Chef Daniel Green finds a cooking oil with body

When Daniel Green walks into the kitchen, the air around him seems to snap and crackle, generating a hot, fiery sizzle. Evidently, the man is rather electrifying.

He has a smile that cleaves deep, attractive hollows in cheekbones and a superfit physique. From model to celebrity chef, Green has carved out a long-term career in the entertainment industry, including appearances on popular Food Network television shows like Food Fortunes and Kitchen Inferno.

Green is also famed for his best-selling, award-winning cookbooks like Healthy Eating for Lower Cholesterol which sold 1.4 million copies.

But perhaps what Green is most famous for is his clean eating ethos – the self-taught chef is a healthy food proponent who eschews fat and deep-fried food, a formula which has proved effective for him as he was once overweight but successfully lost the flab and kept fit with his healthy eating manifesto.

In Green’s universe, butter, cheese and cream are villains that have been banished to a land far, far away. But he does use oil in his cooking, although his cooking methods are slightly unorthodox.

When cooking with oil, for instance, he actually oils vegetables and meat, rather than oiling the pan. This ensures less oil is used in the overall cooking process, he says.

Daniel Green loves working with palm oil when he’s in Malaysia and says he already has lots of other palm oil based recipes that he wants to try out, as it fits in with his philosophy of less is more.

“People think you have to oil the pan, and then you put the food in – but you don’t need to. If you toss the vegetables or the protein in a little bit of oil, you use far less but you don’t actually need any more,” he says, adding that a non-stick pan is ideal for this job.

Green is a fan of palm oil, in particular, which he says fits in with his philosophy of less is more. He especially likes using it when he is in Malaysia, as it is harder to find in the United States, where he is based.

“It seems a little goes a long way when I’m cooking with palm oil, more than olive oil, which dries up a little bit more. Palm oil seems to have more body,” he says.

Unlike most oils, virgin red palm oil has a rich, deep red hue – a result of the carotenoids the oil is suffused with, such as alpha-carotene and beta-carotene which are sources of Vitamin A.

Red palm oil also contains other carotenes, like tocopherols and tocotrienols – Vitamin E sources.

All these carotenes make red palm oil the richest source of Vitamins A and E of any plant-based oil in the world.

Green loves palm oil’s naturally red colour and says it marries extremely well with Asian curries, like his Roasted Pumpkin with Thai Red Vegetable Curry.

“Palm oil is great with curries like Thai curries and Malaysian curries; it’s like the perfect marriage,” he says.

Green says he generally tries to pair red palm oil with any dish that has red undertones, like his Modern Korean-style Bibimbap, which has blood-red Gojuchang sauce in it.

Even Western tomato-based dishes have the potential to fuse harmoniously with palm oil. Green experimented with this when he used red palm oil in his Gnocchi with Fresh Basil And Sundried Tomato Sauce.

“In a tomato sauce the red palm oil brightens up the colour and I thought it was an interesting fusion to pair palm oil with a Mediterranean flavour, so that was something I wanted to try, which I think worked well,” he says.

Daniel Green working on his dishes in the pantry at The Star headquarters.

While yellow palm oil doesn’t have as much carotenes as red palm oil, it does have tocotrienols and doesn’t impart any colour on food, making it a good option if you don’t want your food to have a slightly reddish tinge. Green uses it when sautéing onions or roasting pumpkin, or whenever a red tinge is not desired.

For healthy eating enthusiasts like Green, palm oil fits in seamlessly with diet and nutrition plans as the oil has zero cholesterol and is trans-fat free. The tocotrienols in palm oil also have cholesterol-lowering capabilities and may even reduce the risk of coronary heart disease, according to research by Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.

For all these reasons and so much more, Green says he already has more recipes brewing in his head to go with palm oil.

“I’ve been thinking of mussels in tomato sauce – I can see palm oil going with that. I can see it going with some seafood, maybe a chicken dish – there are lots of possibilities!” he says.

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Roasted Pumpkin with Thai Red Vegetable Curry

ROASTED PUMPKIN WITH THAI RED VEGETABLE CURRY

Serves 4

For the roasted pumpkins

4 small pumpkins
palm oil, for roasting and sautéing
salt to taste

For the Thai red curry
1-2 tbsp red palm oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
1 eggplant, cubed
3cm (1”) piece fresh ginger, grated
1 clove crushed garlic
2 tbsp Thai red curry paste
100ml vegetable stock
50ml low fat coconut milk
2 chillies, finely chopped
200g fresh spinach
salt to taste
handful coriander leaves, chopped

To cook the pumpkin

Pre-heat oven to 220°C. Slice the tops off each pumpkin and remove the seeds carefully. Hollow out the middle of the pumpkin by scooping out flesh. Cube the flesh that has been removed. Lightly brush palm oil all over whole pumpkins and pumpkin cubes. Place on a large baking tray, season lightly with salt and roast for 45 minutes.

To cook the curry

In a large saucepan, heat red palm oil and cook the onions on medium heat for 3-4 minutes. Add the eggplant and cook for 2-3 minutes, then add the ginger, garlic, curry paste and stock. Cook for 1 minute, then add the coconut milk. Cover and simmer on low heat for about 12-15 minutes.

Add the chilli and spinach and cook for an additional 3 minutes, until spinach has wilted. Season with salt to taste. Remove from heat, add the roasted pumpkin cubes and give the curry a stir. Garnish with the coriander leaves.

To serve

Ladle out equal portions of the curry into the roasted, hollowed out whole pumpkins.

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Gnocchi with Fresh Basil and Sun-dried Tomato Sauce

GNOCCHI WITH FRESH BASIL AND SUNDRIED TOMATO SAUCE

Serves 2

500g fresh gnocchi (store-bought)
1 tbsp red palm oil
1 clove crushed garlic
1 tbsp sundried tomato paste
150g tomato sauce
1 small red chilli, finely chopped
salt and pepper to taste
6-8 basil leaves, shredded

Bring a pan of water to the boil and cook the gnocchi until they float to the top of the pan (just a few minutes). Drain and set aside.

In a large non-stick pan, heat the oil, add the garlic and immediately add the paste and sauce.

Next, add the chilli and cook for a few minutes.

Season with salt and pepper to taste, then add the drained gnocchi, cook for just a minute, take off the heat, and garnish with basil.

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Korean Style Modern Bibimpap

MODERN KOREAN-STYLE BIBIMBAP

Serves 2

For the sauce
2 tbsp Gochujang sauce
2 tsp sesame oil
4 tsp soy sauce
2 tsp mirin
2 tsp brown sugar
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2cm (1/2”) ginger, grated

For the vegetables, chicken and rice
golden and red palm oil, for sautéing
1 zucchini, sliced
1 tsp sesame seeds
1 white onion, finely chopped
200g spinach
2 chicken breasts, sliced
400g jasmine rice, cooked

To cook

Mix sauce ingredients together and set aside. Heat some golden palm oil in a pan and fry zucchini slices and sesame seeds until soft. Remove from heat and set aside.

Wipe the pan clean and heat some golden palm oil to saute the onion until softened. Remove from heat and set aside.

Wipe the pan clean and saute spinach in a little golden palm oil until softened. Remove from heat and set aside.

Heat some red palm oil in the pan to cook the chicken on medium high heat. When the chicken is cooked through, add the sauce and toss to coat evenly. Remove from heat.

To serve

Heap rice in the middle of a large serving platter and portion zucchini, onions, spinach, chicken and sauce around the sides or on top of the rice and mix together.

Source : Star2.com