I learned curry from a Pakistani boyfriend in college. You use beef or chicken (though you can use pork if you're not a Muslim), fried with onions, add garlic, he would get packets of really good curry spices from home in Karachi, but now I have to use American-made curry powder, cumin, garlic, and often I throw in some oregano and thyme. It's a pretty close match. I think they also use coriander, which is usually included in a curry spice mix. I also include a bit of diced canned tomatoes, a bit of water and tomato paste (just maybe a tablespoon) to make a kind of curry gravy. Then I make just plain rice and carrots and peas. Optimally, we would have plain yogurt on the side, but we can't get small sizes of plain yogurt here, so we make do with fat-free sour cream. Garlic cucumber salad is a good side salad. Just sliced cucumbers with some garlic, yogurt or sour cream, milk and lemon juice.