Ghee is an excellent choice for a healthy fat to sautée with. It is basically clarified butter, only simmered a bit longer to toast the milk solids and give it a nutty flavor. By separating and straining out the milk solids from the pure butterfat, you can cook with it at a much higher temperature than regular butter without burning it. In fact, the smoke point of ghee(482°F) is higher than most vegetable oils, so you can even deep fry with it if you are just rolling in butter. I use cheap oils for deep frying as the whole point is to cook the food at such a high temp that they won’t absorb the fat, so it seems a waste to use the high quality fats you do want to eat for that. It is an excellent substitute for bacon fat and, yes… you can make a roux with it. Making your own ghee is easy and much cheaper than buying those tiny expensive jars of it you see in the grocery store, and no telling how long they’ve been sitting there. It will keep in the refrigerator for up to a year and in the pantry for up to 3 months after opened(keep out of direct sunlight). The quality of butter you start with, of course, will determine the quality of ghee you end up with.

Process

• start with 1-2 lb unsalted butter(1lb butter will make about 1.5 cups ghee)
• cube butter and heat on medium/low in a heavy saucepan(i like ceramic-coated for this)
• the butter will melt, foam up, then start to crackle(this is the moisture cooking out of the butter)
• cook on medium to low, stirring often for about 10 minutes or until the crackling stops and foam subsides
• it will start to foam up again and the milk solids(which have now sunk to the bottom of the pot) will start to brown
• when the ghee smells nutty and delicious and when you stir the pot and see that the milk solids have turned a lovely reddish brown color… take it off the heat immediately
• strain through a sieve lined with several layers of cheesecloth into a stainless bowl with a spout and let cool slightly
• strain again into a mason jar making sure none of the milk solids end up in the jar
• note: if you strain it into the mason jar directly from the stove, it might crack the jar and you could end up with all your beautiful ghee running down your counters…yes, I have done this.

You should end up with a beautiful jar of golden liquid that solidifies as it cools. If you didn’t over-toast the milk solids, you can totally throw them in a batch of cookies or pancakes after straining them out. The longer you toast them, the stronger the flavor and darker the color of the ghee, but you don’t want to cross over into the burnt nuts range and it can happen so fast, so watch closely once the milk solids sink to the bottom and it begins to foam for the second time.