One of the most exciting parts about doing lots of cooking and trying out new recipe ideas is that you get to discover all sorts of different ingredients that you might never have come across otherwise. Hitting the kitchen can really help you broaden your horizons and you’ll be planning your first cookbook before you know it!

If you’ve been making a lot of Indian and Middle Eastern recipes of late, you may have already seen ghee being mentioned in many ingredient lists - and you may have already cooked with it before!

Ghee itself is simply clarified butter that’s been simmered and strained to get rid of all the milk solids and any water. It’s slow cooked on a low setting, which means the milk solids have time to go brown and this results in a delicious nutty flavour in the end product.

It’s a really versatile ingredient to play around with and has a very high smoking point, so it can be used for everything from sauteing and roasting to frying. It’s also really easy to store and all you need to do is keep it well sealed in an airtight container somewhere cool and dark. 

Your ghee should last around three months, although be mindful about using clean spoons when scooping it out to help prevent contamination, which can affect its shelf life. You can even keep it in the freezer if you’re not sure that you’ll use it straight away and don’t want it to go to waste.

But it’s not just in the kitchen where ghee comes into its own! It’s also great for a bit of skincare every now and again and you can use it as lip balm to heal chapped lips, as cuticle oil on your fingernails or even in oil pulling to help improve the health of teeth and gums. It really is a wonder ingredient!