xepherys

1) I also use peanut oil for almost all asian dishes, including stir fries.

2) When I'm cooking meat, I like a little extra oil. Adding butter WILL raise the temp high enough to cook meat on med/high with olive oil. It's also extremely common in italian cooking.

3) I tend to use so much garlic in most of my dishes that I lose a lot of the flavor of the olive oil. I try to get extra virgin, first press, organic olive oils from Whole Foods or other speicialty stores.

as a side note, in asian dishes, the sauces are usually 15-20% oil. They are still rather healthy due to the oils used. Also, for thai-style dishes, use more fish sauce and less oil if you'd prefer it be less oily.

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