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Ghee fell out of favor because saturated fat was considered unhealthy. But now, Indians are returning to this ingredient that is so central to their cuisine.

Indian food writer Kalyan Karmakar is making up for lost time.

Today, he enjoys a subtle touch of ghee in many of his favorite Bengali dishes, adding steamed rice to fried kaatla fish (Indian carp) for ghee bhaat, and turning it into phyaana bhaat, a one-pot rice dish. own starch, mashed potatoes and boiled egg. Even his khichuri (also spelled khichdi), the comforting rice and lentil porridge Karmakar associates with rainy days, isn’t complete without the ubiquitous fat.

“I’m one of those people who think gee is not healthy and now I’m getting over it,” he said, “[it’s basically] the cleanest food on Earth.”

For millennia, ghee has been a cult staple of the subcontinent’s diet, but decades ago it was abandoned when saturated fats were largely considered unhealthy. But recently, as thinking about saturated fat is changing globally, Indians are returning to this ingredient that is so central to their cuisine.

For Karmakar, the renewed interest in ghee is emblematic of a back-to-basics movement in India that was years in the making but accelerated during the pandemic, when “people started becoming more aware of food,” he explained. This movement is also part of a general trend towards “slow food”. Following the movement’s philosophy, ghee can be produced locally (even at home) and has inextricable cultural ties.

The DIY Method

Many Indians make ghee at home by skimming off the cream (called malai in Hindi) that forms when unpasteurized raw milk is boiled. Then they crush it by hand, using a wooden stick, but now, more often, in a blender – usually adding a spoonful of yogurt or curd and ice cubes – to make butter. See the article : How Queer Chefs Reclaim bottom line food. The butter is floated on top of the buttermilk (which is reserved for cooking other dishes, such as lentils) and then cooked to make ghee.

Making ghee is a labor of love for Nitin Ahir, co-founder of GirOrganic, a ghee producer in the western Indian city of Surat, Gujarat. Instead of using imported breeds of cattle like Jersey, Holstein and Friesian as mass producers do, he gets his milk from the Gir cow herd, an Indian born breed from the Gir hills and forests of the Kathiawar peninsula. He allows his cows to graze freely on grass and ensures that the calves have the first part of their mother’s milk before they are milked.

Its A2 ghee, a type of ghee considered nutritionally superior, is made using the ‘bilona method’, in which a small motorized machine moves clockwise and counter-clockwise, mimicking the traditional movement of a hand-held wooden crusher, the same process. “It’s not the most cost-effective and resists large-scale production.” However, he believes that demand for his ghee has increased by 25-30% since the pandemic began.

At its most basic level, ghee is a type of clarified butter believed to have originated in India to prevent butter from spoiling in hot climates. The churned cream or butter is slowly cooked until the moisture evaporates and the brown milk solids are removed, creating a rich, fragrant, nutty fat.

Gir cows are a breed of Indian origin native to the Gir mountains and forests of the Kathiawar Peninsula (Credit: Meenakshi Vashistha/Alamy)

For many Indians, however, ghee is historically something more sacred than a cooking fat.

“Ghee is the ultimate and purest form of milk, the ultimate extract,” said author and food historian Pritha Sen. “It was considered the purest offering to the gods and the medium through which prayers were carried to the heavens.”

Its history goes back thousands of years. “Paeans to ghee are found in the Rig Veda, a nearly 4,000-year-old collection of hymns and prayers,” explains Colleen Taylor Sen, a Chicago-based food historian and author of Feasts and Fasts: A History of Food in India. “According to legend, Prajapati, the lord of beings, rubbed his hands together to create the first ghee, and poured it into the fire to create his children.”

Ghee is also deeply woven into the fabric of Indian culture. Traditionally, Hindus pour ghee into the fire at weddings, funerals and other ceremonies, as it is believed to be auspicious. In Ayurveda, the traditional Indian system of medicine, Ghee is considered a virtual panacea. And its healthy qualities have been adopted by generations of mothers and grandmothers.

Traditionally, Hindus pour ghee into the fire during weddings, funerals and other ceremonies (Credit: rvimages/Getty Images)

For American nutritionist Sandeepa Mukherjee Datta, who runs Bong Mom’s Cookbook, when it came time to introduce fats and oils to babies, choosing ghee was a no-brainer. “[It’s good fat] to provide nutrition and vitamins to young bones and brains,” he said.

