Regain your taste for healthy saturated fats

Once again people are enjoying healthy and flavorful butter, coconut oil, palm oil and fat rendered from meat. For more details, see www.coconutoil.com or "Eat Fat, Lose Fat" by Mary Enig and Sally Fallon ($24.95, 304 pages, Hudson Street).

Since saturated fats are molecularly more stable than unsaturated vegetable oils, they withstand heat up to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Here’s a mini-directory of quality saturated fats:

Butter and ghee: Besides offering invaluable — and some unique — fatty acids, butter contains lecithin and trace minerals. It has anti-microbial, anti-fungal and anti-tumor properties. Favor unsalted butter for its superior quality and flavor. Additionally, purchase cultured butter (Organic Valley is one provider) as it has a noticeably fuller flavor, tastes more buttery, is easier to digest and can be cooked at higher temperatures.

European-style butter is also cultured. Note, however, that the term "European-Style" is not federally regulated. Therefore, purchase it from a reputable producer whose package states the use of cultured cream, low-speed churning and high — as much as 86 percent — butterfat.

Ghee is pure butterfat that looks like liquid gold and is the most soothing and delicious ingredient imaginable. This premier Indian ayurvedic staple is butter with everything removed but the fat. (Butter, in addition to fat, contains 18 percent water and two percent protein.) Ghee has a longer shelf life than butter and people who are allergic to milk protein can generally consume ghee. Commercial ghee is available, but homemade is much more delicious. Simply cook butter until its water evaporates and then strain out the protein solids.

Advertisement

For a recipe, see: www.rwood.com/Recipes/Homemade_Ghee.htm

Coconut oil: Unrefined coconut oil is remarkable for many reasons besides its nutty flavor and aroma. It’s one of the few significant plant sources of lauric acid, also found in human milk, that enhances brain function and the immune system.

Coconut oil is a proven anti-viral, anti-bacterial and anti-fungal agent. It’s lower in calories than most fats and oils. Use coconut oil for baking, sautéing and frying.

Palm oil: The African oil palm tree, which looks like a coconut tree, yields excellent culinary oil. Unrefined palm oil is available in Indian, Latino and Asian markets.

I do not recommend the processed, white, flavorless palm oil "shortening" available in natural food stores.

Smaltz, lard and tallow: When you cook a quality meat, it exudes a quality saturated fat that’s both a cooking medium and an ingredient. For example, the smaltz that forms on the surface of chicken soup may be served up with the soup or, after the soup cools, skimmed off and used as a fat. Historically, lard (rendered from pork) is valued for the flavor it imparts, as well as for the flaky texture it lends to pastry. However, at this time, organic lard is not commercially available. Tallow (rendered from beef and other ruminants) is more saturated and less flavorful than smaltz or lard.

Fatty acids vary in their ability to tolerate heat. Here’s how to protect them:

Sautéing and stir-frying: Add fat to a warm pan and when it is aromatic, add food. Listen for a subdued "chatter." If the cooking sounds like an angry sputter, the fat is too hot. Or if the fat starts to ripple or smoke, it is overheated and therefore oxidized. Remove the pan from the heat, allow it to cool, then wipe out all traces of the damaged fat and start over.

Baking: Bake only with saturated fats. Some manufacturers claim you can healthfully bake with unsaturated fats because, for example, a muffin’s interior temperature remains lower than the oven temperature. If you bake according to that marketing scam, then although the fats in your muffin’s center will be OK, the rest will be wrecked. I bake only with butter and coconut oil and recommend the same.

Marinating: A problem with marinades is that if used for grilling or broiling, they’re heated above the fat’s healthy range. Therefore, in place of an oil-based marinade, consider marinating with only the acid, salt and other flavoring agents. Then, to protect it, add the heat-sensitive oil after the food is cooked.

Deep-frying: Consider eliminating, or at least reducing, your consumption of deep-fried foods. Use lard, palm or coconut oil for deep-frying and do NOT reuse it. When dining out, it’s prudent to abstain from deep-fried foods.

A better use for coconut oil is this recipe for sautéed carrots with flash-cooked greens. Made entirely in one pot, the dish is one of my student’s favorite ways of serving — and feasting upon — vegetables.

Rebecca Wood is an award-wining cookbook author and local cooking teacher. To ask a question, to find a recipe or details about her school, or to post your comment about this article, visit www.RWood.com

Sautéed Carrots with Flash-Cooked Greens

Warm the fat in, preferably, a heavy sauté pan or pot. Over medium heat, add and sauté the onion and garlic until softened. Then add and sauté the carrot. Stir and cook for several minutes or until the carrots are limp. Add ¼ teaspoon sea salt and a few tablespoons of water. Cover the pot and cook for about 5 minutes or until the carrots are tender and sweet. Add water and stir as necessary to prevent burning. (Adding excessive water, even if it later cooks off, dilutes the flavor.)

When the water is absorbed and the carrots soft, add the greens and additional salt to taste. Stir, cover the pot and cook for 1 to 2 minutes or until the green color intensifies, and the greens are lightly cooked. Makes 4 servings.

VARIATIONS: For a quicker cooking dish, cut the carrot julienne. Or for a different flavor, substitute parsnips, turnips, rutabaga or burdock for the carrots.

Substitute other greens. Watercress and sorrel require almost no cooking. Cabbage works but invites a generous amount of parsley to green it up. Radish and turnip tops are tasty. Bok choy adds flavor and makes it a tri-colored (orange, green and white) dish. Spinach and chard exude water, so if using them, cook uncovered to evaporate the water.