You may have had it before, but most of the curries which are are familiar with are wet curries. I had no idea how to make this dish until I read the recipe in a book on authentic Indian curries – from scratch.

There are two components to the curry sauce. This is the first component which comprises ginger, garlic, onions. Add some water, give the mixture a nice spin in the blender to get a smooth mixture.

The next step is to cook this mixture until it boils. Set it aside. The boiled mixture should smell a bit like chicken rice.

Next component, tomatoes. Spin it well in a blender till you get a nice, red, creamy mixture.

Boil up the tomato mixture, add tumeric powder until the mixture turns orange brown. Add a couple of teaspoons of salt, then bring back the onion mixture and stir it in. Simmer for 45 minutes. Add some olive oil.

This is the soul of the dish – the curry sauce. You can make more of it and store it in the freezer. When you’re ready to use, just add in the meat.

My maid cooked a couple chicken drumsticks and the kids didn’t like it, so I decided to put curry sauce to the test. For chicken, all you need to add are some cumin and garam masala. Nice and aromatic.

The results? It’s a bit sour, but very flavourful. The kids loved it.

© Chan Joon Yee