I haven’t met many non-Indians who don’t love Indian food. Likewise, I haven’t met many non-Indian folks who feel comfortable placing home-made curry on the weekly food roster. Some kind of Mexican meal? Yes. Italian pasta? Without doubt. Thai green curry or some iteration of Vietnamese noodle? Nearly always.

While I understand that the ingredient list for Indian foods can stretch long, the feedback I receive is that, for many, it’s difficult to know what to do. And to figure out what goes wrong when effort in the kitchen doesn’t equal great taste at the finish.

While the reasons for home-cooked curry disappointments vary, they tend to fall into one of a half-dozen categories.

After almost 10 years of teaching masala masterclasses, 50 years of eating my family’s food, and 30 years of writing about Indian cuisine, I’ve noticed six common curry mistakes that home – and even professional – cooks make all the time. Fortunately, they’re also the easiest to fix.

1. Using olive oil

The No.1 basic mistake made in Western kitchens is reaching for the stovetop bottle of olive oil when curry is on tonight’s menu. Olive oil isn’t built into the foods of India. With its bitter base, olive oil lights up the harder and less delicious aspects of all spices. Using it as the base fat will emphasise the pungency, bitterness and hard shadows in any masala, or spice mix. This results in a curry that tastes heavy and biting. Any warmth, sweetness and light is effectively extinguished.

To a lesser extent, the same can be said of mass-produced vegetable-based oils. They work for some dishes. But if a recipe for curry starts with ghee, mustard oil, groundnut oil or coconut oil, take heed. Using it will give you a head start towards a better result.

2. Using old spices

Like any produce, spices age. And aged or old spice is far less delicious than spice that still retains its best character. I think the record for keeping spice among those I’ve taught was one woman who hadn’t refreshed her spice cupboard for 25 years!

Generally, the less confidence a cook has with spices, the less likely they are to refresh them. But it’s the amateur spice handler who needs fresh spices the most – “fresh” dried spices will be more forgiving when learning and making mistakes with combinations and ratios because the spices are beautiful enough to soften any blunders.

Generally, the less confidence a cook has with spices, the less likely they are to refresh them.

Old spices will be blunt and one-dimensional. “Fresh” dried red chilli powder has aromas of heat, brick, smoke and sometimes a little sweetness. Old red chilli powder tastes of exposed, dull heat and that’s about it.

Generally, I clean out my spice cupboard every three to six months. If you use spice sparingly, then turn the spices over once every 12 months. It will make a noticeable difference to your home-cooked curry.

3. Over-spicing food

It’s a misconception that all Indian food is heavily spiced. I’ve eaten a Lucknowi pumpkin sabji so delicate it could make you cry, and a Kodagu wild mango curry that’s more God’s nectar than food. Spice in India is regionally specific. When that regional specificity is understood, a cook can show nuance while also telling a story and making a dish that is flat-out delicious.

But when coming at curry from the outside, the instinct is to try to make meaning. And if a cook isn’t quite sure what they’re doing, well, that communication can get a little garbled. And garbled food? Generally, not yummy.

How to free-form with spices

If you aren’t following a recipe, and you’re not sure how to free-form with spices, there are a few simple rules.

Firstly, keep the number of spices used to between five and eight. This is enough to create texture and complexity, but not so many that you lose control of the dish.

Secondly, vary the types of spice you use. Choose a whole spice, a whole seeded spice (like cumin seeds), a fresh spice (ginger or garlic), and a few powdered spices from different families. So, something acidic or sour and something familiar and warming (cinnamon, say).

Thirdly, vary the colour and texture of the spices you choose: line them up and make sure your mix doesn’t look too brown, too red, or too same-y texture wise.

4. Misunderstanding meat

The cut of the meat and the type of protein chosen needs to favour tradition. Don’t use chicken breasts. Favour chicken thighs. And if a recipe asks for bone-in chicken, have your butcher cut to the specifications.

When it comes to lamb, there is a difference between how leg and shoulder cook. Leg meat makes a dish with a bit more strength. Lamb shoulder will make your masala a little sweeter. Trim or include fat as the recipe asks. I don’t cook with beef, but I know that it needs its own kind of treatment. So if a recipe calls for lamb, don’t automatically make a red meat swap – different proteins need different spaces.

Staying on message with your proteins gives you an automatic 20 per cent flavour upgrade. Combine that with the 20 per cent boost from using the right oils or fats, plus another 20 per cent from using fresh, high-quality spices, and you’re already 60 per cent of the way to flavour perfection – before you even turn on the cooktop.

5. Under-estimating veg prep

Sabji is the word for both vegetable and a vegetable dish. Though the word itself is Hindi, its meaning is understood across India.

Veg prep with sabji is as significant as meat prep for a non-veg curry. This means that, quite often, a vegetable will be cooked twice or even thrice. In the case of Kashmiri dum aloo (potatoes in a rich, yoghurt-based red gravy), the spuds will be pressure-cooked, deep-fried and then slow-cooked in masala. It’s a queenly dish, to be sure. But even the most basic sabji is often pre-roasted or pre-fried before taking on spice.

Chopping vegetables and tossing them in a pan with oil and spices is a fast track to flavour shortfall. Make more effort here and the results will be immediately noticeable.

6. Going too fast

I understand the appeal of the 20-minute weeknight dinner, but if time is tight, choose your Indian recipe with care. While most people focus purely on spices, so much of what makes great Indian food comes down to mastering time and heat – not chilli heat, but cooktop heat.

When working with heat, a cook must slow down. Heat changes the texture of produce, and texture fundamentally alters how you taste masala. Noticing what a recipe asks of you means taking a breath. Adrenalised, race-to-the-finish cooking won’t fly.

Time on a work night is scarce, so here are some advance prep ideas that will make your life easier, and your Indian curry tastier:

• Weekend veg prep: Pre-roast or pre-fry veg on the weekend, then refrigerate until you’re ready to spice and simmer.
• Pick fast-cooking veg:If you don’t have time to pre-roast, choose less-dense vegetables such as pumpkin rather than potato.
• Opt for skin-on, bone-in chicken pieces:They’ll cook quickly and still give plenty of flavour. Leave lamb and beef for long, slow weekend cooks.