CORNUCOPIA
The kitchen staple has been called a health hazard, but there are ways to limit its damage
A look at best and worst types and practices when it comes to the nearunavoidable use of cooking oil.
Cooking oil is an indisputable kitchen staple. As basically everyone uses it, it can be quite a lucrative business for its producers.
However, fierce competition often forces producers to serve up a range of oils to stand out, while pumping lots of money into advertising campaigns. That’s why it can be quite a headache eying the shelf in the supermarket, trying to figure out what brand to buy.
Let’s have a look at the history of cooking oil. The oldest type used in Thai kitchens is coconut oil. In the past, however, coconut oil was primarily used as lamp fuel for households. At temples, you could find bowls of it lit up for symbolic purposes. Coconut oil was also used for lubricating tools, medical massages and making pills mixed with ground herbs.
The wok, used for stir-frying and deep-frying food, and pork lard were imported from China and quickly became commonplace in Thai kitchens. However, due to religious beliefs, some ethnic groups could not use pork products so they used coconut oil instead.
Regardless of religious beliefs, many would opt to use coconut oil as it was popular and cheaper than making your own pork lard. The latter process involves buying pieces of pork lard and slow cooking it until it dissolves into oil.
Coconut oil is called nam man bua, meaning “lotus oil” in Thai. The name comes from krata bai bua, a large wok that resembles the shape of a lotus leaf in which the coconut oil is cooked. After being cooked, it can be found for sale in either large containers ( pip) or glass bottles.
When vegetable oil eventually hit the market, pork lard and coconut oil became less popular. Soybean oil and palm oil were the first two types made available to the masses. Competition between the two got intense, with producers using advertising as their foremost weapon to lure in loyal buyers.
Over time, other variations stepped onto the scene — corn oil, rice bran oil, safflower oil, sunflower oil and canola oil. Then there was olive oil, whose popularity spread from the Mediterranean kitchen, along with its touted health benefits.
Cooking oil has been blamed for many modern diseases. Scientists, doctors and nutritionists have exchanged debate over the quality and dangers of different types of cooking oils over the years.
Since their statements vary greatly, it’s hard to know who to trust. But coconut oil and pork lard can be largely considered “safe” alternatives to vegetable oil.
The war over which cooking oil serves you best rages on. Consumers are bombarded with mixed information and I myself cannot confidently give advice on what oil you should use. If you want to feed healthy eating habits, I advise you to learn about what food is most nutritious, and try to limit your oil usage while cooking it as much as possible.
Avoid buying fried foods if you can. I know how appetising fried chicken, pork, pork balls and fish cakes look.
Then there’s delicacies like patongko (Chinese-style deepfried doughnuts) and deep-fried, battered bananas, which require a substantial amount of oil.
The problem is most shops tend to use low-quality oil to save money. They may also reuse their oil, which is unhealthy.
Khai jeaw, or Thai omelette, has a nice, crispy look to it. Restaurants usually heat lots of oil in the wok so it smokes before pouring in the beaten eggs. Some shops do it the modern way by frying it in a pot, but still use lots of oil on high heat. The result is a perfectly rounded, delicate-looking omelet. But the same oil is often used to make omelets over and over again.
Stir-fried morning glory is made by tossing the vegetables in a heated wok filled with oil. The wok is tilted so the oil can catch fire, making it an exciting scene for clients to behold. However, it is important to note that burnt oil can produce chemical reactions that may be dangerous to consume in large amounts.
When making fried eggs for breakfast, using only water can sometimes be enough. Olive oil can also be used as it can fry eggs with low heat.
On a sidenote, olive oil is the only vegetable oil that can be used straight from the bottle. That’s why it’s used as salad dressing.
Baked bacon is as delicious as fried bacon and less greasy. When making pad pak (stir-fried vegetables), no oil is needed. Simply heat up the pan, add a bit of water and toss in some vegetable and seasonings.
As for Chinese sausage, there is no need to fry it in oil. Just add some water to the pan. The sausage gets cooked and there’s no need to add anything extra.
Some may ask — is it healthy to completely exclude oil from our cooking? We need fats for energy and balanced diets. And yes, good fats do exist.
Examples of good fats can be found in fish, particularly in the belly areas. Species such as gourami and sun-dried carp and snakehead fish are especially rich in belly fat. Shifting from frying them in oil to simply letting them cook in their own fat and grilling them demands no sacrifice — the result is always delicious and aromatic.
Many people like adding salmon to their salads. You may like to make gravlax salmon, which involves curing and refrigerating the fish until it is “cooked” and flavourful. After 48 hours in the fridge, fillet the fish and you will see all the oil that has accumulated.
Gravlax salmon is delicious and nutritious, and an inexpensive way to cook the fish.
These are only some examples of cooking that is light on the oil. You may already have your own methods.
Keeping your oil usage to a minimum is an investment in your health. I hope then that standing before the cooking oil shelf at the store doesn’t cause you too much grief.
Oil may be a kitchen staple, but it’s not something you can’t live without.