I’ve used the S&B bricks for years and find them to be pretty darn good. I like that I can find them in pretty much every grocery store I’ve ever been in, too. I’ve also found that they’re mild enough (well, the mild and medium ones, anyway) to use as an introduction to curry dishes for friends with less-adventurous taste buds than my own.
Ah, yes, those are the Japenese-style curry bricks. Kinda sorta like Indian curry, but not quite. Those are, indeed, quite tasty from time to time and, like you say, a good introduction to the basic flavor ideas of curry without being too shocking to the palate. They also remind me a bit of the curry you sometimes find at Chinese take outs.
Every time I see a new post in this thread, I come back to check it out in case there’s something about curry I don’t know (there has been, if you were wondering). Curry dishes are by far my favorite type of food.
Anyway, all this reading about it has me hankering after some, so tonight I’m gonna make me some Vindaloo. I mean, I make curry at least twice a week, but not always Vindaloo; I usually make a madras or korma.
Mmmmmmmmmm curry.
Ok, so we got 3 different kinds of curry now.
Indian curry (usually in powder or paste form. I personally find the powder fine, but some say the pastes taste better. May incorporate milk or yoghurt. Hot & Spicy)
Thai curry (usually in powder or paste form, and usually incorporating coconut milk. About as hot & spicy as Indian, IMO).
Japanese curry (I’ve only ever seen curry “blocks”. No dairy added, you just add the blocks into stew to get a “curry stew”. Much sweeter than Indian or Thai curry. Very mild generally, although you can get spicy variations.)
So, 3 different kinds of curry, all not quite the same. There’s also Malaysian and Indonesian curry, but we’ll leave those for another time. 
Nooooo… pleeeease…pleasepleaseplease tell me now. 
I didn’t know ANYTHING about this stuff when I started this thread. I mean I knew the WORD “curry” and that it had something to do with Indian cooking (which I love).
I lead a very sheltered life… <sigh>
Coconut milk is also popular in Indian curries, but you’ll see that mostly in South Indian cuisine. The biggest difference between Indian and Thai curries is the flavor. They are not mistakable for each other. Japanese curry tastes like a watered-down version of Indian-style curry to me. Other than Malaysian and Indonesian curries, Jamaica even also has its own variety of curry, and you can find Jamaican curry powders at some ethnic stores, too. It, too, is a variation on Indian-style curries.
In very general terms, while the tastes of Thai and Indian curries are pretty mutually exclusive (with the exception of south Indian which uses coconut), Malaysian curry successfully integrates many of the flavors. Historically, Malaysia and Thailand are right next to each other, but Malaysia was settled first by Hindus, then by Muslims, and then by the British who imported Indians to run the civil service, as well as a Chinese merchant class. This had a strong influence on the food, which includes several ‘Indian’ dishes such as paratha. I fucking love Malaysian curry.
Indonesian curry is a bit more like Thai but with a very distinct identity, involving a lot more peanuts, its own preparation of chilli (sambal), shrimp pastes and different levels of similar herbs.
Now how about Sri Lankan curry? Lots of coconut and turmeric and vegetables and ‘rice hoppers’. Mmmm.
So many curries… so little time…
I’m partial to the Japanese curry blocks. Glico (shown in this blog) is widely available here.
I like to make a stew resembling a curry jambalaya.
Sausage, chicken, shrimp, onion, garlic, celery, peppers, curry, coconut milk and chicken stock simmered and served over rice.
I recently got hold of a jar of something called “Lee Chun Coconut Juice Curry Paste Bumbu Kari Santen Indonesia”, whatever that is. Anyway, two heaping tablespoons, some chopped chicken thigh, finely sliced shallots, green beans and baby corn, stir-fry them all together until the chicken’s cooked, then simmer in a can of coconut milk for ten minutes - so cheap, simple and a little puddle of heaven with rice.
Oh yes. Indonesian curries are generally thicker (almost to the point of being a gravy or chunky sauce), rather than Indian or Thai curries, which are more soupy. Malaysian curries are somewhere in between.
One of the most famous Indonesian curries is “rendang”, which looks like this.
Another unique Thai curry is the Thai green curry, which has a lot of basil in it.
Generally, the Thai and Malay curries are somewhat sweeter than the Indian curries. Indian curries sometimes also use tamarind, which makes for a somewhat sourish curry.
Soo… lots of different curries!
Curry is serious noms. My favorite is made with red curry paste, chicken, bell peppers, pineapple and yes, the evil coconut milk. So freaking good!
Interestingly Tamarind is the defining flavour in Pad Thai.
I attended a Thai cooking school. I’ll reproduce their red curry paste recipe here. Store-bought pastes use a lot more salt and chilli than home-made, as this has cheap taste impact, but lacks the depth of the fresh paste.
