared with generous amount of homemade ghee or a spoonful of ghee that my mom would lovingly add to my dal { One of the way Indian Moms show the affection 🙂

One of her routine work included collecting the cream from milk, churning it every few days to make homemade white butter, making pure aromatic ghee from the butter and sharing the fruits { in this case ghee } of her labour with her loved ones.

And then came a time when anything made of ghee was suddenly termed unhealthy as it was full of saturated fats. Coming from state of Haryana and Punjab { a land of doodh (milk) dahi (yogurt) and Ghee (clarified butter)}, where all three are component of everyday meals, I can say that I have seen most strong and healthy people in these states in India.

So my conviction that milk is good has never changed, so I continued with the same routine as I observed my mother. I used to buy full cream milk and same way collected the cream from milk, and make home made ghee which is used in my cooking a drizzle over paratha or may be some on rice which adds lot of taste and ghee and now it is established that  ghee if consumed in small amount is good.

According to a study conducted by National Dairy Research Institute( NDRI) { Research paper}, ghee made from cow's milk enhances availability of enzyme that is responsible for detoxification of cancer causing substance and decreases the availability of the enzymes that are responsible for activation of cancer causing agents.

Mother Dairy is a brand that I have always used after settling down in Delhi, and in past I associated with Mother Dairy to create a series of healthy recipes where I created recipes using Mother Dairy full cream milk, because this is what I use regularly.

There is reason behind it is Full cream milk contain good amount of fat and that means a thick fat layer of malai which I use for making home made butter and ghee. This was till last month when Mother Dairy launched premium milk during festive season which is richer and has more fat content.

Mother Dairy’s ‘Premium’ Milk has highest FAT content of 7% along with 9% SNF which makes it ideal for making home-made sweets, ghee and curd as premium milk contains 15% extra malai (cream) in comparison to Full Cream Milk.

So that means extra malai for making ghee as well as our favorite sweets, making home made butter for paratha and our favorite hot Kesar Elaichi doodh and variety of other desserts like different types of kheers, gajar ka halwa etc. Also I like to add milk in curries, Dals etc basically to substitute cream in the recipes, so that means you can get almost same taste and save few calories too 🙂

As I was talking about making ghee at home and I use homemade ghee quite often so it was high time I documented the procedure of making ghee at Home.

How To Make Ghee

The process of making ghee starts with boiling the milk and keeping it undisturbed in the refrigerator so that a thick layer of malai (milk cream) is formed. Which is skimmed and collected for upto a week in a bowl or jar.

After 2 days of collecting malai (from 4 L of milk) this is amount of malai I got, Usually I collect a malai for a week which is much more than this.

Now on the day when I would like to make ghee, I first take it out of the refrigerator and keep it outside the fridge for 3-4 hours and add 3-4 tablespoon of curd so that when making ghee the milk is cultured. According to Ayurveda ghee which is made from dahi or curd which is fermented is better and pure.

Now all you have to do is keep stirring the malai with a serving spoon till malai (milk cream) starts to thicken up and then some more till milk solids separate from the whey.

If you don't want to do it manually you can use a mixie, food processor. You just mix little cold water and churn it in blender jar till solids and whey separate.

Add some cold water so that solids are hard enough to skim. This milk solid is butter which is raw and unsalted they way we use it in Indian homes to serve with paratha, curries, dal etc.

You can see the granular butter as we separated it from whey. Do not discard the whey because it can be used in in making paneer (Homemade Paneer Making) or you can use the buttermilk in making Punjabi Kadhi.

This is how raw butter looks, you can eat and serve this as it is when I collect milk cream for week or 10 days I take out some butter and use it and rest of butter is used in making ghee. As given bellow ...

How To Make Ghee From Butter

Making your own ghee at home is very simple and you can make ghee from scratch very quickly and easily. There are various methods of making homemade ghee. You can make it from malai directly or by churning the curd. And the texture and color of ghee depends on method used. I still use the same methods as my mother does till date.

Homemade Ghee can be made from milk, cream, butter and curd. The quantity of the homemade ghee is low when compared to the amount of cream you use, because why separates . So, I suggest you to collect at least 1 cup of cream before you make the ghee.

For making Ghee from the butter, heat the butter in heavy bottomed pan. When Butter starts bubbling butter reduce the heat and it will start melting. Bubbles will form and there may be froth on the top. But if you have separated the why nicely froth will be lesser.

After few minutes, you can see seeing the ghee on top and milk solids in the bottom. In 2 minutes ghee becomes slightly golden in color and the milk solids will stick to the pan and looks brownish. This is time when you switch off the heat and strain the brown solids with the help of metal sieve. Take care never use plastic sieve as temperature of the ghee is very high.

Once ghee starts to cool down and slightly easy to handle, pour that in a glass jar and you can keep that stored in your pantry for 3-4 months with out worry of spoiling. It has good shelf life.

But I use it in my day to day cooking regularly so I never stays for such long period in my home but in winters we get desi ghee from our native place which stays for that long period. As I said we like to use ghee/virgin oils (kacchi ghani ka tel) and such traditional things more than refined fats because according to Ayurveda these are considered better fats for health and now to an extent scientifically proven too.

Why Ghee is Healthy Fat

As I switched more towards natural and healthier way of cooking and eating, ghee started making its appearance in my kitchen shelves. And below are the reasons I think ghee should remain part of our diet

• Ghee has one of highest smoking point {the temperature at which oils break down and produce harmful cell-damaging oxidants} almost 500 C. Ayurveda says that ghee promotes flexibility and acts as lubricant for connective tissues in body.
• Ghee is rich in the oil soluble vitamins A and E which are good for our skin and vision.
• Ghee is rich in K2 and CLA (Conjugated Linoleic Acid) an antioxidant with anti-viral properties.
• According to Ayurveda ghee strengthen the immunity system and  one of the best fats that you should be using in your kitchen. (Read more here )

That said, I still make sure that total intake of fat (including ghee) should not exceed the prescribed limit of fat consumption.

So Are you still scared to use milk/ ghee/ butter in your everyday life, I hope not. I feel good food is meant to nourish and keep us healthy provided you use it proper manner. I think I am going to make a permanent switch to Mother Dairy premium milk, because I can  use each and every component from start to end, even the by products of making ghee. Also little extra malai for making winter desserts and my absolute indulgence like Hot Chocolate and Gajar Ka Halwa 🙂

• You can use buttermilk(whey ) in making dough for paratha, making paneer, Making kadhi so no wastage.
• Even the brown solids you get after straining can be used in making dough for paratha which makes it very flaky and crisp. Or some mix it with sugar and roasted semolina to make sooji ke laddoo.
• Butter can be consumed as it is or you can make ghee out of it.
• The milk you get naturally becomes low fat after you skim the cream from it, which can be used it just the way you use toned milk for making tea, porridge oats etc.
• For making sweets and rich desserts you need high fat percentage milk so premium milk can be used just like that.