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Most of us, no matter cultural background, possible have a bottle of soy sauce in our pantry or fridge. The identical goes for condiments and staples like olive oil, sriracha and different sizzling sauces, quite a lot of vinegar, and, more and more, gadgets like curry paste, gochujang and sizzling honey. However ghee, the caramelized and clarified butter important to conventional Indian cooking? If you happen to’re not of South Asian descent or a very avid cook dinner, you’re unlikely to have a jar sitting in your cabinet.
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That is one thing Vreshin Naga, the face and mastermind behind Vresh Meals and its flagship product, OG Ghee, is working laborious to vary. Naga is on a one-man mission (properly, multi-man, because of the assistance of his enterprise companion Thomas Theoharis and a group of supporters) to make ghee a go-to product for all Canadians, whether or not they’re tackling a standard Indian meal or need to add some flavour and dimension to their eggs within the morning.
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Naga’s ghee journey began, as so many trendy meals startups have, initially of the pandemic. Laid off from his job within the building business, he comforted himself by cooking, with a deal with the Indian delicacies he grew up with throughout his childhood in Dubai. Naga just isn’t one to sit down on his laurels, so the cooking grew into social media posts, which kickstarted his Contemporary with Vresh meal kits, a pandemic enterprise that grew to become wildly well-liked with native foodies within the know.
Naga’s Contemporary with Vresh clients began requesting to purchase additional ghee to make use of with different meals and, because the fixed cooking to keep up the meal kits grew to become unsustainable, Naga acknowledged the potential of constructing a enterprise based mostly on South Asian pantry gadgets. After a prolonged regulatory battle over the shelf stability of his ghee (as a result of the milk solids are faraway from the butter within the cooking course of, ghee, like most cooking oils can fortunately sit open in your pantry so long as you’d like), OG Ghee was born in Could 2022. Naga knew he had an awesome and versatile product. The following step was (and nonetheless is) educating folks on methods to use it.
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“It needs to be a easy merchandise for people to get behind as a result of it’s simply butter, but it surely’s higher from a flavour perspective as a result of it’s browned,” he says. “It lasts longer, you possibly can cook dinner at increased temperatures, you possibly can preserve it at room temperature ceaselessly. There’s extra that you are able to do with it than with common butter.”
Clearly, ghee has lengthy been out there in Canada, however OG Ghee may very well be a game-changer in that Naga is offering a high-quality, locally-made product. His different secret weapon is his energetic advertising prowess. Different ghee manufacturers are likely to both are available in old school stodgy packaging or go for an enlightened well being meals strategy — OG Ghee’s packaging is contemporary and younger and Naga can’t and gained’t resist any wordplay or puns utilizing the phrase “ghee,” which removes the intimidation issue. Will that get Canadians slathering ghee on their toast instead of common butter or utilizing it to sear their steaks? Right here’s hoping.
To maneuver issues alongside, OG Ghee has launched new flavours to develop the general public’s perceptions of ghee. Whereas Naga is a big proponent of South Asian tradition and encourages folks to attempt their hand at conventional Indian delicacies, he’s additionally created totally different flavours of ghee to nudge clients in direction of incorporating it into meals they already get pleasure from. Along with the unique ghee, Vresh Meals sells herb and garlic ghee (good for making garlic bread or tossing with pasta) and French-toast applicable chai spice ghee, in addition to two restricted version collaborations: an “Italian backyard” flavour with Root and Regenerate City Farming and a espresso and vanilla selection made with Calgary Heritage Roasting Firm espresso that really tastes like a Espresso Crisp bar in spreadable type. It’s tasty stuff that redefines an ages-old ingredient for a brand new multi-cultural market.
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OG Ghee is offered for buy on-line at vreshfoods.com and can be out there at quite a lot of shops together with choose Safeway and Sobeys, Group Pure Meals, The Cookbook Firm, and Lukes Drug Mart.
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In different meals information, tune into the tenth season of the Meals Community’s Vacation Baking Championship this week to cheer on native chocolatier Kevin Conniff as he competes for the $25,000 prize. Conniff is the drive behind Candy Bella Candies and can be a longtime pastry chef and teacher at SAIT’s Faculty of Hospitality and Tourism. The collection begins Nov. 6 and Conniff is the one Canadian competitor on the present.
Lastly, in case you occur to be out in Banff or Lake Louise this week, the Style for Journey eating competition continues by means of Nov. 9. Over 25 mountain eating places are collaborating, with particular menus and occasions on provide at favourites like Juniper Bistro, Howdy Sunshine, Brazen, and The Maple Leaf. For a full checklist of collaborating eating places, go to banfflakelouise.com.
Elizabeth Chorney-Sales space might be reached at elizabooth@gmail.com. Observe her on Instagram at @elizabooth or join her e-newsletter at hungrycalgary.substack.com.
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