Hello , i wanted to ask that usually in our homes,desi ghee is made from malai. i want to know ,i have freezed a huge amount of malai,how do i make butter & ghee from it ??/

Thanx

see;

Making ghee from malai

That was very sweet of u mamta, i am a food lover & shall keep on discussing things with u ,especially learning new dishes.i am unable to find the recipe of shredded chicken baked in cheese,its like quesh but baked in a bowl.So if u have the recipe ,,plz let me know,

i shall b grateful 2.

warm regards

Baheen Tarique

Do you mean a Quiche or Queso Baheen? If you mean quiche, I have Quiche Lorraine recipe, where you can replace bacon with cooked chicken stripes. If it is Queso you are looking for, I don't have it but there are plenty on the internet.

You are always welcome to ask questions, many good cooks visit here who may be able to help.

Mamta

Salams Mamta,

That was very kind of u2 reccomend me quiche as the chicken baked in cheese once i had in saloos restaurant was some what like that !

I would like to ask u as within two days our holy month of RAMZAN is approaching,please suggest me some dishes for aftari & sehar which are not even heavy & easy 2make, as most of our time is spent in praying while we are fasting & to wake up in the middle of the night & cook for sehri is quite difficult at times as we women are most of the time indulged in2 household work, & specially when u have guests ,,it becomes quite hard !

Hello Baheen

Not being a Muslim myself, I am not sure about what is permitted and what is not. My usual advise on religious fasting is that you should continue to eat as you would normally, incorporating whatever your religion/heart asks you to eat specifically for a particular fast. There is no reason to eat unhealthy food, simply because you are breaking a fast, whatever that fast is. So eat plenty of fruits, vegetables, fish and a little meat, along with your normal bread and Senvian kheer 'Sheerkhorma'.

I am sure you are allowed to cook during the day, aren?t you, as long as you don?t taste it? Some of my friends do.

I do understand about ?most? women doing all the house work, specially our Asian women. The trick I am told is not to try to be a superwoman and do everything to perfection. I wish some had told me that 30 years ago LOL!!! More you do, more you are expected to do/cope with. Things are changing already in my children?s generation. More and more men are discovering the joys of good house work!

Here is how I make ghee from butter.

Put 1 lb. butter, cut into large dice, into a glass vessel. A souffle dish works well for this. You don't want it to have too wide of a bottom or the butter will cook too fast and you won't have time to get that roasted flavor.

Put into a 300 degree oven for one hour. At this time, the impurities will have separated from the ghee, but you probably won't yet have that roasted flavor. Keep checking the ghee about every 10 minutes, until it darkens in color, maybe up to 30 additional minutes. Remove from oven and let cool. Separate the impurities from the clarified butter (ghee).

I don't think this is something I've ever read (or possibly even thought about) but why is Ghee made ? Is there a reason to clean out the "impurities" ? is it to make it last longer in the heat ? How come over the thousands of years nothing else has taken its place?

Steve

Hello Steve

Welcome back, hope you had a nice holiday :-)!

That is exactly it. Butter doesn't last that long but ghee can last for a very long time, even years. In the intense heat of India, that is the only way to keep it.

Other reasons for its popularity are that it gives a lovely flavour to food, especially dals. Nothing else compares with the flavour, though most of us don't eat it much nowadays, because of high cholesterol levels it is said to impart. I add a little on top of things like dals, almost like a garnish, but only sometimes. My grandmother used it to cook everything including for deep frying and making sweets. She would not touch any of the oils. She also used it as hair tonic and body oil. She was a strict vegetarian. In India, milk products are considered vegetarian, veganism is new, almost unheard of. Anyway, she lived to be 97 and she was relatively healthy and able until she died.

There are substitutes these days, many, many other vegetable oils. In the 50s to 70s, there was a vegetable oil that was very popular in India. It was called 'Dalda' and it looks like ghee. It was made from peanuts as I recall it. It became solid at cool temperatures, making it look just like ghee. So it became very popular. It was later realised that it was pure saturated fat and perhaps harmful. Its use has significantly declined since. Sunflower oil has gained tremendous popularity in India over the recent years. North Indians still prefer it in their dals, on their chapatties and in sweets.

Mustard oil has always been used all over Indian, especially in Eastern India It is used for cooking, as body oil and as hair oil. It is used to make most of the pickles. It has a strong smell, which you either love or hate! It has been adulterated frequently in India over the years, with the addition of cheaper but dangerous oils, causing massive health scares. ?In its pure form, mustard oil contains a fatty acid called erucic acid (cis-dos-13-enoic acid) at levels between 22% and 50%. EU Directive 80/891/EEC requires the erucic acid content of foods to be no greater than 5%. As a consequence, no pure mustard oil may be classified as a food? and every bottle sold in Europe is labelled as ?not suitable for human consumption?. However, most Indians use it, as long as it is pure, without any untoward effects.

