Monthly Archives: January 2012

Ghee and Curry Leaf Pasta Recipe

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In my last post  I showed you how to make home made ghee. In this post, I share how to use all that delicious ghee – pasta with curry leaf and ghee! I am a pasta lover and a ghee lover, and this is the recipe I created to get my pasta fix and ghee fix all in one recipe.

There is a big difference between making pasta with butter and pasta with ghee. Ghee will give the dish a rich, nutty flavor that butter wont. However, if you don’t have ghee but want to try this recipe, use half butter and half oil instead of the ghee; it wont taste the same as ghee, but it will still be delicious!

This ghee and curry leaf pasta is very mild tasting, and easy to make. Children will love this dish. It also makes a great office lunch to pack, with some steamed vegetables tossed in. For extra flavor, add a teaspoon of ginger garlic paste when tempering the mustard seeds.

You can use any tadka (the whole spices you add to the ghee) items you like – cumin seeds, fennel seeds, green chilis, urad dal, will all taste great.

When I was shooting this dish, I wanted a natural, rustic looking background to offset the colorful bowls with pasta. I didnt have anything large enough that will make a convincing background. So heres what I did..

I have a shabby chic table I picked up at an antique store in Spokane, WA. I’ve enjoyed using it in many of my food photos  like my thanksgiving tofu skin roulade, or in the photos of my dal fry mix in a jar. For these pasta photos, I flipped the table and set it behind my bowl of pasta. This created the natural looking background I wanted.

Ghee and Curry Leaf Pasta

Serves about 4

1 lb dry pasta such as linguine, macaroni, spaghetti or bow tie
3 tablespoons liquid ghee
½ teaspoon black mustard seeds
1/8th teaspoon asafoetida
8 curry leaves
salt

Bring plenty of water to boil in a large pot. Add a generous amount of salt to it. Add the pasta and stir. Cook uncovered, till the pasta is al dente (still has a bite to it; is cooked, but not completely soft), about 8 minutes.

Drain the pasta and set aside.

In the same pot or a large wok (non stick is best), heat the ghee, and add mustard seeds. (For extra flavor, add a teaspoon of ginger garlic paste at this point). When they pop, add asafoetida and curry leaves, and stir 30 seconds or till the curry leaves are fragrant.

Add pasta and salt, and toss well. Serve warm.

How to Make Ghee

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Ghee is used widely in Indian cooking. Not only is it deeply flavorful, ghee also has a higher smoke point, so its great for sauteing or frying. Indian herbal medicine (Ayurveda) uses ghee as a base for many of its medications. I spent some time at an Ayurvedic retreat in India last summer and my detox concoction was ghee based – I’ve never had a tastier medicine!

Making ghee at home is easier than you think. Here is a step by step recipe and tis for home made ghee.

Should you use salted or unsalted butter for ghee?
I’ve used both salted and unsalted butter successfully but I prefer unsalted.

Salted butter will foam more when boiling. So if you are using salted butter to make ghee, make sure you use a pan that’s large enough to accommodate the foaming, and be very careful when the ghee begins to boil. When it foams, gently stirring it with a wooden spoon will help it subside. If the butter foams and spills over, it can be hazardous, be very careful.

The milk solids from salted butter will be very salty. If you are making any of the ‘by product’ recipes, you wont need to add any extra salt.

How to Make Ghee

Ingredients
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter

Method
Use a medium sized, heavy bottom sauce pan. Make sure it is dry and clean. Place the butter in the pan, and cook uncovered on medium heat till all the butter melts.

Continue cooking while stirring occasionally till the butter starts to foam and boil. You will hear crackling, this means the butter is boiling.

Reduce heat to low, and continue to simmer the butter till it clarifies – when you part the foam on top, you should see the melted butter getting clear.

Continue to simmer the butter till the crackling subsides, about 10 minutes. How soon the ghee is done will vary depending on the quantity of butter you are using. So use the indicators below.

The ghee is done when
-          The crackling subsides. This means most the moisture has been cooked away
-          The ghee becomes a clear golden yellow liquid (part the foam with a spoon to see the ghee). This means the butter is clarified
-          The milk solids separate and settle in the bottom of the pan, and are light brown in color

Be careful not to over cook the ghee and burn the solids. If the milk solids are dark brown, or if the liquid ghee turns dark brown, you’ve over cooked it.

