The Oily Edition - ‘Oils Ain’t Oils, Sol…’

Everyone knows the Usual Suspects when it comes to oils: Olive, Canola & 'Vegetable'. But there are a few perhaps lesser known oils that make for delightful variety in cooking and dressing dishes, as well as having added health benefits. So here's some Words-to-the-Wise about The Good Oil:

The three oils reviewed here are all sourced from mainstream supermarkets, so next time you are strolling down the cooking-oil aisle on grocery-night, have a closer look in the cooking oil section - nestled amongst the 101 varieties of Olive Oil, you should be able to find these three treasures:

Rice Bran Oil
Grape-Seed oil
Green Tea Oil

THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT OILS:

The Italian Mob may well have based their social structure on the properties of cooking oil: there are Good oils and Bad oils - and sometimes, good oils can ‘turn bad’ – but basically, this is it:

Good oils = cold-pressed, poly-unsaturated
Bad oils = saturated oils & Trans-fats.

Trans-fats are particularly nasty, as these are they guys that raise cholesterol, clog your arteries and generally make life miserable, if they don’t kill you first. Trans-fats are produced by partially hydrogenating oils to make them more saturated. There's nothing much good about trans fats in our bodies - production has mainly been driven by commercial pressures, as partial hydrogenation increases shelf-life and turns liquid oils solid - eg turning vegetable oil into margarine - making them more usable in commercial baking, frying, snack-food and fast-food manufacture.

Another means of "turning a good oil bad" - is prolonged over-heating, such as happens in a chip-shop fryer where the oil is only changed once a month; or when cooking oils or fatty meats at too high a temperature, eg, on a barbecue, which has been shown to produce carcinogens - cancer-causing substances.

So to avoid the 'Bad Guys', eat your oil as fresh as you can - cold-pressed and unsaturated and full of natural vitamins and goodness.

FEATURES TO LOOK FOR IN A GOOD OIL:

1. Smoke-Point & Flash-Point:
Smoke point is the temperature that an oil can be heated up to before it begins smoking and hence changing its molecular structure, producing both bad flavour and unhealthy chemical products.

Beyond Smoke-Point is Flash-point at which an oil actually bursts in to flame or combusts.

Wikkipedia gives a table of oil smoke-points listing some of the highest smoke-point edible oils as:

271°C - Avocado Oil
266°C - Safflower Oil
254°C - Rice bran Oil
252°C - Green Tea Seed Oil
216°C - Grape seed Oil
216°C - Olive Oil

Other common commercially-used cooking oils including: corn, peanut, soybean, walnut and hemp seed come in considerably lower at 160°C, with some oils such as: safflower, sunflower and flax seed as low as 107°C.

2. Cold-Pressing Versus Heat Extraction:
Obviously since heating negatively alters the structure of edible oils, the less heat used in extraction the better. Cold-pressing produces a better and more pure flavoured oil and retains the natural plant nutrients that are vital for our health.

Presumably it goes without saying that chemical extraction is not something we humans should expose our oils or our bodies to?!

3. Virgin & Extra Virgin
Virgin oils are made using mechanical means only - no chemicals, solvents or heat - and care is taken to leave the oil as unaltered from the pure state as it is squeezed from the fruit, seed or nut that it comes from.

Extra Virgin refers to an oil which is produced with the same care as Virgin oil but which also has a naturally low acidity of less than 0.8%. It is considered the most pure of oils.

RICE BRAN OIL:


















I love this oil! I use it for almost all my cooking purposes, as it fries so cleanly. Rice Bran Oil has a mild, subtle flavour and good thermal stability, with a high smoke-point of around 254°C. It doesn’t convert to harmful trans-fats when heated as some other oils do. These features, combined with a low adhesion to food make it one of the cleanest-frying oils.

Rice-Bran oil also has high levels of natural antioxidants such as gamma-oryzanol, tocotrienols & tocopherols. The latter two are naturally occurring forms of Vitamin E. These natural antioxidants helps in controlling free radical formation in the human body and helps prevent various coronary diseases. Research studies have indicated that Rice Bran Oil has a significant hypocholesterolemic (cholesterol-lowering) effects, because it has the dual actions of both increasing HDL (good) cholesterol while lowering LDL (bad) cholesterol in the body.

