Cooking Oil - what do you use?

[Busymom]

carebear:

justcoping:

In the past, I used Canola oil till someone told me that it is genetically modified. I read up more and found out the following:

http://www.ehow.com/about_5414785_dangers-canola-oil.html
Now, I do not use Canola. I have switched to olive and sunflower oil.

I have also stopped using canola oil after reading some reports of it.
What is canola?
Anyway I am happy using sunflower oil.
I use olive oil when preparing pasta dishes.

Canola is effectively rapeseed according to a few websites. I had this impression that it isn't healthy too, but to my surprise, found a number of websites saying that it is healthy...

[SAHM_TAN]

I’m also confuse abt the olive oil. I’m not sure which type to use.

[schweppes]

Busymom:

schweppes:

[quote=\"verykiasu2010\"]cooking - using olive oil


frying - phased out, replaced by baking

anyone one tried baking potato wedges instead of frying ?

i like to bake sweet potatoes - sometimes thinly sliced or in wedges form, lightly flavored with sea salt. For added flavor, may also include a sprig of rosemary or oregano with the sweet potatoes during baking.

For the sea salt, I discovered this aromatic product from OZ, \"Flower Up\" where the ingredients include sea salt, juniper berries, sesame seed, caraway seed, lemongrass, elder flower, calendula and lavender. It's a grinder, so it makes the food oohhh so sedap!!

That sounds good! Maybe I can try it out at home and see if the kids like it. Where can you get Flower Up?[/quote]Cold Storage. At the bottled spices and herbs section.

A quick 3-5 grinds will flavor your food well. Find that anything more can your dish salty. Need to trial and error first as it also depends on what u cook and the volume of water/ liquids in your dish.

[schweppes]

cherrygal:

Yup, butter can eat but in moderation. When baking, use butter instead of vegetable shortening. Actually, coconut oil (not palm) is also good for baking - nice aroma and has health benefits. Not cheap...

I have decided to follow the dietician's advice so I am alternating the oils I buy. Just finished a bottle of canola and canola-olive blend so I went to buy pure peanut oil.

One thing about soy or corn oil is they make the kitchen very sticky. Some pple say that means the oil sticks to your arteries as well... dunno if true.

i heard about coconut oil being good for cooking and baking too. but thought coconut oil can bring about high cholesterol? or is that coconut milk instead? am a bit confused with the benefits of using coconut oil for cooking.

have u tried it? if yes, can share what brand is good?

[cherrygal]

Yes I tried. You can see my post in the All About Baking thread where I made a gluten-free dark chocolate brownie with coconut oil. It smelt heavenly (a bit like freshly made nasi lemak) and tasted very good.


According to some websites, coconut oil has been maligned for years. Coconut oil contains about 50% lauric acid, which helps in preventing various heart problems including high cholesterol levels and high blood pressure. You can google the benefits of coconut oil and read about it. However, as it’s still oil, don’t eat too much of it.

So far, you can only get virgin coconut oil from pharmacies (my mom bought her pharmaceutical grade oil from Mustafa pharmacy) or organic food stores (I bought mine from NHF shop at Thomson Plaza). It ranges from $16+ to $20+ for 500ml.

[Busymom]

cherrygal:

Yes I tried. You can see my post in the All About Baking thread where I made a gluten-free dark chocolate brownie with coconut oil. It smelt heavenly (a bit like freshly made nasi lemak) and tasted very good.


According to some websites, coconut oil has been maligned for years. Coconut oil contains about 50% lauric acid, which helps in preventing various heart problems including high cholesterol levels and high blood pressure. You can google the benefits of coconut oil and read about it. However, as it's still oil, don't eat too much of it.

So far, you can only get virgin coconut oil from pharmacies (my mom bought her pharmaceutical grade oil from Mustafa pharmacy) or organic food stores (I bought mine from NHF shop at Thomson Plaza). It ranges from $16+ to $20+ for 500ml.

Yes, I have read somewhere that coconut oil is good, but will read up more about it. Thanks for sharing

By the way, why must buy virgin grade coconut oil? Non-virgin grade not good enough?

[Busymom]

schweppes:

Busymom:

[quote=\"schweppes\"]

i like to bake sweet potatoes - sometimes thinly sliced or in wedges form, lightly flavored with sea salt. For added flavor, may also include a sprig of rosemary or oregano with the sweet potatoes during baking.

For the sea salt, I discovered this aromatic product from OZ, \"Flower Up\" where the ingredients include sea salt, juniper berries, sesame seed, caraway seed, lemongrass, elder flower, calendula and lavender. It's a grinder, so it makes the food oohhh so sedap!!

That sounds good! Maybe I can try it out at home and see if the kids like it. Where can you get Flower Up?

Cold Storage. At the bottled spices and herbs section.

A quick 3-5 grinds will flavor your food well. Find that anything more can your dish salty. Need to trial and error first as it also depends on what u cook and the volume of water/ liquids in your dish.[/quote] :thankyou:

Do you use this for all your cooking or only baking certain dishes?

We also use sea salt, but just the ordinary ones.

[cherrygal]

Busymom:

Yes, I have read somewhere that coconut oil is good, but will read up more about it. Thanks for sharing

By the way, why must buy virgin grade coconut oil? Non-virgin grade not good enough?

I have not seen non-virgin grade coconut oil leh. Dun see them in the supermarkets too...

So far, they are marketing coconut oil as a health product.

[schweppes]

cherrygal:

Busymom:

Yes, I have read somewhere that coconut oil is good, but will read up more about it. Thanks for sharing

By the way, why must buy virgin grade coconut oil? Non-virgin grade not good enough?

I have not seen non-virgin grade coconut oil leh. Dun see them in the supermarkets too...

So far, they are marketing coconut oil as a health product.

:scratchhead: maybe extra virgin grade is supposed to be the more superior quality - just like in olive oil?

[schweppes]

cherrygal:

Yes I tried. You can see my post in the All About Baking thread where I made a gluten-free dark chocolate brownie with coconut oil. It smelt heavenly (a bit like freshly made nasi lemak) and tasted very good.


According to some websites, coconut oil has been maligned for years. Coconut oil contains about 50% lauric acid, which helps in preventing various heart problems including high cholesterol levels and high blood pressure. You can google the benefits of coconut oil and read about it. However, as it's still oil, don't eat too much of it.

So far, you can only get virgin coconut oil from pharmacies (my mom bought her pharmaceutical grade oil from Mustafa pharmacy) or organic food stores (I bought mine from NHF shop at Thomson Plaza). It ranges from $16+ to $20+ for 500ml.

:thankyou: cherrygal for sharing. This sounds interesting. Will check it out.