Ghee: You Know You Want It

Take a couple sticks of butter, put them in a saucepan. Set the heat low. You're going to melt the butter and watch for the milk solids to separate: they will gravitate towards the sides of the pan and drop to the bottom. If you wish, you can stop here and have clarified butter. But for ghee, leave it on the heat, and watch closely for those milk solids to brown. The browner the nuttier your ghee. You're looking for a dark, reddish brown color. When ready--the time it takes depends on the amount of water in the butter; start watching closely after 12 minutes or so--remove the pan from heat, and then strain the butter through three layers of cheesecloth into a glass or otherwise completely heatproof container (and it would be nice if it had an airtight lid). Let it cool--it will solidify like butter--and then close up, and refrigerate.

Ghee is really good. Obviously it's a staple of Indian cooking, but it's also a nice addition to any kind of saute : hearty greens, potatoes, beans, squash, etc. Mix it with canola or grapeseed oil to manage or to dilute the flavor. Like agave nectar, a little bit packs a punch.

You can make anywhere from one to fifteen sticks of butter, and it keeps for a very long time in the fridge.