Yep you said it refined olive oil aint that great for you although its still not unhealthy.  There are lots of oils out there and some can be cooked at really high temperatures.  The thing with extra virgin olive oil is that it is more like a speciality oil and when the olives are picked if they are bruised they give a far less superior oil than if their not bruised hence why people buy extra virgin olive oil from producers who pick olives and bottle the oil at the same site hence the D.O.P. wording on the lable of good olive oil which states the region the olives grew in and that they were processes and bottled straight after picking.  Its complicated and all to do with the acid levels of the olive oil.  All this is totally lost when refined giving a far less superior product.  Google it and you will start to realise the reason why people pay between 30 quid to over a hundred quid for just a small bottle of extra virgin olive oil.  Its all in the quality.  God i could talk all day about olive oil but only the refined version is suitable for frying and not the extra or virgin olive oil.  You get the extra virgin olive oil from the first press of olives and the virgin olive oil from the second press of olive oil, then the remaining pressed olives have any remaining oil extracted using chemicals which are evaporated of leaving just plain olive oil.  Even then a forth grade of olive oil is left which is called Pommace (i think) and you can buy this although it is normally sold to soap manufactures who use it to make soap products.  The itallians and greeks are very fussy about their olive oil and that what is sold in the suppermarket would make them laugh when compared to the quality they use. Thanks

I have looked at all base sauce gravys and made a few but generally i think that 'Micks/Tazs' base sauce seems to be the best and a great all rounder which is simple to make and use.  Kris Dhillons was ok but involved too many processes, now i just add ginger, garlic, onions, green pepper, carrot, salt, water and oil to a pot and simmer for an hour and in the last ten mins i add fresh sliced tomato and a small amount of tomatoe paste along with corriander, cummin and tumeric before blending and then it is done.  I know most have complicated steps and mant spices but to me and most this should be the easiest and best.  Following a recipie to the letter is no good for me when it comes to base gravy as i prefer to know what every ingredient dose and get a feel for what i do.  Kris Dhillons was just a starting point from which i moved to mick/tazs base gravy which i do most things the same but in my own way. The end result is more or less the same and tastes good just on its own.  You can change the veg and spices to your liking but it is the process that i follow now and must admit i am very pleased.  I just add the oil at the start and dont fry the tom paste and spices with oil at the end like Kris's recipie from the curry secret.  Kris's recipie is very bland to me and mick/tazs is so much more like a takeaway.  Not knocking Kris as i'm sure lots of people like her recipie but it ain't for me and wouldn't of got to this point without her help.  Wether i add 4 onions or six, or 400ml of oil or 600ml of oil or a carrot etc does not change the finished process much but the addition of a generous amount of oil at the start of the cooking process gives me completly different results compared to not adding oil.  The oil brings out the sweetness of the onions and seems to hold the flavour of the base gravy.  Hence i do not use Kris Dhillons recipie but all base gravys seem to follow similar processes so it was just a matter of refining them till i got what i wanted.
All hail mick/taz for the info on base gravy as this truly is reaturant takeaway style even though i do mine slightly different its still the same really. Thanks

Hey guys am into my cooking but only a novice at indian cooking but i think that i can help you out with the 'cooking with olive oil' topic and give you a good start point to be able to go on and research it yourself and edge on the side of caution when choosing your oil to fry on because it can become toxic (ok not toxic enuf to kill you dead on the spot but enuf to make it unhealthy).  Ok to start with every oil has a 'SMOKE POINT' and 'FLASH POINT'!!!! You might of heard of one or both of these terms and this is where you can start your internet search by simply typing cooking oil smoke point, as this is the most relevant one to cooking indians, into Google. (Here i've done it for you)  'Heating an oil changes its characteristics. Oils that are healthy at room temperature can become unhealthy when heated above certain temperatures. When choosing a cooking oil, it is important to match the oil's heat tolerance with the cooking method.'  Some sites tend to lean towards the unhealthy smoke that is emitted and some tend to say that it make the food it is cooked in taste bitter.  Either way extra virgin olive oil is not a frying oil and would be wrong to do so especially with the high temperature indians are fried at.  Try putting some extra virgin olive oil in a pan and watch it evaporate at even moderate temperatures in only a short time leaving you no oil left to fry in so pointless at most temperatures.  At most it would be suitable to quick fry a fish fillet for a couple of mins.  Refined olive oil labled 'olive oil' is, like vegetable oil, sunflower oil etc refined which means it can be used at a higher temperature and seems ok when use it to fry indian although it can change the taste slightly it still makes for an oily meal if you want it that way.  Anyway don't exceed the smoke point for each particular oil and refined olive oil might be ok but extra virgin and virgin aren't really although in a raita or non cooked item hell yes its ok although it changes the final taste somewhat.  No matter what all olive oils are healthy and the saturated fat, believe it or not is the good type of saturated fat.  Hope this gives you somthing to go on and check out .

   Hey everyone, i used to make curry from the 'curry secret' book published by Matt Dhillon until i found this site.  Honestly this website cracks it for me and the simple addition of just one ingredient and a longer cooking time has made my base sauce go from average to simply divine. 
  What started me off on the spiritual quest to curry was Gordon Ramsey and his Indian cooking series on television, he was good but not my local takeaway version!!  Ok i thought i had a starting point anyway and made some curry, although i would consider my first attempt to be rubbish now i was amazed at the time that it tasted so scrumptious and edible (and slightly indian!lol!)
I eventually found a book in my local bookshop that changed everything called the curry secret and this took me to the next step. I thought i had cracked it after a year and got that local indian takeaway taste but on comparison i was no where near and found my base gravies to be bland and slightly disappointing even though i had followed the books recipe to the letter.  Oh dear i thought that this book was suppose to make me authentic takeaway and was really confused with the results compared to my local which was spot on what i wanted. 
  Finally i found you guys and your base sauce recipes which i cross referenced with mine until i found one missing ingredient, VEGETABLE OIL, which is added to the onions, ginger and garlic in a pan of water.  Wow this is really how you make your curry sweet and creamy.  Now i make real takeaway base gravy and understand that the oil in the boiling down of the onions pulls the sweetness out and is pretty much the magical ingredient in my curries. Anyone making base gravy and getting bland results please add a decent amount of oil in with the onions when it cooks and compare the finished results.  This may not be the result you want or the taste but i bet if like me you are having problems understanding what ingredient does what i promise you that veg oil makes for a sweeter taste just like my takeaway and probably yours.

Please don't think i'm big headed or some amazing indian chef as i ain't and am only a novice but this one addition to my onions as they boiled for an hour has changed the face of curry in my house and worth noting for any other struggling amateurs.  Please criticise my technique or disprove me but all i aim to do is help people in similar situations to me.  There are hundreds of recipes on this site, some include veg oil and some don't, there is a difference and this is it.