Topic: Which oil to use??

[rhodriharris]

Haha, even worse the expeller pressed steam deoderised coconut oil made by tropical traditions and only supplied by europeanoils (can't find another stockist anywhere) was gona cost me 30quid for a litre to be delivered.  Hey don't get me wrong tesco cheap oil will do and most should be very happy with it.  Health wise i'm a bit of a purist and struggle to make a curry healthy and taste like my local takeaway.  It cost me an arm and a leg for organic spices, onions and the coconut oil but it comes mighty close to that unique takeaway flavour.  Another problem is the colourings and i refuse to use them unless they are healthy of which most aren't.  I am going to source some Kashmiri red chili powder as this is meant to be the best natural red food clouring available, i don't need to add the yellow to my korma as funny enough it comes out the right colour without it.  Most places probably use cheap ingredients so go with the taste and what you know best but just imagine you had high cholesterol problems etc (which i don't and am perfectly healthy).  I know i'm a bit extreme with my cooking but hey there's always one.
One final point, of all the virgin and extra virgin oils only coconut oil seemed to be suitable for frying a curry, the rest weren't recomended for high heat, some might even fry with virgin/extra virgin olive oil but believe me it is not suitable and needs refining and so there is just plain olive oil which can take the heat.  The rest are more suitable as salad dressings. 

[korant]

rapeseed oil is  toxic to at least animals and probably humans. they changed the name to canola for exactly this reason. but then again, who knows, since indian cooking has its roots in ayurveda which is steeped in alchemical tradition, so it wouldn't surprise me if some seemingly innocent cooking process transformed it to be non toxic.

refined peanut oil and soy or sunflower tastes the best as they are fairly neutral.

as far as health goes, it is probably healthiest to use saturated fats like real ghee, palm or coconut oil as they aren't damaged too badly by cooking. if you want to go the extra mile (or 10) with your korma you can press your own coconut cream with certain types of juicers and fresh coconut meat.

i started using unrefined red palm oil recently and it works well, but you have to have sufficient amount of spice to mask the palm flavor. raw, it tastes terrible, but after cooking with spices it is good -- maybe not as good as peanut but still good. also keep in mind that the unsaturated oils are more fluid than the saturated ones, so when cooled the unsaturated will still be fluid but the saturated fats will solidify.

i have  a feeling that all of the spices transform some of these supposedly unhealthy vegetable fats into less unhealthy or possibly healthy fats.

most people agree that any form of trans fats are not good -- some vegetable ghee brands use trans fats, others not.

[PaulP]

rapeseed oil is  toxic to at least animals and probably humans. they changed the name to canola for exactly this reason. but then again, who knows, since indian cooking has its roots in ayurveda which is steeped in alchemical tradition, so it wouldn't surprise me if some seemingly innocent cooking process transformed it to be non toxic.

refined peanut oil and soy or sunflower tastes the best as they are fairly neutral.

as far as health goes, it is probably healthiest to use saturated fats like real ghee, palm or coconut oil as they aren't damaged too badly by cooking. if you want to go the extra mile (or 10) with your korma you can press your own coconut cream with certain types of juicers and fresh coconut meat.

i started using unrefined red palm oil recently and it works well, but you have to have sufficient amount of spice to mask the palm flavor. raw, it tastes terrible, but after cooking with spices it is good -- maybe not as good as peanut but still good. also keep in mind that the unsaturated oils are more fluid than the saturated ones, so when cooled the unsaturated will still be fluid but the saturated fats will solidify.

i have  a feeling that all of the spices transform some of these supposedly unhealthy vegetable fats into less unhealthy or possibly healthy fats.

most people agree that any form of trans fats are not good -- some vegetable ghee brands use trans fats, others not.

I've used virgin organic coconut oil myself sometimes and it can taste great for curries but I don't think I would cook bacon in it for a bacon butty. It is very expensive though at about 8 pounds for 450 ml.

I've read that palm oil is being used more often lately for deep fat frying applications as it can withstand the repeated heating due to the low polyunsaturated content and high saturated contents. You could use refined palm oil to cook your curries to avoid the smell.

I think the 3 most healthy oils for frying that nobody would disagree with are:

Avocado oil
Light refined olive oil
Macadamia nut oil

All these oils have low amounts of polyunsaturated oil which is the stuff that heat turns nasty, and they are high in monounsaturated and low in saturated fats.

Some oils that are debatable healthwise but have a growing number of converts and I would eat them myself:

Lard
Butter or Butter Ghee
Coconut oil
Palm oil

These oils/fats are low in poly fats but high in saturated fats.

I definitely wouldn't eat canola or sunflower oil that had been used for repeated deep fat frying!

Cheers,

Paul

EDIT: I should have said I don't really use any of those exotic (and pricey) oils except I use the virgin coconut oil sometimes.

I normally cook a curry using fresh rice bran oil (about 2 quid a pint) and I'm going to try some light refined olive oil next which is about 3 quid a pint.