Mamta

Other vegetable oils like sunflower oil are becoming popular in India. Olive oil is very expensive there because olives have not been cultivated there yet. I am sure some enterprising farmer will start it one of these days, if not done already.

Thats some history, thanks for that! Its amazing how things are just skipped/glossed over and you don't even think about them.

Yeah had a great holiday, got a few ideas buzzing around my head but these aren't straight forward as they will need some real 'conjuring' to be 'do-able' for the home cook. Certain methods like smoking aren't easily available to the average home cook and the foods aren't really available back home.

Steve

I know about new ideas buzzing in your head. I too pick new recipes all the time, some I get around to making, other i don't. I am making some stufffed tomatoes for starters today, have around 8 people for dinner. Let's see how they turn out. I am making them without paneer cheese today, unlike most Indians make, because one of the guests 'hates' paneer!

I have a recipe I came up with for stuffed peppers that only has rice and veg in it and my daughter loves it (as do several other people who tried it at a bit of an indoor BBQ we had a while back).

Basics are softened onions + veg you have about* add garlic, paprika, dried oregano, dried mint, tomato pur?e, salt,pepper, veg stock and rice (possibly deglaze pan with a touch of red wine/red wine vinegar for an extra kick - also a touch of sugar if you like).Cook until the rice is all most done, then stuff the pepper (or quite possibly a nice large beef tomato) and then bake in the oven.

You could add cheese or even meat to it but so far I've never felt it needed anything else.

• like carrot, peas, cauliflower, cabbage - all chopped in small dices/pieces

This is the thing, my recipes are often based on what you have around the house. Your peppers sound nice. There is no end to what you can stuff in vegetables and there is no end of vegetables that can be stuffed!

Mamta

Salams Mamta,

Hope alls well with u ? Mashallah , Ramzan has started & we all are fasting & enjoying ur delicious recipes.

as i was going thru some of the sanjeev kapoors recipes, i came across Avocado. Unfortunately,he has not mentioned a lot of ingredients in urdu in his know ur ingredient section which makes cooking a dish a lot difficult.I went thru computer & read that it means makhan phal,but i dont even know wat a makhan phal is or wat does it look like.I checked it in ur ingredient section too,,but it wasnt even there.I am so eager to know abt this bcoZ,,,,,in one of the books i have of beauty secrets,,,an over riped mashed avocado is a nourishing hair pack too.So if there is another urdu or a hindi name for this fruit or vegetable pz,let me know??

Praying & wishing all the best for all of u ! May ALLAH shower His countless blessings on all of us ! AMIN !!

Salams Mamta, this is a hyderabadi recipe i made thrice & every1 just loved it.I want to share it with u .

Its DUM KI ARBI

Ingredients Serves 4

4 tbsps + to deep fry Oil

4-6 Green cardamoms

1/4 tsp Nutmeg (grated)

Salt to taste

700 gmsColocassia (arbi)

1/4 cup Fresh cream

3 medium sized Onions

1 inch piece Ginger

10 cloves Garlic

3 tbsps Poppy seeds (khus khus)

2 cups Yogurt

1/2 tsp Red chilli powder

1 tsp Cumin powder

1/2 tsp Turmeric powder

1 tsp Coriander powder

1/2 tsp Garam masala powder

Method

Wash, peel and cut arbi into one inch sized pieces. Heat sufficient oil in a kadai and deep fry arbi till crisp and golden brown. Drain onto an absorbent paper and keep aside. Peel, wash onions and cut into halves. Add two cups of water and boil till soft. Drain out excess water, cool and grind to a smooth paste. Peel, wash and grind ginger and garlic to a fine paste. Dry roast poppy seeds and then soak in water for half an hour. Grind to a smooth paste. Whisk the yogurt along with red chilli powder, cumin powder and turmeric powder. Heat four tablespoons of oil in a pan. Add green cardamoms, when it starts to change colour slightly, add boiled onion paste. Saut? till light golden brown. Add ginger-garlic paste and coriander powder. Mix well. Stir in poppy seeds paste and cook for a minute. Add the whisked yogurt, bring it to a boil. Add fried arbi, grated nutmeg, garam masala powder and salt. Cover the pan with a tight fitting lid and simmer for thirty minutes. Alternatively, cover the pan with aluminum foil or seal the lid with wheat flour dough (atta), so that the aroma is contained in the pan and does not escape. Just before serving open the lid and stir in fresh cream.

