Reddit reviews Anjum's New Indian

All indian curries that I cook have to be cooked on the stove for an additional 30 minutes or so to remove the water and concentrate the flavors. You could try to take out some of the water, but sometimes the water is needed to prepare the ingredients.

For instance, in punjabi chicken curry, you cook the curry, then add water, stir and boil the rest of the water off.

I would get a book that has recipes that are meant to be cooked on the stove top. I use this one: https://www.amazon.com/Anjums-New-Indian-Anjum-Anand/dp/0470928123

If you don't want to get a new book, try taking out some of the water and see how it goes. :)

Curry roughly means 'sauce' - it is just stuff cooked in sauce, but in the Uk we take it to mean a vast array of Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi dishes of meat, vegetables and pulses in spices sauces (and we also use it for similar dishes from SE asia etc).

Curry powder is an abomination the Brits took to, a generic and almost always stale blend of identikit spices people put in such dishes. If you want to learn this set of dishes, go buy a bunch of whole spices and a cheap coffee grinder to grind them up.

There are many 'real' curries as well as many anglicized versions that are common in the UK (famously, Tikka Masala is a Brit thing not an Indian one). There are also things like Rajma Chawal (probably mispelled) which are common in india.

In terms of commonalities - toasted or tempered spices, an onion base and probably cumin/coriander/turmeric as the most basic spices, with some more liquid ingredient (tomato, coconut milk etc) and some meat or veg is the basic makeup.

If you want to learn how to make curries i can suggest some books. Indian Vegetarian Cookery by Jack Santa Maria is one i liked and he has oen on non veg cookery too. Madhur Jaffrey is well known in the Uk for popularising hoem cooked indian food. More modern, Anjum's New Indian is not bad (based on a BBC series I think) though i find her a bit annoying on TV.