Rice Bran Oil also contains squalene which, along with its Vitamin E content, makes it a great oil to use for massage, as it protects and rejuvenates the skin.

GRAPE-SEED OIL:




















A by-product of the Wine industry, Grape Seed oil is pressed from the seeds of grapes. It has a high smoke-point of around 216°C, with no smoking, splatter or burnt taste, and doesn’t convert when heated to harmful trans-fats as some other oils do. The high flash point makes Grape Seed oil an excellent choice for fondues.

Grape Seed oil also has no fatty after-taste, allowing the pure flavor of fresh foods to come through. Grape seed oil contains Vitamin E, Vitamin C and Beta-Carotene

GREEN-TEA OIL:

This delicate gourmet oil is pressed from tea seeds harvested from the green tea plant (Camilla Sinensis). The seeds are cold-pressed to produce a lovely pale amber-green oil that has a sweet flavour and pleasant herbal aroma. Green Tea oil is high in Vitamin E and other antioxidants. It contains no trans-fats and is even lower in saturated fat than olive oil.

Green Tea oil has a high smoke point and can withstand high temperatures during cooking without burning. It is frequently used in preparing Asian foods and can be added to cooked vegetables, pasta, and stir-fry recipes. It can be used as a base for dips, dressings, marinades, and sauces. It is an excellent element in salad dressings, where it combines well with other flavours, such as: lemon, lime and leafy green herbs such as coriander, parsley and mint.

Enjoy, Bon Appetit.

Yum-oh!

Secret Ingredient #2 - Preserved lemons

The secret to Moroccan & African cuisine, making Preserved Lemons is a delightful winter afternoon’s pastime that will ensure a constant supply of zesty flavour for months to come. And this is what all the cloak-and-dagger secrecy has been about when I went to the Orange Grove Organic Markets on the Long-Weekend: I was on the hunt for seasonal organic bush-lemons, with good, thick rinds.
























I arrived at Tim & Barbara’s house on Sunday, laden with lemons and my portable studio (lights, camera, action!) and we proceeded to compare our research - both web-based and from our favourite dog-eared old cook-books - about Zen the Art of Preserving Lemons.

There are quite a few different methods, it seems: some cooks recommend slicing the lemons into thin circles; others say wedges are best; while still others keep their lemons almost whole, slicing a deep six-pointed star through the tip of the fruit. Some methods advise squashing the lemons into jars and covering with juice; while other recipes recommend draining off the juice and packing the rinds in oil. A few recipes add whole spices, such as cinnamon and cloves; others go with just the pure freshness of citrus.

What they all agree on, however, is salt: Lots of salt…

So we decided that we should be a bit scientific about it and try all the methods, to see which one we prefer when the whole process has run its course. We can let you know in about six weeks time...!























PRESERVING LEMONS:

Choosing Your Lemons:
The rind is the desired end-product, so choose lemons with good, thick, unblemished skin. You will need a minimum of 10 lemons - for this project, we bought about 30, with the intention of giving some preserves away and we used Organic lemons to ensure no pesticides on the skins. Wash the lemons well anyway, to remove dust.

Salt:
About 25g of coarse sea-salt per lemon.
Use plain sea-salt, not iodised (rumour has it that the iodine does weird things to the colour of the final preserve?)

Preserving Jars:
Use clean glass jars, preferably with a bit of a neck as this helps keep the lemons compressed. Use non-metal, coated, or stainless-steel lids, as the acid from the lemon-juice will tend to rust bare metal.

Spices: (optional)
Cinnamon stick
Clove buds
Peppercorns
Cardamom pods
Coriander seeds
Bay leaf
Lemon Myrtle leaf


















Methods for Preserving Lemons:

Wash lemons well.

Prepare and fill jars using one of the methods below and then leave in a sunny place for 3 days, turning upside down twice daily to keep the juices and/or oil moving and surrounding the lemon pieces. Make sure wedges remain covered to prevent mould – you may need to top-up with more juice and/or oil.

Leave in a cool dark place for 40 days and nights.

When ready to use, wash most of the salt off a piece of rind and slice the peel into chunks or slivers for use in cooking.

Preserved Lemons will keep refrigerated for six months.


Method #1: Whole Salted Lemons
Slice three cuts across the point of the lemons, so the lemon splits into six segments, but don’t cut all the way through – the segments should stay attached to the base.