His mother went a step further, insisting on nothing but homemade ghee. “He used to make little jars of gee and send them for his grandchildren with whoever flew across the Atlantic,” Datta said. “That gee was pure and like a gift from heaven.”

“Ghee is not just a medium for cooking and frying food,” said Datta. “Before the advent of fancy cereals and oats, every Bengali child was united on the same breakfast plate on school mornings.” The dish, ghee-alu sheddho-bhaat (mashed potato-rice), is practically the unofficial state food of Bengal. “In those days, before carbs and fat got a bad name, mothers thought this dish was the right balance to get their kids through the day.”

That “bad rap” – due to claims that saturated fat is bad for heart health – has affected ghee, which contains 50-70% saturated fat. For decades, consumption of ghee was neglected in India. In the 1980s, vegetable oil was heavily promoted by the industry, and as the consumption of vegetable oil increased, the consumption of ghee decreased. “The publicity will really shake you up,” he said. “The urban and Western population had been exposed to traditional oils and began to use vegetable oil instead.”

Over time, the neutral taste of refined vegetable oil became the norm, and ghee the exception.

Chef Ranveer Brar always has ghee close at hand from his kitchen (Credit: Najeeb Aziz)

“The whole fat conversation since the 1980s was about saturated fat [being bad], luckily we have a better understanding of the fat and cholesterol space now,” said celebrity chef, author, restaurateur and MasterChef India judge Ranveer Brar.

Although experts still recommend against a high-fat diet, some are beginning to soften their stance on the general dangers of saturated fat. And thanks in part to the high-fat keto diet craze, ghee’s popularity has skyrocketed in countries like the US.

However, the West’s newfound interest in ghee may be somewhat misguided. For one thing, it’s made from the high smoke point of ghee, whose ardent advocates praise its ability to withstand higher temperatures than butter. But according to Brar, the point of cooking with ghee “isn’t to get it to roasting temperature first; [it’s] just to the point where the flavors come out.”

Also, in India, ghee is not consumed in large quantities for a quick fix or to help maintain lower carb macros (due to the satiety effect of fat). Instead, the traditional view of ghee is moderation, harmony and grace. Here, the pale, crumbly yellow fat doesn’t just include coffee; it’s the finishing touch to the dish as it moves slowly, while the heat settles tiny pieces in a molten golden liquid with every mouthful.

According to chef Ranveer Brar, ghee pairs well with dishes that emphasize lactic notes like korma (Credit: StockSolutions/Getty Images)

So how is ghee best used? Brar recommends using ghee with lentils or in dishes with pronounced lactic notes, such as yogurt-based curries such as korma. “Start in winter soups, on your pita or flat bread, with a light stain. [Then] you can use it for marinating and tempering. [Eventually], it becomes an essential part of the [general] bouquet you inhale.” said Brar.

Chef Manish Mehrotra, Culinary Director of Indian Accent restaurants and part of the Old World Catering team for the past 22 years, said it was important when setting a menu to include recipes that honor the unique taste of ghee. He is sure that the world is understanding his country’s cuisine and getting to know its “real” flavors. One of Mehrotra’s signature dishes is the ghee-roasted mutton boti (savory chunks of flavorful meat), “The ghee gives it this smoky-sweet flavor. It’s one of our bestsellers,” he said.

Chef Nikita Rao of Mumbai’s Ekaa restaurant believes in celebrating the distinctive nature of each ingredient. “It’s great ingredient-driven dining,” he said. Focusing on the food itself, he explained how it allows you to assimilate the ethos behind using ghee in a recipe and let other ingredients sing. Her Morning Glory salad with tamarind dressing, for example, is topped with homemade crème fraîche and ghee, curry leaves and fiery chilli resham patti. “The dressing is less than 10% of the whole salad, but people absolutely love it, and buffalo ghee completes the whole dish.”

Ghee is an integral ingredient in Indian cooking (Credit: Rajdeep Ghosh/Getty Images)

Ultimately, understanding ghee means understanding a collective Indian identity, a view of food that is cohesive, holistic and balanced, and one in which ghee is not a fragmented part or a dominating presence. And when ghee is understood for its true essence, good things are sure to follow.

Brar always has ghee close at hand from his kitchen. As she said, “I grew up in my grandmother’s chunni [handkerchief or stole] and the whole house smells of ghee. When I reach for ghee, I’m looking for more than a fat. I’m maturing. my childhood.”

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