Can you help re-introduce me to curry - the right way?

I ask for help from an expert or someone very experienced with curry, and I think this is a good place to start.

Long, LONG ago, I tasted a curry dish and hated it.  It tasted, to me, like soap with a lot of hot chile peppers.  Back then, I didn't like hot peppers, though I love them now - but ONLY in moderate levels of heat.

I want to try curry again.  It may be possible to make a dish that isn't too hot for me, but what about the soap?

This month, I bought a package of curry powder.  It is dark reddish brown in color.  (I bought some once that I never used, and it was kind of yellowish.)  I sure hope I'm going to like it this time, because there's more than a cup of the seasoning in the package.  I'd hate to see it wasted.

Now, what I DO know is that in India, people don't usually use curry powder like this; they make their own.  The stuff we call "curry powder" is made from a recipe from an Englishman, who tried to duplicate the taste of India's curries when he got back home.  It seems to have caught on, but I've heard people say it's FAR from real curry.  In India, they roast seeds, like mustard, comino, fennel, fenugreek, coriander, cardamom - whatever - on a dry griddle, then grind them to the proportions that suit their preferences.  It is then mixed with ghee, rather than melted butter.

I'm not ABOUT to go to that kind of trouble.  I'm very disabled, and having all the time I could want to diddle in the kitchen, I lack the ability to stand there doing the diddling.  So curry powder it is.

Could someone give me a recipe that they would serve to someone unfamiliar with curry?  Something that represents a subtle and gentle introduction?  A recipe that isn't too strong or hot, but one which would clearly deliver to the person a concept of what curry TASTES like in foods?  I'm thinking of, perhaps, a dish made of pre-cooked chicken (mild in taste), with other common veggies, perhaps, and with a curry sauce.  Nothing with flavors so pronounced that they'd interfere with the taste of the curry.

I'd sure appreciate some help to re-introduce me to the world of curried foods.  If you're feeling generous, I won't try to limit you to only one recipe!