So I made some curry with only a vague idea of what I was doing

Cafe Society
1

I started with a can of coconut milk, and a cup of plain yogurt. Spiced that up with 2-3 tablespoons of curry powder, half teaspoon each of cumin and chili powder (didn’t really measure) and some onion powder and some garlic powder. Adjusted spices until it seemed hot enough. Was a bit nervous at this point because it didn’t taste very good.

Sautéed a yellow onion and two cloves of minced garlic. Then added the sauce back and put in the veggies (chick peas, cauliflower, yellow pepper, celery) with some left-over cooked chicken thigh.

Cooked for a while and tasted - very bitter. I adjusted with a tablespoon of honey, and some coconut curry sauce from the supermarket. Served on rice… in the end it was pretty good, I would give it a B minus.

The spiciness was somewhat mild (ok for me I guess) but the flavours didn’t really “pop”.

2

You did it kind of backwards.

Start with heating your oil. Add your dry spices and seeds.* You should have a kind of sludge of toasted spices. Throw in a chopped onion and cook to tender. Throw in your veggies/protein and and saute them a bit. Add a liquid medium and bring to a simmer. Cook and taste, seasoning as necessary.

Take your cup of yogurt and add a bit of toasted cumin, a heap of diced cucumber, and salt/cayenne to taste. Serve on the side.

*Whole cumin, fennel, cardamom, are all good to keep on hand. Powdered turmeric and cayenne (not chili powder, which is mostly paprika) too. That’s what will really give you that pop you’re missing.

3

I usually use this recipe as the base for my curry, and tweak it if I want it spicier (I ALWAYS want it spicier), want a different meat, etc.

4

There are plenty of seasonings in the curry powder already. You take your chances by adding more flavors to it. Try @Johnny_Bravo’s suggestions using only curry powder, or your own mix of seasonings. As he mentions, saute the seasonings in oil for several minutes to ‘break’ them before cooking the other ingredients. Try curry pastes instead of dry seasonings for consistent seasoning.

5

I always microplane some ginger root and add that.

6

In addition to the other great recs here, a can of coconut milk AND a cup of yogurt seems like overkill. I’d either use coconut milk OR yogurt, and add some stock. I usually go 50/50 chicken or other stock with a creamy ingredient like the yogurt or coconut milk.

7

I mostly stick to coconut cream now. That’s the full fat version of coconut milk, not the drink mixer. There will be a thick layer of congealed coconut oil on top that can be used to cook the ingredients, and then the creaminess of the dish can be controlled with the amount of fat you include along with the thinner liquid.

8

In a hurry, you could probably substitute a tablespoon or two of garam masala for most of your spices in there. That’s how the Cook’s Illustrated recipe does it, and it’s a very good version of the recipe.

I guess my question is what sort of curry the OP is trying to make? Curry’s kind of a style/catch-all term that doesn’t describe anything in particular. Thai curries are pretty different, for example, from what the British call “curry”, which is basically anything vaguely Indian with a sauce & chunks of meat/vegetable.