Dal Makhani

It is not possible that you don't find Dal Makhani in menu of any Indian restaurant serving Punjabi food!!! It is one of the great winning recipes on the table again and again. I always wanted to make same restaurant style at home. Finally tried it at home and get my kind of dal makhani recipe version. The main key ingredient in this dal is cream, which gives it creamy texture. But if you want to cut down calorie, you can just simply avoid it or instead add some curd(without water) or combination of both. In most of the dal makhani recipe which I found, cream was lot more required. But being on health n taste, I just add little bit of cream. Traditionally this dal is cooked for hours on slow flame, so I cooked it for around 45 minutes to 1 hr for my kind of version. (I don't have that much patience!)

Ingredients

one and half cup sabut udad(whole horse gram)

2 tsp rajma (kidney beans)

1 medium onion (chopped)

1-2 tomatoes (chopped)

1/4 cup tomato sauce or puree

1/4 cup heavy cream

1/4 cup dahi (curd)(without water)

To be gound into paste

6-8 garlic cloves

4-6 green chili

1 piece of ginger

For tadka (tempering)

4 tsp ghee or butter

2-3 curry leaves

1-2 tejpatta (Bay leaf)

3/4 tsp jeera (cumin seeds)

Spices

1 /2 to 1tsp red chili powder

1/2 tsp coriander powder

1 tsp garam masala

1/2 tsp turmeric powder

pinch of hing (asafoetida)

salt as per taste

Wash both lentils couple of time and Soak them in water for 6-8 hours. Add salt and Pressure cook both of them together for 3-4 whistles. Let the cooker cool. Remove the excess water and collect the excess water in one bowl.

Take one pot and put it on medium flame on gas. Put ghee in it and once it is heated, add cumin seeds. When they start spluttering add curry leaves, tejpatta and hing. Add finely chopped onion and cook for 2-3 minutes. Then add grounded paste of ginger, garlic and chili. Finally add chopped tomatoes. Mix all them well and saute the mixture till fat starts to leave the mixture.

Now add the boiled lentils and then add all the spices. Add tomato puree or sauce. Add the salt as per requirement. Now add the collected water as per required consistency and simmer the dal on slow flame for 10-15 minutes.

Finally add the curd and cream, Simmer the dal for 30 to 45 minutes on very slow flame.

Garnish it with ginger juliennes and cream, serve hot with roti or jeera rice.