I didn't see any mention of toasting the spices before adding them to the sauce. Toast your spices in a dry skillet until fragrant but not smoking or scorched. Also, I wonder if the specified peanut oil is a substitution for clarified butter, or ghee..

I usually do a Thai coconut curry, and that's always improved by a few dashes of fish sauce... Might be worth a try here, or some mushrooms, Maggi sauce or something else to add Umami.

I've gotta say, any recipe that calls for margarine just makes me wonder about the intentions of the author. Margarine never improves anything, IME.

OK. Toasting spices. Got that.

I didn't use margarine, by the way. I would never use margarine in a recipe unless a guest's happiness depended on it. I used butter, as I always do.

I use peanut oil because I can't get ghee. Margarine though - no way.

Definitely fry/toast the spices first.

I would not use cayenne pepper. For me it's just heat not taste. Try some smoked paprika even.

Make curry the day before to give the spices a chance to work their way through.

Instead of tomatoes use tomato paste.

1. Use ghee, not margarine. You'll find that in any Indian grocers at 74th and Roosevelt. Instead of peeling/chopping garlic and ginger, use what all my Indian friends use - again in the Indian grocery you'll find little jars of ginger paste, garlic paste and combined ginger/garlic paste.

2. I would not puree the onion/garlic mix as in your recipe. Instead, when the onions/garlic/ginger are cooked, I would then fry the spices (untoasted). I'd also probably add some garam masala and whole cumin and mustard seeds too, and leave out the cayenne.

3. Have a look at this recipe.

Ghee is just clarified butter. You can sometimes find it sold as a baking ingredient, or you can make it yourself. Melt some unsalted butter in a saucepan. Simmer for about half an hour while the water cooks off. Skim the surface while it's boiling and leave any sediment behind when you pour off the ghee.

It will have a lower flashpoint than butter and keeps a lot longer.

To improve the complexity, the best thing to do is use garam masala, as Senyar says. Proper Indian cooks will tell you that all spices have to be roasted before using (pace Triode), but that's very complicated as some only taste right after a fair bit of cooking and others will be ruined if cooked for more than a minute. I just use a commercial garam masala (or a panch phoran, which is the Bengali version) unless I'm making an event out of it. Sharwoods (I know, but honestly, they did) used to make a great garam masala. Add the garam masala about ten minutes from the end. Most of the spices in it are aromatic, and the heat brings out the aroma. You can even sprinkle a little as a garnish when you serve the curry.

Senyar also mentions cumin and mustard. There's a similar tradition to garam masala in Southern Indian cooking that uses mustard seeds and curry leaves. Sometimes fenugreek and asafoteda (and a little chili) are added too. They are cooked quickly in mustard oil and then thrown in the pan. This can be at the end (like garam masala) or at the beginning.

I love jalapeños and get very frustrated that they are hard to find here. (I'm trying to grow some atm). Some Mexican dishes are lost without them, (and I even roast and dry my own to make Chipotles, for which there is no substitute), but they are not really suitable for Indian dishes.

I hate to say this, but cilantro is the other important thing. A generous measure of freshly chopped cilantro thrown in at the same time as the garam masala. I can't remember where you stand on this, but if you hate the stuff you probably ask for it to be omitted in restaurants. If so, leave it out. But if you do like it, it's an important part of a lot of curries.

Gomichild

Definitely fry/toast the spices first
. . . I would not use cayenne pepper. For me it's just heat not taste.

*nods* OK. Got it.


Senyar


Use ghee, not margarine. You'll find that in any Indian grocers at 74th and Roosevelt.

That stuff's a little pricey, but, as GeckoDundee mentions, it's pretty easy to make at home.

Instead of peeling/chopping garlic and ginger, use what all my Indian friends use - again in the Indian grocery you'll find little jars of ginger paste, garlic paste and combined ginger/garlic paste.

Is this worth the purchase if I'm not going to make curry every day? Wouldn't these pastes start to lose their intensity after a few days? Again, good suggestion, but is this the kind of ingredient that works on the assumptions that you'll be using at least a little bit every day and that you'll have used it up in a week or so, like a quart of milk, for example?

I would not puree the onion/garlic mix as in your recipe. Instead, when the onions/garlic/ginger are cooked, I would then fry the spices (untoasted).

Not clear on this. I understand that you don't want me to toast the spices dry in a skillet but by "fry[ing]" do you mean that I should fry them separately in oil or ghee and then add them to the onion/garlic/ginger mix? And if so, for roughly how long?

From Senyar's recipe, linked above:

Cook [the onion mixture] for 15 minutes stirring from time to time making sure nothing browns or burns.

Very interesting. The recipe I used says the exact opposite: fry that sucker 'til it's well-browned.

I'd also probably add some garam masala and whole cumin and mustard seeds too, and leave out the cayenne.

This is along with the rest of the spices, after cooking the onion mix? Or later in the cooking, as GeckoDundee suggests?

GeckoDundee

To improve the complexity, the best thing to do is use garam masala, as Senyar says.

*Nodding* Got it.

