Your first week with Saapadu Box
The deposit, the carrier swap, the delivery window and the WhatsApp menu: how the first five days usually go.
Why we cook in cold-pressed oil
What it costs us, and why it is worth it.
Restaurants often cook with refined oil because it is cheap, has little taste and can be heated again and again. At home in Tamil Nadu, most families still use groundnut oil for cooking and gingelly oil for kuzhambu and podi.
We buy cold-pressed groundnut and gingelly oil from a mill in Kanchipuram that presses seeds in a wooden chekku. It costs us about twice as much as refined oil. It also has a stronger flavour, which is exactly why food cooked in it tastes like home.
We never reuse frying oil. Appalams and vadas are fried in small batches in fresh oil, and what is left at the end of the day goes to a local biodiesel collector rather than back into the kadai.
We also use less oil than most restaurants. A home-style poriyal needs a teaspoon or two for tempering, not a ladle. Our subscribers often tell us they feel lighter after a month of our lunches. We think the oil, and the amount of it, is part of the reason.
