When cooking the curry base, i always use a pressure cooker as it helps draw the flavours out of the whole spices, and added to that it keeps the smell down, although i love the smell of an indian takeaway in my own kitchen, it does cause ruptions in my relationship , i keep hearing the sound of my missus going around spraying Ouste everywhere!
On the pan side of things, make sure you dedicate a pan for your curry, as i found out when I used my frying pan to cook a fry up and it had this faint hint of curry, not what you want when your eating a good ole english breakfast after a nite on the tiles!