How to make Dal Makhani - Restaurant Style Recipe

The Punjabi cuisine is a large one, from vegetarian dishes to those of non-vegetarian dishes they have everything ready to be served in a platter. Punjabi are known foodie and food lover and have a huge consumption of ghee (clarified butter), butter, milk and cream in their food. Starting from that of Lassi (Sweet Curd) to that of Paneer Dishes and are mostly best famous around the world for their Butter Chicken recipe.

A punjabi will pour ghee or butter in their food items from top even if the food is cooked in ghee or butter. They are also known for inventing lot of dishes and one of them is dal makhani or dal makhni. Dal Makhni is also known as Maa Ki Dal and the story behind this dates back to centuries when ladies mostly were housewives, the story says that some left over dal and rajma was re-cooked by the mother of the house, adding some tadka (spices) and could be eaten with rice or roti (Indian breads).

As we evolved so did this food item (though the main ingredients used are urad dal or black gram / lentil, rajma or kidney beans, khare masala or whole spices, butter, ghee or clarified butter, milk and fresh cream), today Dal Makhani is a delicacy among both non-vegetarians and vegetarians, you will find it in almost all restaurants who specializes in serving north Indian dishes. Even lot of street food vendors are selling their less costly version of Dal Makhani. Some close version of Dal Makni are Dal Bukhara & Dal Tadka.

Today we will learn how to make this delicious dal makhni or dal makhani dish in our home, this a restaurant style recipe friends but I will show you the quicker formats as in restaurants dal makhani are slow cooked for hours and hours over charcoal. Let's Begin....

Steps along-with Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup Kali Urad Dal (Black Lentil)
  
• 3 to 4 tsp Rajma (Kidney Beans)

Soak them overnight or for minimum 12 hours.

• Add 2 tsp Salt

Pressure cook it on high flame for 5 whistles.

Then cook for 20 to 25 minutes on low flame.

On the other side

• Heat up a pan
  
• Add 5 tbsp ghee (clarified butter)
• Add 2 tbsp refine oil (sunflower oil)

Once oil is heated.

• Add 1 tsp sahi jeera (black cumin)
• Add 4 - 5 lehsun (cloves of garlic) finely chopped

Cook for 2 to 4 minutes.

• Add 1/2 tsp jeera powder (cumin powder)
• Add 1 tsp dhania powder (coriander powder)
  
• Add 1/2 tsp garam masala
• Add 2 tsp red chilly powder
• Add 1 tbsp besan (gram flour)

Mix well and cook for 3 to 4 minutes.

• Add 1 cup tomato puree (you can make this at home or use the ready made available in the market)
• Add 1/2 tsp gol mirch powder (black pepper powder)
• Add salt - to taste (remember we had added salt while boiling the urad dal, thus add little)

Cook for 10 to 15 minutes or until the gravy starts releasing oil (you will see oil getting separated from the gravy).

• Add 2 tsp freshly chopped dhania patta (coriander leaf)

Stir and mix well for 2 to 3 minutes.

• Add 4 to 5 tbsp fresh cream

Stir again for a minute and then.

• Add the boiled Urad Dal (Black Lentil) and Rajma (Kidney Beans)
• Add 400 ml water
• Add 100 ml milk
• Add 50 grams of butter

Cook in medium flame for 25 to 30 minutes or more.

Once color of the dal slowly changes from reddish brown to blackish brown and the gravy becomes a little thick.

Take it out in a big bowl which has a lid to cover.

Take a katori (small bowl), put a burning charcoal in it and pour some ghee on the charcoal

Quickly put this katori inside the big bowl, (let it float on top of the dal, do not dip it) cover the lid.

Keep it for 2 to 3 minutes (This will add a tandoori, charcoal flavour to the Dal Makhani, just like those made in restaurants).

Done, ready to be eaten with rice or naan or other Indian breads. Spray or sprinkle some fresh cream along with a spoon full of butter and coriander leafs before serving, accompanied by some sliced onions and green chilly.

I prefer to have my Dal Makhni with rumali roti, do let me know in the comment section what do you prefer to have your Dal Makhani with.

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