Ghee is a style of clarified butter used in Indian cuisine. In Western clarified butter, you melt the unsalted butter, skim off the milk proteins which rise to the top as foam, and then ladle off the butter being careful to leave behind the water that has settled to the bottom.
Ghee is less wasteful and gives a wonderful subtle nuttiness to the butter when the milk proteins are browned during the process. The addition of tea leaves during this step can add further depth to the flavors and perhaps this would then be Ghea?
Tea Infused Ghee
Steeping tea in melted butter is an effective way to capture the tea's complex layers of flavor. Any tea you like can be used in this recipe to create fragrant additions to both sweet and savory dishes. Choose a high-quality loose-leaf tea for this dish.
Equipment
- 1 Small Saucepan
- 1 Strainer
- 1 Spoon
Ingredients
- 2 lbs butter sweet, unsalted
- 3 tablespoons tea leaves full bodied, broken leaf or ground
Instructions
- In a small saucepan, place butter and tea leaves. Melt butter over medium heat.
- Turn up to medium high until a layer of white foam (the milk proteins) come to the surface. You will see patches of brown in the foam from the tea leaves.
- Continue to simmer over medium heat watching for the foam to break apart and sink to the bottom. The bubbling that you see is the water content of the butter boiling off.
- When the foam has largely sunk and the water is no longer coming to the surface.
- Strain through a sieve lined with cheese cloth or a tea filter to remove the tea leaves and browned milk solids. Let cool. Depending on the tea used, your ghee will vary from a light golden color to a deep golden color or even have a slight greenish
