What happens when you take butter, boil away the moisture and strain out the milk solids?

You're left with ghee - a richer, nuttier version of clarified butter - and although it's still a saturated fat, it's one of the healthiest fats, according to ayurvedic medicine.

"It's what they've been using in India for years," says Peter Malakoff, the founder of Ancient Organics Ghee. "It's like the Ganges. It flows through all the food preparations."

Malakoff has been singing the praises of ghee, pronounced with a hard "g," since his introduction to ayurveda, traditional Indian medicine, a decade ago.

That's when the 58-year-old Bolinas resident experienced a mild heart episode. He had numbness down his arm, pain on the left side of his body and difficulty speaking - all the classic symptoms of a heart attack - but his arteries were clear.

When doctors suggested exploratory surgery, Malakoff turned to alternative medicine. His symptoms cleared almost immediately, and in 2004, he traveled to India, learning the virtues of ghee and how to make it.

A good basic lentil recipe with variations

These two basic lentils are North Indian staples and are cooked in pretty much the same way. The cooking time and amount of water can vary slightly according to the age of the lentil. The split mung bean is known as mung dal, which is green with the husk, and yellow when dehusked. The whole beans are small, ovoid in shape, and green in color. The English word "mung" derives from the Hindi moong. Masoor lentils which are brown with the husk on are sold in Indian markets. When the husk is removed a lovely salmon-colored dal appears and is sold as red lentils in health-food stores.

There are many variations of the final flavoring that is provided in this recipe by the asafetida, cumin, and red peppers. You might like to try them at some time or other. Into the hot ghee, you may put:

The lentil or daal or dal (Lens culinaris), considered a type of pulse, is a bushy annual plant of the legume family (pea family), grown for its lens- shaped seeds. The lentil annual vine is about 15 inches (38 cm) tall and the seeds grow in pods, usually with two flat seeds in each. Though most westerners are familiar with the common brown lentil, there are many more varieties available for sale. In India, they grow over fifty.

History Lentils have been part of the human diet since the aceramic (non-pottery producing) Neolithic times, being one of the first crops domesticated in the Near East. The ancient Egyptians cultivated and exported lentils. The Roman writer Apicius records several lentil recipes. The Roman poor ate a dish called "conchis", in which both the lentils and their pods were cooked. Pliny the Elder describes a recipe for lentils cooked with beans, cabbage and turnip. They were introduced into America after World War I.