We lived in the first of what would come to be a series of affordable apartments — perfect for the fresh immigrants that we were. The complex was in New Jersey, though Pennsylvania was where we would eventually end up. Life was getting exciting. Dad had just purchased our first brand new family car — a powder, baby blue Chevy Impala. The car symbolized success, freedom, and a sense of belonging in this new country. And, we could now show my grandfather, who was visiting from his village in North India, that we were — against all the odds — making it.
I received my first lesson on perspective on that visit. He certainly liked the car, but he took issue with something else that no one had thought to hide or tuck away while he visited — our refrigerator. He could not understand why we took food and put it in that contraption to eat the next day — or, god forbid, a few days later — don’t even get me started on the disgust that crossed his face seeing things come out of the freezer, defrost, and make it to our plates. What kind of place is this? He often asked in his stern Punjabi.
In his world, ingredients were procured from the market daily, cooked, and consumed immediately. There was no refrigerator in our home village — in fact, my grandfather had never seen a fridge, let alone used one. I still remember visiting my mother’s family, who came from a much larger town, and how it felt when they first got a ‘cooler’. It was about as tall as I was, at five foot nothing, and was primarily for a few key ingredients. Rarely did food sit in it to be eaten for dinner again, though.
This is one of the reasons ghee is so valuable, especially in rural India, where there may be limited access to electricity and refrigerators. Things have changed a lot, but the idea is that with a few simple steps, you can boil away the impurities in butter and create a purer cooking substance with a high smoke point that can sit on the counter for months unrefrigerated. Take a minute to make ghee yourself. It’s super easy, and it’s better than anything available on the market at the moment. Trust me.
xoxo Anupy
Cook: 10 minutes
Cool: 30 minutes
Makes 1½ cups
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[[ recipeID=recipe-2mkcvico2, title=Instant Pot: Homemade Ghee ]]
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by Anupy Singla, Indian As Apple Pie
Servings:
Keywords: Indian Recipes, Butter, Ghee
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