Need a recipe for a half decent basic curry

[coribells]

I am a reasonable good cook but my curries are never quite right. I tend to rely on ready made sauces. I am a bit scared of fresh chillies, I like a mild to medium curry.
So if I am cooking a curry from scratch , what do I need? A couple of your favourite recipes would be fab

This works for me, every single time - and it's delicious:

HERE

You'll see it says that you need 2 red chillis (plus chilli powder), but I have always left these out a) because I never have any and b) 'cos I'm a bit scared of them like you

I just doubled up on the chilli powder instead and can't really tell the difference.

Although, maybe we should both stop being such wimps about chilli - Jamie makes it look very easy....

I'm game if you are

The thing about chilli powder is once you've tried it you know exactly how spicy it is - the same can't be said for fresh chilli, even two from the same pack can be different. So if you're a bit scared of chilli, just using powder is fine, it's consistent and controllable.

Vicky Bhogal taught me how to make curry and it's really easy to knock something up.

My basic curry paste goes like this (I do it all by eye though which may not be helpful, sorry).

Dry frying pan, medium heat.

Add cumin and coriander seeds (say a tablespoon).
Fenugreek seeds (less, say a teaspoon)
Mustard seeds and/or fennel seeds if you have them, non-essential (again, say a teaspoon)

Toast the seeds till you start to smell them, then take them off the heat and tip into a processor or mini-chopper.

Add chilli to taste (so you can add powder or fresh). Lemon juice, salt (curries really need salt!), the stalks of a bunch of coriander and a roughly chopped onion, then blitz till you get a smooth-ish paste. You may need to add a splash of water.

I make this in large quantities, freeze in portions then use when I want.

To make a curry, add a little oil to your pan, fry the paste, add meat/fish/veg whatever. To make it saucy, add water, stock, coconut milk or tinned toms. Cook.

Easy x

You could start out by keeping it really simple with this very basic curry mix: 1 tsp each of ground turmeric, ground cumin and ground coriander fried gently with chopped onion, 1 inch grated or chopped ginger and 2 diced cloves of garlic (and 2 chopped fresh tomatoes as optional). Then add your veggies or meat or fish etc, then a little water and salt and cook!

I'm Indian btw, not that this makes me know what I'm doing .