I believe that "Advocado" is "Makhanphal" in Hindi

Looks like this picture

Steve

Hello Baheen

Sorry for not replying earlier. I have been away in London and then very busy in the garden, taking cuttings, tidying up for autumn and so on.

Anyway, thank you for your good wishes. May Allah shower his blessings on you and your family too. May He give peace in the heart of some of our ?lost? brethrens. One of my very dear Muslim friend, who is also from Hyderabad, is also keeping fast for the whole duration of Ramadan and praying for peace in the world :-).

As already answered by Steve (thank you Steve), Avocado is indeed Makhanphal (makhan=butter, phal=fruit in Hindi). I just checked, it is there under ?glossary? section of this site. The glossary normally shows you ?Hindi to English? translations. For looking at English to Hindi translations, you have to click at the top. I don?t know the Urdu word for Avocado. The problem is that it is not grown (at least wasn?t until recently), so most of us from that subcontinent have not heard of it.

Dum ki Arvi sound delicious. Is it your own recipe or Sanjeev?s? If it is yours or your family?s, send it to me via the ?contact? link above. I will try it and then post it on this site, in your name, if it comes out well. If you make it next time, take a few good digital pictures too, I will keep them in my file, to be added to the recipe one day.

Cheers!

Mamta

Salams .

Steve i would like to thank u so very much for the picture.i have saved it & Now i can easily get it fom any where.

Mamta , i learned it from khana khazana, Sanjeev kapoors. i made it thrice & all my family & husband loved it ! my mother is a kashmiri & a great chef too.Inshallah i shall post u her recipes after eid .

once again thanks to steve& U.ALLAH BLESS U ALL !

You're most welcome !

Steve

I tried Jan's idea to make ghee in the oven and it was very easy to do. Thanks so much for the idea. It was a good one!

Salams Mamta, Steve & every 1. I just wanted to wish u all a very very HAPPY NEW YEAR. MAY ALLAH SHOWER HIS BLESSINGS ON ALL OF US ALL THE TIME 1 AMIN !!!

I was not in touch as i wasnt well,had a bad shatik nerve problem in my leg.Now by the grace of ALLAH,, im fine & leaving 4 HAJ ,so wanted to wish u all the best in life 7 years to come ahead. i shall b coming in mid Jan 2008 inshallah 7 then shall b in touch !! till then..............................................................................CIAO !!!!! write me some good recipes for winters !!!

Hello baheen

Hope you are well soon. Thanks for the good wishes for the New Year! May God give peace to the world :-).

Best wishes for the Haj and have a nice Eid. Steve has been busy lately, I hope he will see your mail soon.

Mamta

hi mamta, i m first time on ur site. very informative and helpful i shall say. i saw ur recipe for making ghee. its the same way i made back home in India. i wanted to know that instead of home stored mali which i dont get here in cyprus milk... is it all right to use whipping cream or double cream? to first make makkhan out of it and then ghee?

Hello Sheetal

Welcome! As long as you have butter, it doesn't really matter how or what you make it from. Ghee is clarified butter only, where the milk soilds have been removed by heating it.

Mamta

Sheetal, are you saying in Cyprus you can't get milk to make malai from ? or that you can't get it premade ?

I know just about every sort of milk (skimmed, semi, full fat etc) is available from most places in Cyprus and if you ask about, there might even be somewhere that does hold speciality products.

Some of the larger supermarkets like Orphanides might even stock something similar as they do cater for more than just the Cypriot taste buds.

Steve

looks like today is my thought popping up day...

As most Indian people are vegetarians, why is ghee made from animal fats and not vegetable fats or plant fats/oils ?

Probably answering my own question, is it the ease and availablity of it ?

Steve

Hello Steve

The reason why vegetarians consider milk and milk product acceptable in India is that they consider cow as their 'mother', even worship her as mother. How can mother's milk be not acceptable?

Traditionally, according to Hindu traditions, when you milk a cow, you must leave enough for her own child.

Cow being their mother, most practicing Hindu's will not eat beef, not kill that cow for it's meat. Some very orthodox Hindu's will not even use cow leather products.

Veganism is relatively new in India, with a very, very small following, and nearly 100% people do not believe in it.

Mamta

Again I'm amazed at questions that come up through food and the answers they bring !

Thanks for that, now makes sense

Steve

hey Mamta mam... thanks for giving Ghee recipe from malai.... i will try to make Ghee.