Curried Beans

My husband and I love Indian food. I mean L-O-V-E. We have a great little Indian restaurant near our house, but eating out adds up to trouble. In an attempt to curb some of the costs we have been trying to learn how to make curry, is sort of tricky. The list of spices in it of itself is daunting, and I seem to have this idea in the back of my head that Indian food is food made with the slow food method, of cooking for hours and hours. Frankly that's why the food tastes so freakin' good.
However, I refuse to be chased out of the kitchen by a style of cooking. So here are a few ways I have found around these roadblocks.
Spices: ethnic food stores are amazing. Not only do you find all sorts of goodies to try (candy, soup mixes, etc) but you can also find spices for a fraction of the cost. I stockpiled a bunch of spices for the purposes of making spice blends as Christmas presents, and barely made a dent in the stash.
Time: Well, with the 30 minute and under dinner craze there are also Indian cookbooks out there that speak to that vein. I have this book, and at first glance through it's pretty good. I'll be getting into trying out some recipes soon. I promise.
"But I'm scared!": well, a lot of companies have gotten their act together and came out with premade sauces, where all you have to do is add some meat or tofu, boil and serve over rice. This works well, and we've had some rather nice success with these, but it's not as gratifying.

Anyway, I found a recipe for Rajma, which is kidney bean curry, and then totally cheated.

Sort of Rajma
2 cans of beans (kidney, black, pinto, whatever you have works)
2 TBSP dried onion flakes ground to a powder
1 TBSP garlic powder
1 tsp ginger powder
2 TBSP olive oil
2 TBSP butter
1/8 tsp pepper flakes
3 whole cloves
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground coriander
2 canned tomatoes
1 tsp honey
1 tsp garam masala

Heat butter and oil in a pot, add all of the spices and honey, mix so that the spices are evenly distributed and not clumpy. Add the canned beans (including liquid), and the tomatoes. Bring to a simmer and cook for about half an hour, stirring occasionally.
Serve over rice.