Dal Makhani Recipe : Indians Ki Maa Ki Dal !

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The two lentils are the core ingredients of this delicious dish. But all the side ingredients help to enhance the flavours and richness of the dish. Their addition makes a lot of difference to the taste. The black and green cardamom with the cloves gives their own flavours. The sprinkle of whole spices, Garam masala and spice powders add their heat to the gravy. The aroma of sautéed whole spices in this recipe will increase the appetite of your whole family including the neighbours as well. The mixing of cream and use of butter is the highlight of the recipe.

Because of its popularity of taste, this delicious Punjabi Dal Makhani has an important place in menu of all restaurants and Dhaba’s. Earlier it was prepared for long hours on slow flame with slow cooking. But nowadays usage of the pressure cooker has made the job easy and less time-consuming. Yet, the slow cooking is the key for making the best Dal Makhani. This recipe tastes very delicious even the next, just reheat properly. Try out this restaurant style Dal Makhani recipe for the small party at your house and collect the praise your way.

Garnishing:

Transfer Dal Makhani from the pan to the serving bowl. Serve it with phulka Roti or Plain Roti. You can also have it any type of delicious and tasty Paratha or Butter Nan. You may also serve it with steamed spicy or mild flavoured Rice. The best combination to serve Dal Makhani would be with the spice tempered Jeera Rice and chilled crunchy Cucumber Raita.

Garnish the dal Makhani in serving bowl with:

• Whipped Cream
• Green Coriander Leaves

Remarks:

• The total time required for the cooking of Dal Makhani Recipe is 55-60 minutes
• The measured proportion of ingredients serves 3 to 4 people. The recipe can be doubled or tripled.
• Do stir the dal while it’s simmering because if it is not stirred up it will get stuck at the bottom of the pan. There are chances of the dal to burn.
• The beans can be cooked in a pot as well. But it would take time approximately 45 minutes to 1 hour.
• You can store the tomato puree in the fridge and use it later.
• The onions, ginger-garlic, green chillies and other whole spices can also be sautéed in oil or ghee.
• For the Rajma and Dal to be soft and tender, always use fresh Rajma and Dal.
• You can prepare this Dal Makhani Recipe with the half whole Urad Dal and half split Urad Dal. The taste and texture will be slightly different. This way, you can prepare it quickly with just 8 to 10 whistles.
• The nice red colour of the curry is due to the use of fresh and ripe tomatoes. They infuse their bright red colour. Also, the reddish colour highly depends on the red chilli powder and dry red chillies.
• If some dal Makhani is left, you can store in the fridge and have it on next day.

Quick Tip:

• If you have the stored tomato puree, then don’t make fresh. You can use that as well.
• Mashing the lentils will give perfect consistency to the dal Makhani. But if you want, you can directly add it without mashing.
• If your lentils are old or near the expiry date, then they would take a lot of time to cook.
• You can skip adding the cream and still, it would taste delicious.
• Replacing the tomatoes with thick tomato puree will enhance the taste and texture of the dish. But if you want, you can skip puree and add chopped tomatoes.
• Be careful while eating Dal Makhani. Its over-eating can cause difficulty in digestion. (Have a glass of chilled Jal-Jeera after you eat it!)

This popular Indian Punjabi dish uses fresh red kidney beans the whole black grams. Both of these ingredients are cooked with lots of butter and various spices to give to a very flavorful dish. The texture of rich Dal Makhani is creamy and its taste is delicious. The aroma of veggies and spices when cooked is totally tempting. This delightful Dal Makhani is a standout amongst various other Punjabi dishes because of two main reasons.

The first factor is the spicy lentil mixture made from the mix of Beans and Urad Dal. There is a perfect blend of veggies, whole spices and other condiments in the gravy. The recipe is made as per its name “Makhani” and complete justice to it as it uses butter in abundance. The tanginess of tomato puree is balanced out with the heat from the spices. The final mix of the individual ingredients makes the tangy, spicy and creamy gravy which rich in lentils.

