Start lightly carmelizing onions in a pan. Once theyre lightly carmelized throw in some garlic and whatever spices might be good for what youre making. Make sure theres enough oil, as spices tend to soak it up and you want to temper them in oil, not burn them. Throw in some tomatoes that have been quartered (or cut into eighths), and cook it all together. This makes a good tomato type base, you can fill it out with more tomato, or water, really whatever liquid youd like.

Alternatively dont put in tomato and instead add some a bunch of like ginger and chili and whatnot (or whatever stuff is in your favorite curry paste), and throw in some coconut cream to get a really good curry base. Bring to a simmer and cook your veggies and protein in it, serve over rice.

When in doubt, smell your spices and oils and sauces, and if they smell like they match, go for it. Youll find good combinations that way. Half my recipes just have “green spices” or “red spices” or “ginger et al” in the ingredients list cause i just go by smell half the time.

Also, remember sesame oil as a finishing oil, tastes amazing ^^

You can also cook sauces and things in wine for to get its taste ^^ use red for tomato based things, white for fish, etc. Wine ends up in half my sauces.

Roast some tomatoes, garlic, and onion with oil and salt till there’s some browning. Blend it smooth with more oil, salt, and if you want add some MSG, Tajin, butter or ghee.

I found a recipe I really like for a brown stir fry sauce base.

It’s basically some chicken stock, shaoxing wine, brown sugar, sesame oil, soy sauce, dark soy sauce, oyster sauce, white pepper, and salt.

Throw it all in a mason jar and shake the shit out of it. I keep it in the fridge for an on hand sauce base.

When I go to cook with it, I throw in minced garlic, grated ginger, chili flakes, maybe some hoisin if I’m feeling it, and cook some protein and veggies, whatever is on hand, put it on some rice and finish with some roasted sesame seeds and green onions.

I love it, the kids at least tolerate it.

I like to use wine to make sauces sometimes. I make a chicken marsala dish except I use extra firm tofu cubes instead of the meat. I start with sauteing my home grown shallots or onions from the store, add tofu cubes and various vegetables like carrots, pea pods, green beans etc… and finish saute until I get some caramelization on them. Then I scoop them into a bowl and deglaze pan with marsala wine until reduced and transfer that to the veg bowl. I go back to the pan and add olive oil and some flour to make a browned roux. Then I add veg mix bowl back into the pan, add a little water to the bowl to get any bits and sauce left and add that to the pan. After that I just simmer it for a while and finally spoon it onto some rice. You can do the same recipe with Madeira wine.

I’m bad cook so I won’t share a recipe but I will say if you are lazy or you want something simple - I suggest S&B curry as a base. It’s a Japanese curry brand that comes in slabs. I cut up the curry into small pieces with water and heat it up until it melts and put it into my Dutch oven.

Google search - https://www.google.com/search?q=s%26b+curry+dutch+oven