Let the ghee cool for about 20 minutes. Then strain it though a very fine strainer or 2 layers of muslin cloth. Make sure all the milk solids are strained out; strain the ghee twice if needed.

Store ghee is a clean, dry bottle. But don’t put the lid on till the ghee is fully cooled.

Ghee can be kept at room temperature for 2 months. Refrigerating it wont hurt either.

What do to with the milk solids from ghee making

When you clarify butter (by boiling) to make ghee, the milk solids will separate. They will settle in the bottom of the ghee. If the ghee is made properly, the milk solids remaining will be lightly brown, nutty, and very delicious.

Don’t throw away the milk solids. This is delicious stuff. Here are some things you can do with them:

-          Mix 2 tablespoons of milk solids with 1 clove of minced garlic. Heat on low till the garlic sizzles. Add a pinch of salt. Spread this on toasted pita or baguette slices for a rich tasting, yummy snack

-          Heat 2 tablespoons milk solids along with 6 roughly crushed peppercorns. When the peppercorns are fragrant, add 2 cups cooked rice and some salt. Mix well. We call this vennai chatti sadam (butter pot rice) – a recipe specifically created to use up the by product of ghee making.

-          Add sugar and wheat flour to milk solids. Gently cook. Then form the mixture into balls or laddus. See this video at min. 4:40 for ghee laddu recipe

Use ghee for sauteing vegetables or pasta, drizzle over hot rice, in soups, over popcorn, on toast, or in desserts.

Easy Carrot Mint Soup and a Great Tip for Flavoring Milk Based Soups

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Let’s start the New Year with a simple, yet delicious carrot mint soup recipe, shall we?! This is my go to recipe when I’m feeling like a soup laden with the freshness of herbs and vegetables. This soup is very easy to make and pantry friendly since it uses only carrots, fresh mint, and milk.

I’ve tried this soup before by pureeing the mint leaves along with the carrots, just like my pea and mint soup. The pureeing method works beautifully for the pea and mint soup, but not so well for the carrot soup. When you puree the mint with the carrots, the soup loses it brilliant carotene tinged orange color. So heres how I infuse the mint flavor into the soup. Read on..

How to flavor milk based soups

If you are making a milk based soup with a herb, this is the best way to infuse the herb flavor into the soup. Mint and basil work particularly well with this method, but you can also use cilantro, parsley, rosemary or chives.

Bring the milk to a gentle simmer, and add the herb (mint in this recipe) to it. Turn off the heat, cover the milk and let the herb infuse for about 15 minutes. Then pull out the herb leaves from the milk, squeeze any milk out, then discard the leaves. That’s it! You have herb infused milk! Puree this milk along with cooked vegetables (carrots in this recipe) and you have a beautiful herb infused soup.

This is a great make ahead recipe. You can make this soup a few days ahead and simple re-heat it in the microwave. I love this carrot mint soup for a work day lunch, packed in a thermos with a paper bag of french baguette. Yum!

Easy Carrot Mint Soup Recipe

Serves 2
Ingredients
6 medium carrots, peeled and cut into chunks (about 1 ½ cups)
1 1/2 cups water
1 cup milk (Whole milk will taste best, but you can use 2% milk too)
4 sprigs mint (about 20 mint leaves)
Salt
Freshly cracked black pepper
¼ teaspoon sugar, optional

Method
Place the chopped carrots and 1 1/2 cups water in a pan. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low. Cover with a lid and simmer the carrots till they are very very soft, about 40 minutes. When you mash a carrot chunk with the back of a spoon, it must mash very easily. This means the carrots are ready. Alternatively, you can pressure cook the carrots.

While the carrots are cooking, gently heat the milk in a medium saucepan. Just as small bubbles start to appear on the sides, and the milk is about to boil, turn off the heat. Immediately add mint sprigs to the milk and stir. Cover and let it infuse for 15 minutes.

Then fish out all the mint leaves, squeeze the milk out of them, and discard the mint leaves.

When the carrots are cooked, place them in a blender along with their cooking water, the mint infused milk and salt.

Blend to a smooth puree. Add more milk to the blender if needed, to thin out the soup. Be careful when blending hot liquids in a blender, always vent the lid a little.

Taste the soup; if you would like it a little sweeter, stir in the sugar. Some carrots are sweeter than others, so you may or may not need the sugar.

To serve, pour hot soup into bowls, top with cracked pepper and serve with crusty bread.

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