And the second factor is the smoky flavour of charcoal. The red hot charcoal is drizzled with oil and it becomes smoky. It is then placed in the gravy and infused its aroma in the creamy dal Makhani. All the restaurant usually serve this style of Dal Makhani. This technique of adding the smoky effect to the gravy is called as a Dhungar method, also known as “charcoal smoking technique”. It is easy to follow this technique if you have charcoal at home. Yet, it is optional to infuse the smoky flavour in your dish, if you don’t want then skip using it. With the use of charcoal, you get the fantastic flavours and the fabulous fragrance from the dish.

Dhungar Method:

To infuse the smoky flavour in the Dal Makhani, follow the Dhungar Method. For the Dhungar Method, you would require preparing the Dal Makhani first with the above mentioned traditional method. In addition to that, you will need 1 small piece of charcoal and around ½ tsp. to 2/3 tsp. of oil.

If you are following the Dhungar method, then continue the recipe from where you stopped. In the last step, after you stir the cream, cover the pan and switch off the flame. But do not transfer the dal Makhani from pan to plate. Instead, cover the pan of the Dal Makhani and keep it aside for a while. Follow the procedure to get the smoky flavours and charcoal fragrance in your dish.

• Take the small piece of charcoal.
• Heat it over the flame and wait till lit becomes red hot.
• Evenly burn the charcoal piece with the help of a tong.
• Keep flipping it till it becomes red from all the sides.
• Take a small bow which can resist heat, and keep this charcoal piece in ti.
• Drizzle ½ tsp. of oil over this heated and burned charcoal piece.
• Immediately hold this bowl having a charcoal piece and place it over the top of Dal Makhani. (You can also place directly in the gravy or over the pan).
• Cover the pan with the bowl of charcoal for a minute. (It is fine if do not cover the bowl of charcoal. If you want, you can cover the bowl with a cloth and keep it in gravy.)
• This way, the charcoal would infuse its smoky flavours it’s the Dal Makhani.
• Wait for a minute or more till the aroma and flavours have been incorporated in the gravy.
• Remove the cloth from the bowl and take the bowl from the pan.
• And the dal Makhani is all set to be served.

Smoked Paprika Method:

You can also infuse the smoky flavour in the Dal Makhani using the smoked paprika method. For that, you need ½ tsp. of smoked paprika along with ½ tsp. of Kashmiri red chilli powder. You can keep the proportion of red chilli powder or dry red chillies from ¼ to ½ tsp. based on your desired preference of taste.  The proportion of both the smoked paprika and red chilli powder can be varied depending on the flavour of your choice.  You can use ¼ tsp. of smoked paprika and ½ tsp. or ¼ tsp. of red chilli powder as well. Whatever ratio you choose, add the lesser one first. If you want more smokiness, then consider adding more paprika.

Dabha Style Dal Makhani Recipe:

The famous Punjabi dish, Dal Makhani is very popular food among the people of India. It is widely available in various restaurants, small food shops and the Dabha. The basic way to prepare the traditional dal Makhani recipe is same but there is a little twist in the Dabha style preparation.

• You have to wash and soak the lentils overnight.
• Then pressure cook the lentils, drain the water and again put back to the cooker.
• Mix the tomato puree with whole spices and spice powder.
• Pour in 4 cups of water and add cream.
• Pressure cook everything on high flame.

Little Variation for Pressure Cooking Lentils:

While you are pressure cooking the lentils, add around 1 cup of milk after few whistles. If you are waiting for 20 whistles, then you can pour milk after 15 whistles and then again wait for the remaining whistles.

This will improve the taste of the Dal Makhani as well it would also enhance the texture of the dish. With the use of milk, there be a reduced requirement of adding cream in the gravy. We add cream to give the creamier texture to the curry, but the addition of milk will itself do that to a great extent.

How to Cook Lentils in a Pot?

If for some reasons, you do not want to pressure cook the Rajma and Dal, then you can use pot as well.

• Take a cooking pot filled with water and place it on the stove.
• Switch on the flame and cover the pot till the lentils are cooked.
• You must use fresh, washed, cleaned and soaked lentils.
• It would take around 1 hour for dal and Rajma to soften in the pot.
• Make sure there is not bite in the lentils after they are cooked.
• Once tender, remove them from the pot and either drain the stock or keep the stock.
• Follow the rest of the procedure same as above recipe to make Dal Makhani.