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SOLERA DIAMOND VALLEY | JANUARY 2024 17 By Clare Mendez, Resident I am a chef in my own home and nowhere else. Actually, I'm a very bad cook and because of that, I read a lot of cookbooks and articles on cooking. Many of the recipes call for various oils which would quickly fill your pantry if you purchased each one. For years I have successfully cooked with just vegetable oil, olive oil, avocado oil, coconut oil, and butter. Olive Oil is my favorite. It's a healthy choice. It's flavorful. And, it has one of the lowest smoking points so it's not recommended for high-heat frying. Still, I use it for cooking my morning breakfast eggs. It's good drizzled over salads and pasta dishes too. It adds a delicious, almost peppery flavor when drizzled over vegetables before placing them in the oven. Most chefs will agree with using only EVOO (extra virgin olive oil) because it's light and fresh with a slightly higher smoke point. Canola Oil and Vegetable Oil are all about the same. With its medium-high smoke point, it's great for baking and stir-frying. It's one of the least expensive oils on the market and it's good for deep frying. Avocado Oils are rich in mono unsaturated fats, have a mellow flavor, and can take high heat as well for sautéing, roasting, and frying. They're ideal for sweet and savory dishes. They're also a good choice for brushing over dishes before grilling or broiling. Coconut Oil, despite what you may have heard, has more total saturated fat than beef fat or butter. But it does add a slightly tropical taste to your dishes and has a high smoke point. It's a great substitute for butter in dairy-free baking. I probably won't purchase this again in a long while as it doesn't get used much in my kitchen. My baking choice of oil is unsalted butter. It adds a distinct and comforting taste to baked dishes. (I've read you may be able to substitute the butter for coconut oil. I don't know for sure as I haven't tried.) Butter is also wonderful melted over fish and steak after it's finished cooking and set on a plate to rest, but it is high in saturated fat. Other oils that I haven't tried but heard good reviews about are grapeseed oil and sunflower oil. Grapeseed oil is made from the seeds left over from wine production. It has a high smoke point and no distinctive flavor letting other ingredients in your dishes shine. Like grapeseed oil, sunflower oil is high in beneficial Omega-6. It has an unassuming taste and a high smoke point. I hope you find this information useful if you're thinking of experimenting with various cooking oils. The smoke points are important to me as I have been known to open the sliding door to air out the kitchen before the smoke alarm sounds. There's no need to call the Hemet Fire Department unless you see flames. Cooking Oils for Various Recipes

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