Cooking with ghee?

[Mrsmac247]

You can always tell when I'm being proactive with my meals!

I cooked some chicken breasts, in ghee (clarified butter) with garlic and parsley served with lettuce with a dash of olive oil and a spoon of coleslaw and it was absolutely yummy!

Does anyone else use ghee for cooking?

 

[Larissima]

I did, some years ago, when I was trying to "eat clean" in the Paleo way. I soon realised that I didn't actually have an issue with dairy products, and that it was easier to use butter instead of ghee! For me, at least. But I agree, the food was yummy!

 

[Mrsmac247]

It came out very buttery which I didn't expect as up until yesterday I didn't know what it was lol

 

[Celeriac]

I love the taste of ghee, it's like clotted cream I buy organic from Spices of India.

 

[uart]

It came out very buttery which I didn't expect as up until yesterday I didn't know what it was lol

Yep, it's almost the same thing. Ghee is usually used in place of butter in poorer regions where they may not have access to refrigeration.

Butter is mostly milk fat with a small amount of water, but it does also contain a very small amount of milk solids including proteins. These proteins are less stable than the fat, and so will cause the butter to go rancid if stored unrefrigerated for too long. Clarifying the butter to remove the small amount of solids doesn't really impact much on the nutritional value, but it does give it a much better unrefrigerated shelf life.

There are some rural parts of India for example where they use ghee almost to the exclusion of all other oils and fat. They use it just about every meal, to cook in and also as a spread just like butter. Interestingly they also have some of the lowest incidence of heart disease of anywhere in the world. This is of course another data point that the guy who developed the "saturated fat causes heart disease" hypothesis conveniently missed.

 

[Mrsmac247]

Fascinating, I never knew all that. It's funny how something is associated with those less fortunate in one country and beneficial to good health in another. My parents from the Caribbean were surprised when I told them I cook with coconut oil, they said in Jamaica it is considered a poor persons substance as they cook with it, oil the hair with it and lotion the skin with it...they were worried at the cost of it here!

 

[uart]

...they were worried at the cost of it here!

Yeah, it's super expensive here too. I guess that would have been quite a shock to them.

Now I just can't get this picture out of my mind of your parents getting stopped at the airport next time they visit with suitcases jammed full of the stuff. I think I've been watching too many of those "border security" type reality shows on TV.

 

[Mrsmac247]

Lol I am definitely putting my order in, you know I'm gonna mention it when I go round for dinner tomorrow!

 

[vintageutopia]

I just bought some ghee so I am listening in for ideas. Mr. Vintage and I are going away for a few days together next week (without the kids for the first time in 8 years...yee haw!) and I was going to bring ghee in place of butter for the sheer convenience of it.

 

[Mrsmac247]

It seems like great stuff, very buttery and doesn't take up valuable veggie space in the fridge