Looks fantastic! Interesting additions to the sauce, I bet that was really good. I’ll have to try adding a splash of soy sauce to my sauce sometime. I’ll often throw in a stock cube.
I use the S&B curry powder and it works really well. I actually prefer a mix of the S&B powder with some garam masala (maybe 2:1) but it’s also great on its own.
I season right when it goes into the pot (salt and pepper), and then I do two “dumps” of the other seasonings - one towards the beginning prior to adding liquids, and another towards the end of cooking.
Some dried mushrooms, ground ginger, onion powder, and a stock cube all ground up in the spice grinder. Then just add to water. Maybe add a spoon of gochujang and/or miso.