I’m kinda flabbergasted curry/curries doesn’t have its own thread. It certainly deserves one.
Here are a few weeknight ideas from SE:
I most often make Thai curry, as it’s more in my wheelhouse than Indian curries. I also don’t really use a recipe for my Thai curries, having made them for probz a decade or more.
I did really enjoy this recipe from the NYT I made recently:
What are some of your all-time favorites?
Happy to start this thread off with one of my favorites, Thai red coconut curry. More often than not, I use shrimp or fish, and try to either make my own stock from shrimp shells I save in the freezer or — in the case of fish curry, add a can of fish stock as the base.
I always use the entire can of curry paste (Maesri is my preferred brand) with added fresh ginger, garlic, and bird’s eye peppers for extra heat, and sometimes lemongrass if I remember buying some — but I always have ginger, garlic, and chile peppers in the house.
I start off by sautéing the aromatics & peppers in neutral oil (peanut or avocado), adding the curry paste to toast it a bit before adding the stock, coconut milk, lime leaves, lime juice & fish sauce.
I let that simmer for a bit, then add any veg, fish / shrimp at the very end so none of it overcooks. Lotsa cilantro to serve, ideally Thai basil as well, but it’s fine without.
This is basically our strategy as well. Bloom the curry paste in some oil, we add whatever veggies we have from the garden and the fridge, a protein of choice as well. We have Makrut lime in our garden, as well as always having lemongrass and thai basil. In many ways Thai curry in our house is like fried rice or yakisoba, the ingredients come from what you have on hand.
We eat enough of it that we have the big tubs of thai curry and buy coconut milk by the case from Costco.
Three bean curry is a regular quick veggie dinner in this house.
Fry a couple of chopped onions. Add a couple of cloves of finely chopped garlic - fry for a few seconds only. Add spices - I have used a jarred curry paste but, more often, use spices. It’s fairly flexible - I always use coriander powder, garam masala and chilli powder (Kashmiri chilli is a new favourite) but cumin and fenugreek are also good additions but not necessary. Fry again for a few seconds only. Add a tin of tomatoes (and maybe a splash of water). Simmer for 15 minutes. Add a tin each of three varieties of beans - chickpeas, cannellini and butter beans are my usual choice as that’s what always in the cupboard (but, again, use what you have). Cook until heated through. A sprinkling of coriander leaves is nice but not essential.
Dinner on the table in less than 30 minutes. This feeds the two of us, with leftovers for the freezer brown gloop drawer. It’s fine to eat as it comes but, if a carb is needed on the side, we prefer a flatbread rather than rice. Chutney is essential - bought or homemade
i remembered this was a nice curry thread
and I remembered your reply, I guess it left an impression, Harters.
We do something very similar on this end – mix in whatever veg is on hand, some stock/protein/coconut milk, and it almost always makes a meal somewhere between good and really good. One of the easiest weeknight meals for sure. Although I prefer Mae Ploy to Maesri, as I like some shrimp paste in the mix. (A splash of fish sauce, as you’ve listed, probably makes up for most of that.)
My kind of people!
Your memory is better than mine - but thanks.
I’ll give the Mae Ploy a shot. I’m pretty sure I’ve used it before, but it’s been a long time.
I always add extra fish sauce and an abundance of lime juice — yesterday the juice of two limes.
Gotta have that sourness! Have you tried using some tamarind paste instead?
I have not. I don’t think it would be quite the same as fresh lime juice (?).
No, it’s different. That’s precisely the point 
It’s a bit rounder, sharper. I use them both together, when I have tamarind paste in the cabinet. Don’t miss it too much when it’s not there.
Right. I don’t like tamarind as much as fresh lime juice, so it’s unlikely that I’ll try.
More for you, in any event 
A dry preparation of cabbage, potato, peas and small prawns/shrimp, with the flavour profile from garam masala (both whole and powdered) and turmeric. I think this is more of a Bengali home-cooking sort of curry because I’ve never come across it in a restaurant.
shrinkrap included this comprehensive link in her reply
That looks like delicious comfort curry.
Yes, thanks. And pretty quick to throw together as I used frozen chopped cabbage and frozen peas!
I like using frozen peas in kheema mutter.
I didn’t start making it, when another former Chowhound (Joan) mentioned it in a FB cooking group.
I guess this is the recipe I referenced previously.
Not sure I’ve ever seen this dish before. Is ground mutton common/easy to come by in your area or do you just use lamb?
Keema refers to any ground meat.
I use ground beef, or ground local Ontario lamb, which I prefer to mutton. ( Other HOs lament that it’s difficult to find mutton or older lambs in Ontario)
Ground beef has typically been used more often at Indian restaurants in my region, at least the restaurants that aren’t owned by Hindus, because good beef is much cheaper than good lamb, and beef has tended to be the preferred meat in terms of popularity, although demographics have been changing and menus are changing.
