My favourite homemade curry is here - http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/4686/chicken-biryani

I have made it a million times - passed the recipe on a million times - and not had one complaint. People have said that they would have paid good money in a restaurant to eat it! Read all the comments and change the recipe based on the majority of comments - one tip from me is to use any hot pataks paste that you like eg vindaloo or balti since you like it hot - and add water if the rice starts to stick - its mega yummy!

Update...it's nice! Aaaand my 9 year old is having some. She never used to like anything spicy.

If you like it hot, try the Kashmiri Masala paste. Hotter than the Vindaloo one. My local shop is the only place I've seen it in though. I marinated some chicken kebabs in it for a BBQ when the weather was nice. Tasted well weapon.

As I'm usually on a budget I would get a cheap bland curry sauce and add extras on top. I add paprika and cayenne but you can always add a lot more spices to the mix.

(I do the same with sausage and beans in a tin to give it a boost. )

Tonight we had a curry using Pataks Tikka Masala paste.
It said on the jar to use single cream, but I used half a tin of coconut milk instead, and I added some finely chopped coriander.
It was delicious
Even my wife, who doesn't normally like curry enjoyed it !

I don't usually add any liquid if I'm using Patak's curry Pastes..just the oil that I've fried the meat/veg in.....and maybe a chopped tomato or two for 'juice' added after the paste

Basically I use the pastes as a stir fry..........

Pataks has a lot of oil already?

I like it

Which reminds me, I have a jar in the fridge which I think might be coming up to the six month mark! Time for Chicken Jalfrezi

yes, it's certainly got oil in it..........but I find it's not enough to fry a chopped up chicken breast and veg without it sticking to the pan..........

so i fry in oil first then add my couple of teaspoons of pataks and fry again for a bit then add my chopped tomato for a couple of minutes

My wife makes really nice curries, it does help that shes Pakistani. When she went on holiday for a couple of months, I tried these curry pastes, to be honest they were nowhere near what my wife cooks. I never tried them again. However I would recommend trying some of these Shan products.

She has tried a couple of these products with varying degrees of success. I am quite fussy when it comes to food, so I would rather she made a curry from scratch, rather than cheat. However I did like the Karahi/Fry Gosht mix and the achar gosht (although she makes it with chicken). I wasnt too keen on the biryani masala though, the taste was fine, just not as good as when she makes it from scratch. I am not sure of she adds anything extra when cooking with these products. But I have found that these are closer to a 'true' curry taste than the pastes.

Also try the fruit chat mix...I think you basically mix it into a fruit salad.

I don't like Pataks pastes, I have only tried he biryani paste and it's grainy and leaves a horrible texture which is unpleasant on the palate. Don't use it, avoid it at all costs.

Fry the onion first and then add garlic, ginger (if you like it), green chillies, spices to taste (salt, red dried chillies, tumeric), tomato puree, and then add boiled hot water and let the onions cook some more, around 10 mins on low heat or until they're softened and most of the water has evaporated. If you add tinned tomatoes make sure you blend them into a puree. I also do the chillies, ginger and garlicin the chopper too.

I don't know what curry paste is, asian people don't use it at home. We never do and I don't know of anyone that does either. What brand of paste do you use?

After the onion mixure has cooked we add potatoes and then dry cook them in the mixture. Don't add much water unless it sticks. We use Sainsbury's frozen mixed vegetables (easy) and we add that next and dry fry again for another 5/10 mins. To make it tastier I have added other vegetables, like fresh aubergine and courgette to it too. Towards the end add Raja Garam Masala. I don't use any other brand as they dont taste quite right. Add fresh coriander. If you like you can add a pinch of dried Coriander powder and cumin powder.

I've never made Cauliflower, pea and potato curry, let me know how you're curry turns out. We normally leave the peas out.

I've seen other people make curry in their homes and everyone makes it slightly different. Hardly anyone I knows dry cooks the spices and then blend them into a powder. All the chefs on TV do this, too time consuming.