Question
Gillian Ice
Oil and fats add a lot of flavor to dishes. What are the best strategies to replace oils and fats in dishes (like red palm oil)?
Answer
So, again, I'm gonna say that in our courses, we have a much, uh, broader and deeper discussion on flavor development, because really that's fundamental to cooking. And, um, you know, omitting oil is one of those things, but there are so many other places and, and instances, um, uh, where we need to think about flavor development and this layering of ingredients and applying heat in certain ways and, and combining, uh, ingredients into to create certain results. So, um, when we take oil outta the equation, whether, you know, oil for cooking creates a product that is, um, it, it is flavorful. It, it, it looks good, it smells good, and it, I don't know how you replicate that when you don't have oil, okay? Um, but we can certainly add, you know, develop browning or, or caramelization. Uh, we can add, uh, acidity. Um, we can use salt judiciously. Uh, we can add fresh herbs and spices, uh, and other aromatics, whether it's, you know, garlic or, or, um, green onions, um, you know, or, or other ingredients that, uh, provide a lot of interest to foods, and they can help take our attention and shift it now away from that lack of oil, right? What we don't have to all these beautiful aromas and flavors and textures and, and visual interests that we do have, you know, from these changes that we've made. Okay? And so those are the, the, the initial go-to categories, uh, that I would recommend that you consider. And of course, there are condiments if you have, uh, some favorites that you might draw upon, consider using those and see, you know, again, how you can bring some interest to what it is it you are making in the absence of whatever ingredient you are, you're pulling out of your cooking, the red palm oil in this case.
