Dal Makhani

Three things grasp my attention when I am browsing for recipes - 

1. it has to be easy
2. the taste should be(or claimed to be) close to restaurant style
3. I should really, really like the dish

If any one of these is true, then I make it a point to try the recipe. But, this recipe satisfied all the three; so, I had to try. The blogger apparently took this recipe from the Oberoi hotel chef himself. 

Even otherwise, I love dal. I wouldn’t let go of any excuse to make it. Dal with some plain rice and some ghee is my ultimate comfort food. Savored with some fried papad/sandige, it’s simply awesome!!

The recipe requires lot of butter and then some heavy cream. I used milk instead of cream and used less butter, but it still came out very creamy. The only thing I was not happy about was the cooking time. I cooked it directly on the stovetop, and it took me little more than an hour to just cook the dal. It didn’t need my intervention as much(hence, I call it easy); but still I hate the idea of wasting cooking gas. Next time I’ll try to pressure cook and update here as to how it turns out. 

Ingredients

3:1:1 - whole urad dal: rajma: channa dal

ginger - lots

3 garlic pods

2 green chillies

salt

butter - 1-2 tsp (original recipe calls for 100g(!!))

milk - about 1/4 cup(original recipe - 30 ml cream)

1/2 tsp chili powder

1/2 tsp garam masala

for tadka

ghee (I used butter)

1 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp methi seeds(fenugreek seeds)

3 garlic pods

hing 

around 2 tbsp of tomato paste

Method

Wash all the lentils with many changes of water, and then soak it overnight. 

Boil the lentils with finely chopped ginger, garlic, and green chillies, in medium flame. Add water whenever required and mix it properly once in a while as dals have a tendency to stick to the bottom. After they are cooked, reduce the flame(or turn off the stove) and mash it with a potato masher. 

Make tadka with cumin and methi seeds. Add garlic and fry till the garlic changes color. Add hing and tomato paste and fry for a minute.

Add this to the dal mixture. Add salt and the remaining ingredients(butter, cream, chilli powder, garam masala) and bring it to a boil. The original recipe asks to simmer it for 30 more minutes, but I just boiled it for another 5-10 min. 

When the dal was cooking, I could taste the rawness of urad dal for a long time. It didn't taste like cooked dal even though it was looking all cooked. I boiled it for some more time after mashing. Then after adding all the masala and boiling it for some more time, the raw taste was finally gone. 

Recipe Source - http://vegeyum.wordpress.com/2008/06/23/dalmakhani/