If you read my article, Curry - A Journey, published on the curry page of this site, you'll find that my first experiences with the dish were the typical kind, which the British always cooked and cooked while they were abroad a few decades ago. Had eaten , You might also know that I then discovered "real" Indian cookery and decided that since I couldn't afford to eat that much, I had to learn to cook myself.
My first stop at that time was a local bookstore, which had a somewhat limited selection of books on Indian cooking. However, I got lucky and discovered a book called Indian Cookery by Madhur Jaffrey - Kya Khoj Hai. Written in simple language, but with beautiful descriptive text and recommendations on what to serve with, this was exactly what I was looking for.
There was one stumbling block, however, which was the endless list of spices, condiments, and flavors at the front of the book. I didn't know where to start - I've heard of a lot of them, watched a few TV shows on Indian cooking, but "help" I thought, "buying so many all at once is going to cost a fortune. It's gonna be "If you're thinking the same way, don't panic. Check in your store cupboard. You probably already have a few things you'll need. For example, black pepper, bay leaves, chili powder (if you're already a fan of chile con carne), ground ******, nutmeg, cloves and cinnamon if you bake a cake or apple pie See. You might find mustard seeds if you make your own pickles and make sesame seed rolls or cook Chinese food. It leaves out only a few basic ingredients that appear in a lot of Indian cuisine – cumin, coriander, turmeric and cardamom. Often you'll need ground cumin and coriander, but if you buy whole spices, you can grind them as needed (and they keep longer that way, too).
The second thing I did was pick a fairly simple recipe to start with and I bought the spices I needed for it. The next time I want to cook an Indian, I chose another recipe with similar ingredients, so I just had to buy a few more. Soon I built up an entire store cupboard of the things I needed and it didn't make much of an impact on my wallet.
There was no stopping me then - I know some recipes by heart now and you can do the same if you want.
You don't need special equipment for Indian cooking, though I wouldn't be without my electric coffee grinder (for grinding spices) and it's nice (but not necessary) to have traditional dishes to serve your meals. Plus, all you need is a little patience and it's fun to cook with a friend so you can share the chopping and grinding or have someone read you a recipe step by step so you don't go wrong in the middle.
The taste is great, a curry evening is really sociable, so go ahead, give it a try.
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