Proper Indian cooks will tell you that all spices have to be roasted before using (pace Triode), but that's very complicated as some only taste right after a fair bit of cooking and others will be ruined if cooked for more than a minute.

Makes sense. But I've got four burners on this stove and, for a special occasion, would be willing to put in the work involved in toasting the spices correctly. Are you aware of any sites that might provide more detail -- "roast cinnamon for X minutes, but try to keep this spice on for less than a minute, at most"?

I love jalapeños and get very frustrated that they are hard to find here . . . but they are not really suitable for Indian dishes.

I agree. But this was kind of an emergency substitution, as I couldn't find any of the appropriate chile.

I can't remember where you stand on [cilantro] . . .

No objections to it. None at all.

The gist of what I learned today: DON'T use that recipe again.

I use crushed chili peppers in curries (this looks like the stuff I have, which I buy at Wegmans, who are great for curry spices).
I also use Patak's curry paste to give the curry a "base". There are lots of different varieties, which I bring back from the UK. In the US, there are "mild" or "hot" versions. I would use the mild paste, as you can adjust the heat to your taste with chilis. Ten minutes from the end, I stir in some Rajah Garam Masala and fresh coriander leaves (cilantro).
It is important to understand that "curry sauce" can be tasteless if cooked separately from the meat of vegetables that you intend to eat with it. That's why experienced cooks leave a curry to cook slowly for hours (or leave it overnight in the frig, to mature).
My method for a mixed vegetable curry is to:
1. Cook onions, garlic, ginger together on olive oil until soft (transparent, rather than brown). If using mushrooms, I cook them with this mixture, as they lose most of their water and develop a very intense flavor.
2. Add other spices (I usually add ground coriander, cumin, and chili) and fry gently with the onion mixture for 1 minute (no more). I grind my spices from whole in a mortar and pestle, just before use. This keeps them fresher (ground spices don't taste as pungent after a couple of weeks and are often stale when you buy them from small stores).
3. Add 2 tablespoons Pataks curry paste and mix in well, on a low heat. Add fibrous vegetables such as carrots or celery (a meat eater would add meat at this point). Cook for 5 minutes on low heat, then add water to cover and bring to boil. Immediately, turn temperature down to simmer.
4. Add some yoghurt OR ground nuts OR strained tomatoes/tomato paste. (Curries tend to have one of these three "tastes": adding two or more of these makes the flavor confused). Also add some curry leaves or bay leaves. Mix well and cook for an hour on a low heat (simmer). If cooking meat, this would be 2-3 hours (until really cooked through). Check the water level: top up as required, but let the sauce concentrate a little.
5. Add the less fibrous vegetables such as zucchini, eggplant, fresh tomatoes (only a couple), cauliflower, broccoli, etc. I add these later as they mush down to nothing if added too early. Cook on a LOW heat for another 30 mins.
6. Add two teaspoons of Garam Masala, then add a handful of chopped coriander leaves. Adjust the seasoning at this point (you can add ground black pepper, more Garam Masala, or ground chili pepper) and add extra yoghurt or lime juice or some lime marmalade or mango chutney if it tastes too flat. I add no extra salt, but the Pataks paste is pretty high salt. Cook for a further 10-15 minutes on low heat.
Serve with rice and (optionally) yoghurt or mango chutney.

Thanks, Susurration! And thanks to everyone who offered advice here!

The best way to learn how to roast the spices is probably trial and error. How long to cook them will depend on how fresh they are, how "slack"^* they are (i.e. the moisture content), etc. As a generalisation, around 15 minutes on a low heat, stirring every few minutes is probably good for most things. Fenugreek seeds give dishes a nice round flavour a bit like slightly burnt toffee. They're used to make artificial maple syrup (and I think they were implicated in the Great Manhattan Maple Mystery a while back), so that will give you an idea of the flavour. If you overcook them they become extremely bitter. Add them right at the end. (A minute would be too short for them to "turn" at the right temperature, but it could happen if the heat was too high).

If you're going to roast and grind your own spices an old coffee grinder (you won't want to use it for coffee grinding once you've used it for spices) will pretty much be essential.

Susurration's advice is excellent, but I would do a couple of things differently.

Cook the onions on their own until very dark but not burnt, before adding the ginger and garlic and don't overcook the garlic as it too turns bitter.

Use ghee, mustard oil, or something plain like sunflower oil instead of olive oil.

I find Patak's pastes have too strong a flavour of fennel, but that's very much a subjective thing.

Have fun experimenting.

^*That's the correct term for grain, I don't know if it should be used for other seeds too.

Long, slow cooking of the onions is a big point--I cook mine on medium-low for at least 10 minutes. They don't get very brown, but they do get a nice, soupy consistency that adds a lot to the texture of the curry.

mrmoonpie's comment reminded me that I used to blend the cooked onions into a paste when I cooked meat curries (at stage 1 of my recipe above). That provides a really thick base for the curry. Haven't done it since I became vegetarian, but I might go back to blending them for veggie curry, with my favorite kitchen toy, the immersion blender ... :-)
Adding lentils to the mix gives a really "hearty" and satisfying curry, when you use a tomato-ish base.