Heat the oil in a heavy bottomed pan. Add the sliced onion and salt. Cook on a low heat for 20 minutes or so stirring occasionally.

Add the garlic and ginger and continue to fry for a couple of minutes.

Add the diced carrot and pepper and again fry for a minute or so before adding the curry masala. Cook gently for a minute, stirring so it doesn't catch.

Stir in the tomato puree followed by the chopped tomatoes.

Add around 4 litres of water and give a good stir. Bring the sauce to a simmer, throw in the coriander stalks and continue to cook for 45 minutes or until the carrot is soft.

While waiting prepare the Spicing Essence.

Blitz the sauce with a hand blender until smooth. The sauce wants to be the consistency of (full fat) milk. If it's too thick add a little water. leave on a low heat while you prepare the curry.

Add all the ingredients to a pan. Put on the heat and bring to a simmer. cook gently for around 40 minutes. After this time the water will have reduced and you should be left with a thinnish syrup.

Drain the syrup in to a bowl until needed

Heat the oil in a pan or karahi and add the garlic and ginger, gently fry for 20 seconds.

Add the Kashmiri chilli, stir in and add the curry masala followed by the chilli powder. Cook the spices for a couple of minutes. If it looks like its going to catch, add a little of the base sauce.

Once the spices are cooked out add around 1/3 of the base sauce to the garlic, ginger and spices, using a ladle. Careful as it will probably spit and splatter.

Cook on high until the sauce has reduced to a thick paste. If you are worried about the mess, partly cover the pan with a lid. You only need to stir very occasionally as you want the sauce to caramelise. Make sure you scrape the caramelised bits round the edge back in to the sauce!

Once the first lot of sauce has thickened, add the rest of the base sauce to the pan. Continue to cook until this has reduced to a thickness that you are happy with. You can now add the chicken. Cook gently, for chicken thigh around 40 minutes, chicken breast around 20 minutes.

Once your main ingredient is nearly cooked, add the rest of the ingredients and spicing essence. Continue to cook for 15 - 20 minutes more.

Serve with rice of your choice and some naan bread or chapatti.