I first started learning about making curry dishes a year ago. Till then, it was just easier to ignore the details and enjoy it. After 6 months of cooking regularly (several times every week) I think I have tried about 20 different curry recipes. I have repeated many of them hoping to get better taste each time. Sometimes practice seems to help. Sometimes, the extra attention does not make any improvement! Especially risky, I have found, is the goal of "doubling" a recipe. What seems to work for 1 can of chana masala (chick peas aka garbanzo beans) may not work for 2 cans! I find that simultaneously fascinating and frustrating.
I want to share what I feel is a general pattern for the making of curry. This is an interpretation by a software engineer, not a chef, so take it with a grain of salt. Please feel free to add to this if you are knowledgeable and you think I can learn from your comment!
Now, I see 6 categories of ingredients in curry. Each one is added in a certain way, at a certain stage in the process.
1. Dry, whole spices. These are stored in airtight bottles, but their real flavor is locked up in aromatic oils. To release that flavor to the curry, these items are fried lightly for a short time, at the very beginning, using a thin layer of heated cooking oil. Some recipes call for dry roasting the spices and then grinding them into powder. (Examples: cumin seeds, mustard seeds, bay leaves, curry leaves, dried red chillies, cinnamon stick, cloves, cardamom (green or black), whole dried coriander seeds, etc.)
2. Gravy base: Most recipes I have tried have onion and tomato making up the bulk of the gravy in the curry. The onion will be chopped, diced, or sometimes sliced, to get the needed texture. Sometimes, the onion is ground to a fine paste. In each case, the onion is then fried in the same oil from Step 1, until it becomes golden-brown. The tomato is chopped or diced, depending on the recipe. If it is finely chopped, it of course gets "lost" in the curry. If you do not want the tomato to get blended into the curry after cooking, the pieces need to be diced as big as 1 inch across.
3. Wet, fresh, spices (condiments?): These go in when the onion appears to be done as desired. These ingredients are usually either finely chopped or ground into a paste. Most recipes suggest mixing them in and frying for 30-60 seconds only. (Examples: garlic, ginger, green chillies)
4. The main ingredients (vegetables or meat): This is the main ingredient for making the curry. When you are making "Aloo Mutter" (potato and peas curry), this is when the potato and peas go in. I have found it tricky to cook this stuff properly, especially if the ingredients are mixed. It will take me some more time to figure out what cooks faster and what cooks slower. My own shortcut is to cook some of these items separately in the microwave till they are half-cooked. Sometimes I will even boil the potatoes in the microwave with water completely, just to avoid the guesswork.
5. (UPDATE!) Yikes! I forgot to mention this step completely.
Dry spice mixtures: Just after the main ingredients are mixed in, most recipes call for mixing in the dry spice powders. This is where I usually put in the turmeric, coriander powder, red chili powder, and ready spice mixtures. I am so glad that all the spice mixtures are available in boxes, especially here in Silicon Valley in the Indian stores. It is a kind of cheating. A real chef will probably make his own mixtures. We can get by on spices from a box. What spice mixture to add? Simple. If you are making "chana masala", add "chana masala powder".
6. Garnish: By now, the curry is done. The recipe may even call for you to remove it from the heat. It is now time to add these ingredients to improve the taste and appearance. They do not need to be cooked. (Examples: chopped cilantro (coriander leaves), chopped onion, fried or peeled dry fruits, lemon juice, sliced onion, diced tomatoes, etc.)
My last 2 (and only 2) attempts at making goat meat curry did not end very well. I did not have a grinder for the onion, and I was trying to adjust the spices from the recipe since I did not have the correct quantity of goat meat for the recipe. This time, I will try another recipe, and use a chopper that I bought in a moving sale last month.
