‘Oil’ is not well
FROM VEGETABLE, COCONUT AND PEANUT TO FANCIER ONES LIKE OLIVE AND GRAPE SEED, EVERY OIL HAS SPECIFIC QUALITIES THAT CAN ENHANCE OR DERAIL WHATEVER YOU’RE TRYING TO COOK
When it comes to taste, the oil you use matters the most. For instance when I am cooking a traditional Bengali mutton curry, I use nothing but refined cold pressed mustard oil. No other oil will bring out the authentic flavour. A good quality coconut oil works beautifully with avail or sambar. Dishes from the south also use sesame oil which enhances the flavour profile. Authentic interpretation of certain dishes call for a particular oil and you simply can’t replace it with another oil. My mom used to make a lot of pickles and she always used mustard oil. I can’t imagine them in any other oil.
But yes, you have to be careful with mustard, sesame and coconut oil. It has a distinctive aroma and strong potency. A little goes a long way. You have to know where to stop. Personally I love coconut oil. We use it a lot in our Indian specialty restaurant. South Indian dishes from Kerala and Karnataka are either cooked or finished in coconut oil. One should choose a cooking oil that contains higher proportion of monounsataurted and polyunsaturated fats
GHEE THE SUPER FOOD
Ghee is hailed as a super food these days. I love it irrespective of anything. If your grandfather ate it and lived till 85, it had something to do with ghee. They weren’t running marathons but they led a healthy lifestyle and ate an awful amount of ghee. It’s a fabulous medium to cook with and lends itself beautifully to Indian dishes. A parantha cooked to crispy, golden brown with a dollop of ghee is gastronomic heaven.
I believe a lot of the oils that were used in the past by our grand parents whether it was kacchi ghani, sesame oil or coconut oil were by far healthier than the refined and super refined oils that we use today. Old fashioned is still good.
BUTTER IS BETTER
Butter enhances the flavours and texture of a dish, it is creamy and tastes absolutely delicious. Clarified butter is my choice for European and modern western cuisines. It also works beautifully on a pav bhaji, baking and even a pasta dish. Butter by itself has a very low smoke point so you need to blend it with another oil. However what is sold as butter by street side vendors and small restaurants are butter substitutes, which are extremely dangerous. You never know where it is coming from. The moment you put in on a tawa, it gives out a foul odour.
THE FRILLS AROUND OILS
The idea behind so-called ‘coldpressed’ oils is that they are healthier and have more of their nutrients intact as a result of not being heated. But don’t get carried away with terms like cold pressed unless you are 100 per cent sure that it is genuine coldpressed. A lot of the so called ‘cold-pressed oils’ in the market are nothing but regular oils where a premium is attached. Unless you are at a factory where you see the oils being extracted from coconut or olives using the cold pressed technology, stay away.