Note that this is a DIY paste involving cutting everything into 1/4-inch pieces, dry-frying the dry spices until they just begin to toast, then putting in a pestle and mortar and doing a lot of pounding. Probably too much trouble to make, but someone might like it:
1 tbsp coriander seeds
2 tbsp cumin seeds
1 tbsp black peppercorns
3 stems lemongrass
1 inch peeled galangal
2 tsps kaffir lime fruit rind
6 (fresh) kaffir lime leaves
5 Thai shallots
10 cloves garlic
4 coriander roots
10 large dried red chillis (deseed and soak in water for 30 mins then squeeze)
24 dried birds-eye (aka mouse-shit) chillis
If you use a blender, which is not preferred as it chops rather than crushes, add 2 tbsps vegetable oil.
To turn the above into a panang paste, also add:
2 star anis
10 cloves
1 1/4 inch cinnamon stick
10 cardamom seeds (not the husk)
5 tbsps crushed unsalted peanuts (added after the paste is made)
This makes a lot of paste but can be frozen in an ice-cube tray and kept for 6 months or more.
I’m in no way a curry expert, but I thought I could help other curry newbies. For Indian-style curries I use powder but will now look into Indian curry pastes. As far as powder, Penzeys spice store/mail order has multiple options and I use most of them at different times. The “sweet curry powder” is my basic go to because I have a kid who hates spicy food, but there are hot options and different flavors. Garam Masala is listed with their curry powders, too. I don’t know if that really falls under “curry” but it’s quite good.
As for Thai, I use Thai Kitchen curry paste, which should be in any grocery with any sort of ethnic foods or Asian section. There’s green and red, I prefer red. Basically, I fry the paste in some oil for a minute, add coconut milk, then meat and vegetables, like their recipe
I was unaware of Japanese curry.
Curry powders are just a combo of different ground spices whereas curry paste includes additional ingredients to give a more well rounded, fresh flavour, such as garlic, onion, fresh ginger, lime juice etc.
Thai tastes quite different from Indian in its use of lime, lemon grass, shrimp paste and fish sauce. It’s more fragrant, for want of a better word.
Although store bought curry pastes can be very handy for a quick mid week meal, there’s no substitute for making your own, it isn’t complicated, it just requires a lot of ingredients. I have a very well stocked spice cupboard which includes pretty much everything you need to make any kind of curry paste, plus I always keep fresh ginger, chillis, fish sauce etc in the fridge.
Jamie Oliver recommends Pataks as the most reliable brand for Indian style curry pastes. Here’s a link tosome Jamie Oliver homemade curry pastes (Indian style) which are pretty good.
It depends. When I’ve had it at various places, it usually isn’t particularly heavy on basil, if having it at all. The recipe I use (from David Thompson, author of perhaps the definitive most exhaustive Thai cookbook in English) does not contain basil at all.
There’s a link here, which contains a recipe to a typical green curry. Also no basil. But this is not to say green curry doesn’t have basil–I’ve had versions of it spiked with basil, but it’s the most common formulation in my experience.
In addition to the red and green curries, Thailand features the following curries: Massaman curry (“Muslim” curry), which is a fragrant curry with peanuts [or another nut], Indian-type spices like cassia, cloves, turmeric, tamarind, etc. It tastes somewhat like a cross between a Thai and South Indian curry, or fairly close to an Indonesian curry. If you’ve never had this, you owe yourself to try it.
Panang curry - A (usually) milder, “dry” curry (very thick, almost pasty, not swimming in coconut milk) that is a pretty good introduction for newcomers to Thai cuisine. It is somewhat similar to red curry, but prepared much more dryly, and some versions of it contain peanuts as well as those fragrant sweet spices like nutmeg and cardamom.
Sour curry - these curries get their sourness usually from tamarind. They are soupy, contain no coconut milk, and are usually flavored with fish sauce, chilies, galangal, shallots, and shrimp paste.
Yellow curry - This can be a couple of different things, but in the US is usually a coconut-based curry similar to red curry with a significant amount of turmeric to color it yellow. It’s also usually milder than red curry, and often has potatoes in it. There is also a yellow curry that is very spicy, often made with fish, and similar to a sour curry, with no coconut component, but very, very spicy.
Jungle curry - another coconut-less Thai curry, but usually served fairly soupy (the liquid coming from stock), these tend to contain an assortment of vegetables in addition to the protein, tend to be prepared fairly spicy, and have the usual assortment of fresh Thai curry ingredients: lemongrass, chiles, lime leaves, galangal, etc. Dried spices are almost never found in jungle curries.
And I’m sure there’s others I’m forgetting, but these are the ones you’re likely to come across at Thai restaurants.
I would be inclined to stirfry the meat first to get nice brown sear on the outside, and the veggies, too, for the same reason. Then take everything out of the wok, make the sauce as you describe and put the meat and veg back in for a few minutes. How does that sound? Or is it important for the raw meat to cook IN the sauce?
I’m stuck at home as someone is coming to install a water softener, but as soon as he leaves (if he ever gets here!) I’m off to Whole Foods. 
For instant curry gratification, Trader Joe’s sells these curry sauce in bottles. I put some on hot steamed rice to get my instant curry fix.
We don’t have Trader Joe’s where I live. 
There’s a rumor one may be coming soon.
It’s generally better to cook the meat in the curry for a while, otherwise you end up with rather bland meat, IMO.