I am not that great with a lot of Indian food (but I do appreciate the vote of confidence, Wikid)- I just can't bring myself to use as much oil/ cream as some of it calls for and - probably more to the point - I never know which region's version of a dish is the one I like. I have some friends who are Indian and I love to go to their various houses to watch them cook - asking for recipes is sort of useless as they all just use the "put in some X and a little Y and enough Z..." so I go watch instead.
For what it is worth, my friends often use the prepacked (from india - we have several Indian markets and also international markets around here) mixes = (like hamburger helper or taco mix but indian - just add a, b, and c to the mix).
I have not ever added food coloring - even to the tandoori stuff (which is just not as good ever since I do not have a tandoori oven) (a great disappointment to me and the partner is somewhat dead set against me trying to build one - she does go on about fires and my lack of building skill).