Cooking With Palm Oil Syrup and Sugar at CookingSlim.org

Palm Oil, Syrup, and Sugar @CookingSlim.org

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The Mighty Palm

When you need to use a vegetable fat or sugar, one of the best and healthiest sources is the palm tree. One of the reasons (non hydrogenated) palm oil is good for you is because it has lots of vitamins A, E, and K. These help the vitamin D that you get from other sources (like sunlight and eggs) work better. So if you're making a recipe using bananas, or sautéing some shrimp, palm oil is a great nutritional compliment to it. You'll get more nutritious bang for your buck than using a hydrogenated vegetable oil that no body in the world was made to metabolize more than a milliliter of at a time. Consequently, you'll feel fuller faster, and more satisfied with what you eat, so you'll consume less calories without feeling deprived at all.

Palm Oils

Red Palm (fruit) Oil	This comes in a jug and is usually orange or dark yellow in color. It is made from the whole palm date, and is the most nutritious, but also has a strong taste that most non Africans won't like. I'd recommend buying a small bottle the first time, and experimenting with it to see if you like it at all, or what it will taste good in. Some find that the strong flavor favors spicy and salty or sour dishes that don't need much oil. You might use it to sweat your onions for a salad or add a somewhat floral edge to something that has alot of ginger or hot peppers.
Palm Kernel Oil	Palm kernel oil is slightly yellow and basically tasteless, and is made mainly from the seeds of the date. It can be used the same way one would use a vegetable shortening. Though it is somewhat less nutritious than the red oil, it still packs a healthy punch of vitamins A, E, and K. What you're missing by using the kernel rather than the whole oil is mostly the A and other carotenes. This is the vegetable oil to use for frying or spreading. It stretches out your schmaltz or lard, as well as helping the vitamin D in your eggs or lard to get delivered to where it needs to be in the body. Because of its butter reminiscent mouth feel, it's also a must for heavier cakes or brownies, and American pancakes. For waffles or crepes, I suggest coconut oil inside, and palm kernel oil for the pan or wafflemaker.
Virgin Coconut Oil	Coconut oil is another wonderful gift of the palm tree. It is tasteless, and has a different kind of mouth feel than palm kernel oil, but lends well to pastries and other dishes that are light and airy, such as sponge cakes and puffs as well as rice cakes.

What about margarines and shortening containing palm oil?

Unless it is made by a health conscious manufacturer that specifically states on the package that their palm oil has not been hydrogenated or overheated to strip it of nutrients, forget it. You are much, much better off using a palm oil/lard spread that you make yourself. Now I know your next question:

Why the devil would they remove all the goodness from an oil and sell it as "healthier"???

It's because for a long time, saturated fats were demonized as the cause of heart disease, cancer, and all manner of problems that were actually due to malnutrition a.k.a. being "off feed".

I've also heard that palm and coconut oils are good for my skin. Is it true?

Yes it is. The skin doesn't "absorb" vitamin A or E but the way that oils that happen to have these vitamins sit on the skin makes them very emollient, meaning they hold moisture in, and act as a shield against dirt and microbes. Also, if you have an open wound or irritation or rash on your skin, the vitamins certainly do help it to heal faster, while the oil shields the area.

Coconut oil in particular helps to stop or at least slow fungus and bacteria from reproducing, much like shea butter does. In fact, if you find shea butter too hard to work with, try melting it with equal parts of coconut and olive oil for a smooth body butter. Since you'll be losing weight once you lose the hydrogenated oils as well, this is also a good recipe for reducing the appearance of burst blood vessels and stretch marks. It'll help against the sagging skin some people experience from the rapid weight loss that happens to many of us in our first year of going nutritionally "natty" (slang for natural).

Palm Sugars

The reason why palm sugar or syrup is a better alternative to refined cane or beet sugar is as obvious as the reason beet juice or cane juice is better than the refined sugar. It has all of the nutrition in it that helped the plant itself grow, and it's not missing any of the flavor. Refined sugars are like "blank slate" sweets that provide no nutrition but a stripped down carbohydrate. Nectars, honey, saps, and syrups have a taste, and if you're getting back to natural, but enjoying the advantages of civilization, you'll want to learn which natural sweeteners go with which flavors instead of always falling back on the blank slate.

Palm sugar goes well with cinnamon, nutmeg, heavy vanilla, hot paprika, and other "warm" tasting spices and herbs. Date palm syrup is ideal for chocolate. In my chocolate chip pound cake or vanilla t'china brownies, I always use palm syrup. The date palm syrup is called "selan" in the middle east, and if you're in the U.S. you will probably find it at an Arab or Jewish store.

Jaggery The term "jaggery" is used to describe both unrefined palm and cane sugars, so don't assume that any jaggery you find is from palms. If it doesn't say "palm sugar" then it isn't. When it is from palms, it's made from the palm sap.
Its taste is the same as brown sugar but without the "molasses" aftertaste. This is a good sugar for normal cooking, tea, or coffee. It won't alter the taste too much, but might have some very very slight "smokiness" to the flavor.

Selan (or silan) Selan is syrup that is made from dates. It is also called "date honey" or "date nectar". It is usually medium to dark brown in color, and may have a little citric acid added to it. It has a heavier flavor than jaggery, but it compliments bananas and chocolate very well.
You can also use this for anything you'd use maple syrup for. It can totally replace dark corn syrup in your cabinet as well. Your pecan pie will be the talk of the town.

More information on palm oil.
Related recipes: Better-than-margarine