Those days when our hair was long and our bell bottoms were wide, we were very fond of an instrumental number called Popcorn. One version that was a big hit among us — the youth of the 70s — was by a group called Hot Butter. Soon, another version hit the top of the charts, and that was by a band called Fresh Cream. “What next,” a friend’s friend had then asked. “Popcorn by Desi Ghee?”

It turns out that he was quite a seer. Now that ghee — once much adored and then greatly abhorred — is loved again, chefs are cooking with ghee with a light heart. And they are going beyond the usual ghee-infused tadka or aloo parathas. Ghee, they hold, can be used with anything and everything.

Enter, popcorn, tossed in ghee. That’s what Azad Taslim Arif, senior executive chef at The Vedic Village, Calcutta, has been rustling up. He heats ghee in a large pot, adds corn kernels to the hot ghee and seasons them with salt. He covers the pot with an aluminium foil, after making some 10 small slits on the sheet with a knife. Once the kernels have popped, he removes the pot from the heat and sprinkles some more salt, along with garlic powder, onion powder, cayenne pepper and chilli powder, on the puffed corn. He then adds deep fried crispy curry leaves to it.

”Ghee is healthy. And it can also be used in different kinds of cuisines,” the chef says.

Other chefs, too, are replacing olive oil or butter with ghee for some dishes. “Ghee adds to the taste of a dish because it has a high smoking point, unlike butter,” points out chef Neeraj Tyagi of Shangri-La’s-Eros Hotel, New Delhi.
To add to the taste, chef Sambit Banick of the Calcutta restaurant, Spice Kraft, grills sea bass and serves it with a garlic lemon ghee sauce. Chef Azad has a ghee recipe for fish, too —poached betki with a ghee-lime sauce, which he serves with feta aloo chokha and water spinach bhaji on the side.

Likewise, executive chef Saurav Banerjee of The Oberoi Grand believes that a flatfish, or even thin slices of chicken, can be sautéed in ghee with thyme, tarragon, salt and pepper.

“Clarified butter has its own aroma, which works very well for many dishes,” says chef Banerjee, who uses it to smoke cold fish, cold prawns and other seafood, flavoured with dill and shavings of fresh fennel.

Ghee, chef Azad points out, can be used for all courses — from snacks (such as popcorn) and appetisers (he does a ghee roast lamb with green peas cream) to your main dish. His ghee-tossed green pea salad with mint and ginger is easy to cook. Heat ghee. Add chopped ginger, onion, green chillies and green peas. Once the peas are done, add chopped fresh mint and some lemon juice over it. Season with salt, and serve warm with ghee drizzle.

Sometimes, along with the ghee, you can add an Indian touch to a Western dish. Chef Azad does that with his ghee-flavoured curried risotto with green chillies and cherry tomatoes. He heats ghee in a large saucepan, fries onion till soft, and then sautés garlic and rosemary in it. He adds the risotto rice, stock, curry powder and other condiments. And he finishes this with Parmesan cheese.

“Since food in ghee takes a while to cook, the cooking process is slow and the flavours get intensified,” chef 
Banick explains.”Ghee is the new superfood.”

It is a superfood, no doubt. And it certainly makes the food super.