Here we are it’s late August and my birthday is over. That means that it feels like fall in our mountain ski town here in southern California. I have a love-hate relationship with early fall as I sure I would love a Pumpkin Spiced Latte, especially if it’s my own healthy version, but I also always feel like summertime just went by way too fast. Especially this past summer when we spent eight weeks of summertime traveling the highways of America and not at home in our lovely alpine community. But now that I am back home and that autumn alpine wind has kicked up I’m no longer terrified to turn on my oven and heat up the house. This fall the cost of groceries got me thinking I should create my own homemade ghee. If you live and breathe and love to eat here in California then you have to realize you are paying a small fortune right now for gas and groceries. Creating my own homemade ghee is one way I am trying to put food on the table this month, without breaking the bank.
Let’s face it, in Joe Biden’s America, I can barely afford to put food on the table, let alone buy ghee at Costco. Where we live, Costco is the cheapest place to buy ghee and it’s just gotten out of hand expensive. Ghee or clarified butter is a huge staple in our household. At almost thirty dollars for a 32 ounce jar that is butter clarified out of my budget. ( And the jar is 2 ounces smaller than last time I purchased it!) We create so much Indian food in our household. I start each and every Anglo-Indian recipe with a dollop of ghee, then I most likely add some homemade curry powders.
I personally am also a fan of starting certain curries with a dollop of blood sugar-reducing coconut oil but if I use too much coconut oil my boyfriend accuses me of creating way to many southern Indian Kerala-inspired Indian meals.
Isn’t Indian food supposed to be budget-friendly to create? Sure it could be if you create a delicious Pumpkin Dal using leftover Fairytale pumpkins from the garden. Here in our mountain household, we have switched to mostly eating goat as our protein in order to save money as I can find goat on sale for under four dollars a pound at our local ethnic market. (That’s compared to buying the grass-fed beef we like for nine dollars a pound when it’s on sale.)
Our family watched the Republican debate the other day when we took a mini road trip to Tucson Arizona to get our global entry interviews. Once we receive our global entry cards in the mail we can basically use the fast track (Sentri) lane at the Mexican border. This will save us that terrible four-hour wait to cross the border each and every time we travel back from Baja. Also when we fly internationally we get expedited approval when going through passport approval lines. Yea!
Fuel was only $3.80 a gallon in Arizona and it may have been 105 degrees outside but at least we 
were not paying $6.90 for gas like we are in southern California. With these prices where we live in southern California, see why I have to get creative and make my own homemade ghee?
As we watched the Republican debate we came away with really liking that little Indian jockey. I obviously mean Vivek Ramaswamy, although digging a little deeper he also has some wacky ideas (Like climate change being fake news). Seriously conservative community can we just have one candidate who has some middle-of-the-road ideas and is not a caricature of a politician? Also, my takeaway about DeSantis on this big stage was he looked like he really needed to poop. He also bears a striking resemblance to Alfred E. Neuman from Max Magazine.
Grass-fed butter, let me clarify
But back to making your own clarified butter. This unadulterated butter dates back hundreds of years. It is a real staple when creating unique Indian food dishes. This nutty-flavored pure butter may have originated in Vedic, India but these days even Costco carries it. (At elaborate prices, nonetheless) Ghee is an important ingredient in Ayurveda’s traditional medical practices and Hindu culture.
- Buy ghee when you see it on sale by the bushel. Costco seems to be the best price.
- Organic grass-fed butter is best to use in this recipe. (But it also drives up the cost of your ghee)
- Make sure you save a few large jars to store your ghee. You can use plastic, I prefer glass. This homemade ghee can sit in your cupboard or kitchen counter for six months.
- This recipe is best with grass-fed butter. Grass-fed butter is high in Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) which is known to help the body reduce fats. Grass-fed butter is said to make a better-tasting ghee as well, but once again, this will drive up the cost of your ghee making as butter made from grass-fed cows is much more expensive.
How to make Ghee
2 cups unsalted butter
That’s it!
So how do you make your own clarified butter at home? It’s simple! In a large saucepan add your cubed butter. Turn that heat up to medium until your butter is just simmering. Turn that heat all the way back down to simmer. Leave an alumina spoon sitting in the pan so your butter does not overflow at any point. Let your butter concoction sit for thirty-five minutes. Stir this concoction occasionally. After about thirty-five minutes you will notice milk solids forming and bubbles on top.
Skim the milk solids off the top of the homemade ghee with a spoon. Set aside the ghee to cool and then strain through a cheesecloth into your jars. Set aside or make some Butter Chicken tonight with this easy homemade ghee!