Chinese Cooking Oils

In Chinese cooking, oil is used for frying as well as ueds as an ingredient for some dishes. People normally use peanut oil for almost everything, from stir-frying to deep-frying, as its high smoke point and the pleasant nutty flavor. There are also other types of oil, including vegetable oil, coconut oil, grapeseed oil, soy bean oil, olive oil, corn oil and so on. To hammer it home, do you really know which oil is best used for frying or how to store it? Here are some suggestions.

Chinese Cooking Oils

Vegetable oil is probably the most commonly used oil. It can be used in both seasoning and frying. Vegetable oil is actually a combination of different oils, such as sunflower, corn, palm, and soybean oil. The most common used vegetable oil is called Canola oil, it is low in saturated fat content and high mono unsaturated fat.

When frying in very high temperature, such as deep-frying beef, and other meat, peanut oil is the great option. Some people love its nutty flavor as well.

Corn oil is low in saturated and mono unsaturated fats, indeed a very healthy oil. And as the smoking point is not that high, it is recommoned that you use it only when frying on medium - high temperatures.

Sunflower Oil is made from the seeds of sunflower, rich in vitamin E and low in saturated fat s as well. It can be used in frying, and in salad dressings.

The name implies that grapeseed oil is made from the seeds of grapes,  like peanut oil, grapeseed oil also has a high smoke point, about 420 degrees F, which is perfect for frying. Meanwhile, its healthy benefits are as great as olive oil, with a more neutral flavor than olive oil, grapeseed oil is becoming more and more popular for stir-frying in both American and Chinese cooking.

Nutritionally grapeseed oil is a very healthy cooking oil similar to olive oil, it is low in saturated fat and high in polyunsaturated fat, which can help raise HDL levels, while rich in a type of essential fatty acid - linoleic acid, which, like the Omega-3 fatty acids that found in salmon,  must be obtained from food, and can’t be manufactured by our own bodies.

Olive oil is the most healthy oil in the world, cooking with olive oil is good for your heart. It is low in unhealthy saturated and polyunsaturated fat meanwhile high in mono unsaturated fats, which can help reduce the risk of heart disease or stroke by lowering the level of LDL cholesterol, while increasing the level of good cholesterol (HDL) that removes cholesterol buildup from the arteries.

There are three different varieties: extra virgin, virgin, and olive oil (also called pure or standard olive oil as well). When you are using olive oil for stir-frying, feel free to use the pure olive oil as its little bite higher smoking point that can stand the high heat needed for stir-frying. Extra virgin olive oil is the best choice when you want dressing your favorite salads, or substitute for butter when you dress green vegetables. Olive oil is best used in stir-frying and seasoning only, when it comes to deep-frying, however, it is another story, it is low in smoking point thus can not stand the heat when deep-frying, but you can use other types of oil, such as peanut oil or canola.

It is said that eating about two tablespoons, about 23 grams of olive oil every day may reduce the risk of coronary heart disease due to the monounsaturated fat in olive oil.

Store your olive oil in a dark cool place, or refrigerate, if necessary.

Sesame oil is used primarily for seasoning, like adding to a stir-fry at the end of cooking to enhance the flavor, or serve as a seasoning added in salads. For frying, sesame oil is not that good as its low temperature, when heating, it will release a strong flavor and makes it unsuitable for frying.

It is best to store oils in a dark, cool, and dry place at room temperature, which will last for 6-12 months or so.

When you cooking, you probably face this problem: the oil you added is always stay on the bottom of the wok, when you push vegetable to the sides of the wok, there is no oil exists, here are some suggestions:

First, preheat the wok over medium high heat for at least 30 seconds, then swirl the oil around it, move the wok back and foreard side byt side to let the oil coat both the sides and the bottom of the wok, through this way, the oil will heat faster and most parts of the wok is well-coated. You can also use a spatula to coat the sides of the wok with oil.