ArcaMax

I’m Gleeful for Ghee (pron. GEE)

When I was in my early 20s I spent a fair amount of time working in restaurants. I always had at least one part time job that took me to a restaurant after my regular 9 to 5 job. I worked in everything from a pizza joint that made the thick, double-crusted Chicago-style pizzas to some of the finest French restaurants or high-end steak houses. Each job presented challenges.

Most of the time I worked as a waitress. In one place, one night a week I was the sommelier. I really didn’t know that much about wine at that point but they were in a panic and at least I knew the list well enough to make recommendations.

I never held a full-time position cooking but I did help a couple of restaurants with menu and recipe development. And I did do a two week internship working on “the line” in a restaurant as part of my management training.

I took up a serious appreciation for people who work in wait staff positions as well as those that cook behind the scenes. Both of those jobs are HARD.

One restaurant I worked in had a chef that took a liking to me. He let me work Sunday mornings in the kitchen helping him with brunch. This was a French restaurant so brunch was pretty fancy. One thing the chef let me do was “decorate” the salmon. He’d put out a full-sized salmon on the buffet and people could serve themselves chunks of it. The salmon was decorated with all kinds of sliced veggies and then there was a lot of cream cheese piped along the edges. The salmon always looked like it was dressed. Sort of like it was wearing a fancy outfit. Really pretty. I was good at squirting cream cheese.

One thing I observed anytime I was around the restaurant in the early morning was the prep work. I watched as the chefs made themselves ready for the big crowds to come in later. A necessary project every day was to make clarified butter.

The chef would pull out a fairly large soup pot. Then he’d put in blocks of butter. We’re talking probably 12 to 15 POUNDS of butter were loaded into the soup pot and the heat was turned on fairly low. All he was doing was melting butter. Seemed kinda crazy to me, until later. When the butter was fully melted there was an almost white foam on top that the chef would skim off and throw away. I didn’t get it. I just observed. The result was this huge soup pot full of golden liquid.

When the chef commenced to cook, he’d take each order and prepare it. Most of the fish, chicken and even the steaks were prepared in the sauté pans. The first thing to go into the pan was a small ladle full of the golden liquid (clarified butter).

There were a few reasons the chef used clarified butter. First reason is it’s the purest butter taste. The bad fat was removed with the skimming of the foam. All that was left was the purest part of the butter. Clarified butter also has what’s called a higher flash point. That means the chef can cook at a higher temperature and the butter does not burn. That’s why so many dishes in a restaurant have the buttery, crispy crust on them.

The people of India take it to another level. They make a thing called Ghee. Ghee is clarified butter that has been processed another step so it can be shelf stable. My homeopathic doctor, Dr. Branch introduced me to ghee. I had never made it. I bought some at Whole Foods and love it. The problem I noticed was the price. Compare butter to ghee and you’re talking about $13 for ghee. Ouch.

So I thought about making my own. I knew from my restaurant days that clarified butter didn’t last. The chefs tossed any that was left at the end of the night. They didn’t take any chance that it might have been contaminated while sitting on the stove. I supposed it would last a few days but not long.

I told Dr. Branch I was thinking of making my own ghee and not long after he sent me this link. This is a guy with an Indian heritage. His family knows well how to make their own ghee. So he was kind enough to pass this lesson along over the internet on how to make ghee. I think I’ll always make the version that has to be stored in the refrigerator. I don’t have to have it fully shelf stable, but this is really a great idea. You will also learn in here how good ghee is for you. It’s MUCH better for you than butter. You can use it in so many ways. Anytime you see a recipe that includes butter you can substitute ghee; with the possible exception of baking. I have not tried baking with ghee yet. I just thought I’d open up a new bit of the world of cooking for you today.

Here’s how to make ghee: blog.asmartmouth.com/2008/10/10/homemade-indian-ghee.

I thought some of you might be disappointed if all I offered for today’s recipe is one for ghee, so here’s a bonus. This is one of my most recent Zola Diet inventions. People tell me this is the most flavorful diet they can imagine. When they follow our full program they lose as much as 30 pounds in 37 days and they get to eat things like this.

Chicken and "Sausage" Etouffee (Cajun Stew)
Two of my favorite Cajun dishes are etouffee and Marengo. Like lots of Cajun food they are basically stews. Simple, flavorful meals.
Because in the ZReduction phase we are not allowed to eat the customary andouille sausage that would be in etouffee I decided to improvise and make a sausage of sorts to go into the dish. It worked just fine. So I hope you enjoy this dish. I have made this version fairly mild. You can always kick it up to downright spicy.
Serves 6
Makes 9 cups of etouffee

Ingredients:

1 lb of ground sirloin

2 Tbl of Cajun spice mix

3 chicken breast halves cut into one inch pieces

1 large onion diced (2 cups)

1 red bell pepper diced (1 cup)

2 Tbl minced garlic

1/2 tsp of dried sage

1/2 tsp of dried thyme

3 cups of organic chicken broth

1 6 oz can of tomato paste

1 Tbl Worcestershire sauce

½ tsp of hot sauce

6 green onions, diced. White and light green parts only

3 Tbl of chopped parsley

Directions:

Let’s make simple sausage first. Lightly spray a sauté pan with olive oil. In a bowl combine the sirloin with the Cajun spice mixture. Just mix with your hand. Put the ground sirloin in the sauté pan. Break into large hunks at first. Brown one side and gently flip the blobs over. When they brown on the other side break them up into hunks about one inch in size. Think of the sausage that’s on a pizza. Little blobs like that. When the sausage is cooked just set it aside and make the rest of the etouttee.

In a soup pan add a bit more oil and then sauté the chicken pieces. When they are about half cooked you can add the peppers and onions. Cook on medium high until the chicken is no longer pink in the middle. Add the garlic, sage, thyme, broth, tomato paste, Worcestershire and hot sauce. Bring to a low boil and cook this until all of the ingredients are hot. Then add back in the sausage. Heat.

In traditional Cajun cooking you would have started with a roux (an oil and flour mixture) that makes a gravy. In this dish you won’t have the roux (because of the oil and flour) but you will still have a fairly thick sauce.

When you serve etouffee you traditionally have diced green onions and a bit of minced parsley on top for a garnish. You won’t even miss the fact that etouffee is usually served over rice. Rice is so yesterday!

This dish reheats marvelously and is easily transportable to the work site.

Cheers
Enjoy,
Zola

Send email to Zola at zolacooks@gmail.com.