Pack the centre of the lemons with salt, making sure the salt covers all surfaces of the cuts. Press the whole lemons into a jar, squashing them together so the juice runs and surrounds the lemons. Cover with extra juice.

Method #2: Wedges with Salt
Slice the lemons into wedges. Spread salt on a plate and coat wedges in salt, both sides. Pack salted wedges tightly into jars, squashing them down to release the juice.

Method #3: Wedges with Spices
Salt the lemon wedges as for Method 2 and press into a jar, interspersing with aromatic spices such as: Cinnamon stick, Clove buds, Peppercorns, Cardamom pods, Coriander seeds, Bay leaf, Lemon Myrtle leaf.

Method #4: Circles with Oil
Slice lemons into rounds and squeeze most of the juice from the slices. Reserve the juice for later use in some another dish - lemon juice can be frozen - "waste-not-want-not", my mum always says...

Sprinkle both sides of the remaining lemon-rind slices with salt and rest them on a slanted platter in the sun for three hours, allowing any remaining juices to drain off. Pack the salted slices in a jar, sprinkling with more salt during the packing process. Cover with grape-seed oil and seal the jar, allowing to cure for 4 to 5 weeks.


























To Use Preserved Lemons:
Remove a wedge from the brine and scrape the flesh from the skin, discarding the flesh and the white pith. Slice the remaining lemon skin into thin strips or finely chop.

Remember Preserved Lemons are very salty, so it is not usually necessary to add further salt to a dish when using preserved lemons. Rinsing under cold water before slicing can help reduce the saltiness.

Preserved lemons go well with:
chicken
lamb
couscous
casseroles
tagines
blanched green vegies
salads

Yum-oh!


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Secret Ingredient #1 - Carob Molasses

Ever since discovering Carob Molasses, it has been the referred to by our group of friends as the original Secret Ingredient, because we started using it in and on absolutely everything - from pancakes to salad dressing – and people's first reaction is always: Yum-oh! – what’s that?!”

“Concentrated from Dissolved Carob’s Water 100% Pure” as the label says - this rich, full-bodied molasses is a delight to the palate, a little like maple-syrup, but with a rich, bitter-sweet, chocolaty edge.























Where do you buy Carob Molasses?
We first discovered Carob Molasses in Marrickville at the Lebanese small-goods shop on the corner of Illawarra Rd and Church St, but ask for it in Middle-Eastern grocery stores in other areas.

The owner of the shop where we bought it said his family likes to eat it on toast with Tahini; but it works well as the sweetener in a range of cakes and sweets - drizzled over piping hot Buckwheat Pancakes is definitely Yum-oh! (see recipe below)

We also use it deliciously and unusually as the secret ingredient in salad dressings, (see recipe below), where it is the perfect compliment to balance sour flavours like lime and pungent flavours like garlic, used in much the same way as Palm Sugar is used in South-East Asian cooking.

Buckwheat Pancakes with Carob Molasses Recipe:
We make these from Orgran Buckwheat Pancake Mix - gasp! yes, a packet mix... don't panic, it's Organic! No need to re-invent the wheel - just follow the instructions on the packet: mix, pour, fry, flip. Stack them up and drizzle with carob molasses just before serving, crispy and piping hot.

Yum-oh!

NOTE: This post has been entered in a blogsphere Food Challenge by Susan at The Well Seasoned Cook called Pancakes on Parade - you can make and enter your own pancakes too! Entries close on 6th July 2008.






















Carob Molasses Dressing with Fresh Herbs & Leafy Greens Salad.

Dressing:
1 tablespoon Carob molasses
1 lime, juiced
2 cloves of garlic
1 teaspoon mild fresh chilli, sliced
3 tablespoons Green Tea Oil
a pinch of salt and pepper

Shake in a jar to emulsify and scatter over a salad of fresh herbs and leafy greens.

Salad of Fresh Herbs & Leafy Greens:
Nasturtium leaves
Coriander leaf
Vietnamese-mint
Chrysanthemum leaves
Thai-basil
Lettuce
Baby-spinach
Rocket
Red Spanish onion, thinly sliced

Wash the herbs and leafy greens and spin dry in a salad spinner. Assemble on a serving-platter, mixing the herbs and greens together evenly. Scatter the red onion over the herbs and sprinkle the Carob Molasses Salad Dressing over the salad.

Serve immediately. Yum-oh!


















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