[hnick]

Thanks for clarifying. There are a few that are great to get pre-ground like onion/garlic powder and paprika, which are a little harder to replicate at home and have a different flavour profile than their fresh counterparts. I do need to try and branch out more with whole spices in the future though.

I really like curries, but it's one of the dishes I haven't made much effort to do properly at home yet (my recent Japanese curry doesn't count because they use English-style curry powder).

[AmericanChopper]

Personally I think the SEA curries are a bit more forgiving than the Indian ones. Indian curries use a lot of dried ingredients, where as in SEA they tend to use pastes made from fresh spices (in Indonesia and Malaysia this is called bumbu) as the basis for a lot of their cooking. Which gives you a little more room for error when it comes to quantities for most things. You just grind everything together with your onions (or usually shallots), fry it off a bit, and get on with the rest of the recipe. If you add a little too much fresh galangal, it’s not much of a problem, but it’s a lot easier to throw the balance of a dish off with dried powders.