Flexibility within standard approaches to indian cooking

It's my understanding that ground spices, when added to a curry, should also be added into the oil? However, this recipe which I found recently added the ground spices after water had been added. I didn't follow this, and instead I added the ground spices alongside the ginger before adding the water. The rest of the recipe sounded interesting enough for me to want to amke an attempt at it, however, the other things which seemed odd was the paprika. Not only do I not associate it with indian food (minor issue), there was 2 tablespoons recommended which is quite a lot of 1 spice, particularly for this amount of curry, and considering the ratio to other spices. Is it just not a great recipe? It didn't taste bad - although I had to a lot more tamarind (like 3 or 4 times as much) plus 2~ tsp sugar - to get the flavour to 'pop'. However, I'm not sure whether to give it a second chance and use less paprika or whether to just move on and forget about it. Are there any good indian cookbooks which explain different approaches to indian cooking and standard ratios for different spices and how to get more comfortable experimenting? When I'm cooking dishes where I can clearly taste different elements, I'm good at adding more/less of whatever it is to get the flavours balanced, but spices in indian cooking are often too subtle and you can't just add more at the end. I usually add more oil/butter/ghee and then fry the onion, followed by garlic/ginger/chillies, and then I add my whole spices (sometimes dry-roasted and blended, other times not), as well as any pre-ground spices. And then I added my tomatoes and cook until they are fully. That's generally my base although sometimes I add whole spices before adding the onions. If I add garam masala or fenugreek leaves, I do this at the end. But I want to explore different approaches and when and why I would use them. Thanks submitted by /u/Open_Connection2528 [link] [comments]