The taste of palm oil

[asakiyume]

Sesame oil, peanut oil, olive oil--they have really distinctive tastes. Sesame oil really tastes like sesame, and peanut oil has a peanut taste, and olive oil doesn't taste like pickled olives, or brined olives, but it tastes the rich and fragrant way it smells.

Palm oil has a really distinctive taste too. When I tasted Flo's Nigerian fried beans, cooked in plenty of palm oil, it was the first time in a long time that I tasted something so completely *new* and *different*.


Nigerian fried beans from All Nigerian Recipes

Palm oil has, to me, a green taste ( which is funny since it's bright red), green and deeply warm. It tastes the way leaves baking under the midday sun smell--and mix that smell with the smell of hot, warm earth--that dusty warm smell. That's how it tastes to me. And it has a lingering feel in the mouth, the way peanut butter does--but not quite that sticky.


Do I like it? At first it nonplussed me a little because the flavor was so unlike other oil flavors I've experienced, but I enjoyed it. And today, going back for leftovers, I felt less tentative, more enthusiastic. Tastes: BROADENED.

Here is an oil palm plantation (photo from Azran Jaffar's article on a prizewinning smallholder's plantation)



Apparently there are two types of oil to be had from the oil palm. Red palm oil, the kind I used, comes from the fruit. A golden oil comes from the kernel.
Photo source here

Comments

Re: Perfect description

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I do have palm oil left! I look at it on my counter and dream about the dishes I will make.

Just the other day I made up a batch of your tomato stew, from a huge bunch of fresh tomatoes a friend gave me (smelled so good cooking), so now I will maybe choose a dish with palm oil and tomato stew....

Yes, please tell me! What do you recommend?

Re: Perfect description

[flo (from livejournal.com)]

That you made the tomato stew is like music to my ears! Takes a lot of patience. Sorry to disappoint you but Tomato Stew (prepared with vegetable oil) and palm oil are in different leagues when it comes to Nigerian cooking, you can't find those two in one dish. But you will see us fry the tomatoes with bleached palm oil instead of vegetable oil. ;)

I recommend Concoction Rice (in the cookbook). Main ingredients are palm oil and smoked fish. I hope you will like it.

There are lots of recipes you can use the tomato stew for. :)

Re: Perfect description

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I thought maybe the palm oil and the tomato stew might not go together. Ah well; I will use them in separate recipes in that case. Next, though, I will make Concoction Rice! Mmmm, smoked fish--delicious :)

Thank you!

Re: Perfect description

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I've done it! I made Concoction Rice, and took a picture (entry here (http://asakiyume.livejournal.com/751245.html))!

I'll leave you a message on Facebook or at your website, too.