To make fabulous curry: I learned from my best friend who is from Pakistan and makes the BEST biryani bar NONE, not to mention the BEST Palak Paneer:
(1) Forget powder. If you want your dish to taste authentic, buy curry paste, which doesn't go stale the way powder does; I've had some for a year or more in the fridge that still tasted amazing; powder goes downhill within a week or two after opening, and it may not have been fresh when it was packaged. Please do not use grocery store spice-rack curry powder. It's for western palates and your food will not taste fabulous. Not even almost fabulous.

(2) Always fry onion**(caramelized is best), FRESH garlic and FRESH ginger (minced or julienned) with the paste.

(3) If you must avoid all fat, roast these ingredients--pain in the neck BTW--and use teflon dish, they contain a ton of natural sugar. If you cook the curry a long time e.g. lamb shoulder or cheap cut of beef (or leeneia's beans :-) ), add a more ginger and paste 5-7 minutes before serving. You'll understand better how much 'top up' to use after you've done it once. I think the jar label gave quantities to use, however I taste each new jar of paste to help me decide how much is enough.

(4) If at all possible go to an Indian grocery and buy something called "curry leaf" found in the produce fridge near the long green beans and fresh coriander. Use it kind of like bay leaf, but use more: For the amount of stewed food that would use 1-3 bay leaves (6 cups) I'd use 3-8 curry leaves for beans, more for chicken, a bit more again for goat or lamb. (That's my interp of what my friend taught me.) BTW you can't pick them out at the end, they disintegrate. This ingredient adds a subtle but unmistakable quality to the whole flavour, somehow binds the other flavours together.

If your curry will be yummy without curry leaf, will be scrumptious with it. To understand the flavour, put 2-3 leaves in a tea cup, put 2-3 Tbsp boiling water on them, let stand until warm, now taste the water. Now nuke it to boil it, and taste it again after 1 minute (allow to cool!). And again after 5 mins (add more water before nuking this long, and allow to cool before tasting). If you've never done this with everyday herbs, try it!

Plan to freeze the rest of the curry leaf (you'll have dozens left!) Pick them off the stems and lay them out on paper or cloth on a cookie sheet. Pop into freezer as is, no cover. Probably they'll freeze in 30 minutes. At the same time, label and freeze the jar you'll store them in. Yes, jar, no not plastic, it's not truly airtight. Once leaves are frozen, gently but quickly & lightly pour them into the ice-cold jar; put on the lid and put right back into the freezer. You can't label the jar after it's been in the freezer, the condensation when you bring it out keep adhesives from sticking.

**Many dishes my friend makes use caramelized onions--sliced thinly and fried slowly for an hour or so in clarified butter or oil--I use olive oil and it's just fine--until evenly deep-browned, never a speck of burn though, so pick out black bits if mistakes happen. Yes it's worth the effort. I do a big batch and freeze in portions including some laid out on yogurt lids=ready to go on burgers. A lot of raw onion cooks down into not much volume when done, but the flavour is concentrated.

Whew, sorry to be so long winded. I didn't realize I was going to write a short book!