THE ELIXER OF INDIAN CUISINE: GHEE!

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A little bit of it or a little more of it goes a long way to make a chappati or a kichadi or hot cooked rice come alive…

MY MEMORIES of an Indian household favorite – golden ghee (which is cow’s dairy milk extracted ghee) – go a long way back to my childhood spent in village Gujarat. In the poorer homes ghee was sacred and precious and something to be kept an eye on to make sure daughter or daughter-in-law (some woman of course) was not too generous is lacing the daily lunch “rotli” for her husband/son/friend – in fact, my paternal grandmother, Kashiba, in her village cow-dung floored home at least kept the month’s quota of ghee under lock and key in the kitchen cupboard, the key handed out mealtimes to bring out the stainless ghee container. And she would keep an eagle’s eye on how the ghee was laced out over rotli or “bajra no rotlo” or the evening’s supper time khichadi. Well, well, to this day when I’m shelling out Rs800 for 250 g of cow’s ghee from a local farm in Goa, I remember my paternal grandmother and her respect for the elixir or ambrosia of ghee.
What is “ghee” but clarified dairy cream fat and nowadays many local dairy farms in Goa are promoting it as purer, better, tastier, the only ghee to use in your kitchen, the only 100% saturated feet fit for consumption…how true is this? At one time doctors used would frighten you to death saying ghee is a saturated fat, it will clog up your arteries and before you know it your heart would go boom!
TODAY, of course, we know better and accept that ghee is an invaluable fat and who doesn’t like to eat hot rice without ghee atop it or any home-made sweet like say the gram flour treat of “magas” in most Guju homes? Ghee is considered the best digestive and body beautiful lubricant for all internal systems and some will rub in a bit of ghee into their skin by way of keeping it warm and protected.
I dare say north Indians will love ghee more than they do down south India where they prefer cold-pressed coconut oil or sesame seed oil…although ghee is much valued in making the famed sweet of Mysore pak. Needless to say desi ghee or home made ghee is cherished in sweets and nowadays most avoid the fake vegetable ghee of dalda or vanaspati because it is made of dubious value refined oils and mostly shunned for health reasons. Although I think it is still used commercially for a lot of fryums folk love without thinking twice about how injurious it is.
At one time I remember my mother used to love the QBB ghee of Australia, is it still available? It came in lovely green cans. There are several brands of ghee both cow’s ghee and buffalo ghee in the Indian market –just to name a few, Amul is a bestseller, then there is a choice of Gowardhan, Nandini, Gokarna, Patanjali, etcetera. The ghee market is a booming market and getting more and more local, one may even do farm to table ghee like I am doing nowadays. Locally made cow’s milk ghee is retailed by several self-help groups or women’s units like the Women’s Commission outlets.
Last week I bought a quarter kilo of “bilona” Gir cow’s ghee from the Narulkar Ranch out in Pernem, owner Pundalik Narunkar’s son Pranav shared, “Bilona is traditional method of making ghee, boil milk, curd, churn separately, get butter from curd…and then ghee!” Well, that’s not terribly detailed but the aromatic ghee he sent me is too good. Pranav tells me that recently fake ghee in make was busted by the FDA Department…so better not to buy from market place when one is uneducated or too trusting. Narulkar Ranch cow’s ghee is Rs1800 for 500 g, I bought the “Amrutdhara Farm A2 Desi Gir Cow Ghee” at Rs900 per 250 g and hope it will last me for at least a month’s worth of kichadi and rice-dal making.

ACTUALLY, the market is now flooded with quality ghee and most of it qualifying as Gir Organic and A2, also the word “Bilona” is widely used to convey superior quality ghee, prices are competitive too here, well over Rs2,000 per kg A2 cow’s ghee…at a recent exhibition I paid Rs1,100 for half kg of “toc A2 Gir Cow … the liquid gold of India.” Well, I did get a discount on the second one because it was selling at an exhibition and got talking to Anushka of TOC A2 Ghee. One may of course pick up good cow’s ghee from one of the SHG outlets down town Panaji and for some like the shudh richer, fatter buffalo ghee from old favorite Samant Bros (also Panaji market vicinity) – I pick up my farsan crunchies from there.
But to stay with the goodness of ghee: It is a saturated fat and you may not hog on it, no more than one or two tablespoons of it daily in kitchen usage. Cow’s ghee is of course considered superior, lighter, more digestible…Ayurveda approves of ghee and there is also extra medicinal cow’s ghee, ghee is considered as “sheeta virya” meaning it pacifies pitta dosha, the fire and water constituents of body beautiful. Go read up if you’re interested in more information.
Another interesting fact: Ghee contains butyric acid, a short chain fatty acid which is what makes for healthier digestion or so to speak, the short chain fatty acids are better …and yes, ghee is said to be high in the fat soluble vitamins of A, D, E and K2. In this sense ghee is a healthier saturated fat and cholesterol for the endocrine glands which do hormones…some say for good testosterone eat ghee! But not more than one or two tablespoons, okay, don’t go berserk over ghee.

A few of the brands available in the market which is booming with various qualities of ghee now a days…good, bad and ugly!

Is it better than butter? Butter is also a saturated fat depending on how good it is, but ghee has a higher smoke point at 482 degF/ 250 deg C while butter is around 350 degF/77degC…all of it meaning ghee won’t break down into harmful compounds at high heat. It’s something to do with the clarification process whereby milk solids are more or less removed and ghee is virtually free from lactose (this bit for those of you who are sensitive to lactose in dairy products).
So altogether ghee anyone? Go for golden A2 Gir cow ghee for that certain je nais sais quo magic in your food! Of course everyone knows the flavor of good ghee though some say you have to acquire a taste for it…whatever. This is to say I keep only coconut oil, olive oil, rice bran oil, ghee and butter in my kitchen; some of my best friends down south India and in Kolkotta will swear by cold pressed mustard oil and sesame seed oil…and che sera sera.