Minutes of the Institute for Oleic Research

10.19.07

The question has long dogged me: What to do with palm oil, apart from using it in Brazilian and West African cooking? The oil flaunts its bright orange color—hard to disguise, though cookie manufacturers have been doing it for years—and a pungent, unforgettable taste that is part barnyard straw, part earth.

One day at the Union Square farmers' market, I was marveling at the range of summer squashes available, including ridged zucchinis grown with heirloom seeds from Italy, parti-colored patty pans, and globe squashes large enough to use for slow-pitch softballs or paperweights. I decided I'd buy one of each type, patronizing a half-dozen stands, and then I'd make something out of them. My arms filled, I spotted a stall selling giant plastic bags of overripe tomatoes, which have developed a more concentrated flavor than tomatoes that are merely ripe. At two pounds for a dollar, instead of the usual $3 to $4 per pound, they were an incredible bargain. I decided to make some sort of stew with them.

Once home, I poured some olive oil in the bottom of a non-stick skillet, cut the squashes into irregular pieces with lots of angles and thin spots, then dumped them in once the oil was almost smoking. My objective was not to cook them through, but to brown them and make them slightly crunchy on the exposed surfaces. I also threw in plenty of sea salt, to draw out some of the liquid and make the pieces a little leathery, so they could stand up to stewing.

At the same time, I poured a little more oil into another skillet; chopped the tomatoes—skin, seeds, and all—and added them, cooking them down till the sauce surrounding the tomato pieces thickened. Finally, I poured the fried squashes into the tomato mixture and stewed them together for another 10 minutes, making sure that the squash pieces remained relatively firm. I removed the pan from the burner and tasted the stew. Good but not fantastic. Then I grabbed the bottle of palm oil and shot three tablespoons into the morass, mixing it thoroughly. Voilà! Finishing the squash stew with palm oil added an extra edge to the sweet flavor of the tomatoes, and turned the color of the stew from plain red to knock-your-eyes-out reddish-orange.

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