Homemade Ghee Recipe OR Desi Ghee

Ghee from malai or milk cream | Make shudh desi ghee at home | Indian clarified butter

Recipe / food styling / photography by - Sunayana Gupta

Desi Ghee also known as Clarified Butter is the most staple ingredient used in Indian households. Not only in Punjabi and Awadhi food, if you check out the use of Desi Ghee you would find that it is widely used in South Indian, Kashmiri, Gujarati, Rajasthani, Konkani and other Indian cuisine as well.

We Indians are so obsessed with Ghee that we have never tried to find a substitute for it. Here, Shudh Desi Ghee is not just a cooking ingredient, but a sign of prosperity and good health. No puja or auspicious ceremony can be done without lighting Ghee Ka Diya.

Now coming to the fact that “How Ghee Is Made?” Then let us tell you that the traditional recipe of making ghee involves churning Milk Cream or Malai to make Butter and then cooking this butter to extract Ghee. So basically making Ghee at home is a 3 step process -

1.Collection of Malai

2.Churning Malai to form butter

3.Cooking butter to form ghee

…..here in this recipe we would be discussing in detail about the whole process.

We are used to relishing Ghee Chupdi Rotis with sabzi and pouring spoonfulls over Dals, Kadhis and also preparing Tadka with desi ghee. Cooking traditional Pulao and Biryani like Kabuli Pulao, Awadhi Pulao is never complete without ghee. All the veggies and whole spices are first fried into ghee before adding into rice. Vrat Ka Khana and Ghee are synonymous!

Not only this, our traditional Sweets like Aate ke Laddo, Aate Ka Halwa, Gajar Pak, Bombay Halwa and others are incomplete without a generous addition of this Indian clrified butter.

When it comes to taste, then the nutty flavor of Ghee is very different from that of butter. In whatever thing you add, it provides a depth to the flavors, probably that is the reason why it is prominently used in making Kebabs and Kormas too.

Come, let’s check out the recipe in detail of How to make Ghee at home!

Get more recipes that go plesantly well with Ghee -

Kuttu ki Puri

Farali Sookhe Aloo

Farali Aloo Rassa with Singhara Atta Gravy

Rajgira Aloo Tikki

Urad Dal Khichadi

Zarda Pulao

In Indian cuisine the use of Ghee is not restricted just restricted to one or two things, but is used for many purpose like -

Making tadka

Topping over Dals, Kadhis, Curries etc.

For deep frying and cooking

For smearing over breads, rotis, parathas

Making desserts

…..and I can just go on writing like crazy!

Uses Of Ghee In Indian Culture -

Besides cooking, ghee is also used in Pujas, Hawans and lighting diyas as well.

Ghee is a natural moisturiser and is used as a cosmetic agent.

Besides, it is also used for Medicinal and Ayurvedic purposes.

Homemade Ghee OR Desi Ghee

Learn how to make Homemade Ghee Recipe OR Desi Ghee with step by step cooking instructions for Homemade Ghee Recipe OR Desi Ghee and ingredients of Homemade Ghee Recipe OR Desi Ghee with Recipe video.

Preparation Time : 10 days
Cooking Time : 12 minutes

Category : spices
Cuisine :
Servings : 0 servings

Author : Sunayana Gupta

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Recipe Ingredients

Malai or milk cream - Around 1 kg.
Curd - 2 teaspoon

How to make Homemade Ghee OR Desi Ghee

Collection Of Malai or Milk Cream -

The process of making ghee at home begins days before the actual cooking. One needs to have substantial amount of Malai or Milk Cream to make ghee. So while you are planning to make your own Desi Ghee at home, start collecting malai or the cream layer that forms on the top after the milk is boiled.
Put 1-2 teaspoon of curd in a bowl and keep on collecting malai on daily basis. Switch to another bowl when the first one is full and do not miss to add little curd. Always keep these bowls in refrigerator (Do not freeze), otherwise it would go stale.
Make sure that you have around 1 kg. of malai because only then you will get good amount of ghee.

Churning Malai To Form Butter -

The next step is Churning of Collected Malai. For this keep the malai bowls out from the refrigerator and put covered in a warm place for 2 hours. This would make malai soft and would ease out our task of churning.
Traditionally a wooden stick or Mathani was used for churning. You can also use any other gadget if you have for this process.
Add about 1/4 cup of cold water and churn malai for 5-10 minutes or till the butter gets separated from the buttermilk.
Now keeping a bowl beneath pass this butter through a sieve. This would clearly separate the buttermilk.
Press the extracted butter between your palms and press to extract more buttermilk. Now when the butter is ready we can proceed towards the final step of cooking it to make Ghee.

Cooking Butter To Make Ghee -

Now take this butter in a bowl, put on the gas stove and keeping the flame at medium let the butter melt completely.
After melting butter you would notice a layer of bubbles appearing on top which is completely normal. Turn flame to low and simmer till all the bubbles have disappeared and you get to see golden yellow ghee.
When the milk solids begin to turn brown, simmer for 2 more minutes and remove from flame.
Ghee is ready now, let it cool down a bit and then store in a glass jar while passing it through a sieve to remove the milk solids. Use as required.

NOTE -

10 days or 2 weeks of malai collection is best. If you do it longer, then the malai that you collected in the first few days might go bad.

Recipe tags:
Ghee | Indian clarified butter | Spices-Mixes-Others