CHICKEN curry brings back fond childhood memories for me.

Growing up in Tanjong Pagar in a big family of 11, I remember our meals as simple, home-cooked affairs. But Sunday dinners were different.

That was when my mother would cook a big pot of curry, which was sumptuous by our standards.

And getting together for the meal - we children had to take turns around a small table - made for heartwarming times.

I first started whipping up curry 12 years ago by trying various recipes, fine-tuning them as I went along.

My latest version uses limau purut leaves (kaffir lime leaves). I've come to use them because they give the curry some zing and, really, because I have a thriving plant.

I bought a sapling for only $5 from a stall in Whampoa market late last year just for fun.

To my surprise, since I don't have green fingers, it has done so well on my balcony that I was soon finding recipes to make use of the lovely fragrant leaves.

Limau purut agar agar might be next.

Ingredients

• 1.8kg chicken, chopped into pieces
• 8 medium potatoes (cut into wedges)
• 5 Tbs Baba's meat curry powder (2 Tbs to marinate chicken and 3 Tbs to mix into chilli paste)
• 1 tsp salt
• 10 Tbs cooking oil (for frying paste)
  

Chilli paste

• 8 buah keras (candle nut)
• 25 dried chillies (soak in hot water for about half an hour, wash and drain)
• 10g turmeric
• 15g lengkuas (galangal)
• 180g shallots
  30g garlic
• 1 stalk lemongrass, bashed
  (Grind the above, except lemongrass, into a fine paste.)
• 6 limau purut leaves (remove stalk and tear leaves up roughly)
• Thick coconut milk from one coconut (250ml)
• 800ml water
• 1/2 to 1 tsp salt (to taste)
  

Method

1. Wash chicken and drain dry. Marinate it with curry powder and salt for a few hours.

2. Deep-fry potatoes till half-cooked. Set aside.

3. Add 3 Tbs meat curry powder to chilli paste and mix well.

4. Heat wok and add oil. When it turns hot, add ground spices and fry over low heat for about 10 minutes till oil emerges. Add bashed lemongrass and limau purut leaves halfway through.

5. Put in chicken and fry till the pieces are well coated with chilli paste. Add potatoes.

6. Add water slowly and bring curry to a boil. Lower heat and simmer for about 20 minutes, depending on how tender you want the chicken to be.

7. Add salt, bearing in mind it should be a little salty as thick coconut milk has yet to be added.

8. Add thick coconut milk and bring to a boil. Don't keep boiling. Turn off heat.