Dal Makhani, a popular Indian dal recipe is also known as maa ki dal, as I discovered recently. This is my least favourite dal dish to order in a restaurant and I am yet to eat a good dal makhani in any restaurant except maybe Sahib Sindh Sultan who does do a pretty good dal makhani that even I can agree to order sometimes. Note: Check out another version of dal makhani recipe here.Ironically, my mom doesn’t cook this so this isn’t really maa ki dal to me. We are South Indians for whom dal doesn’t form part of a typical meal and though amma cooks an occasional rajma masala or paneer tikka masala, dal makhani is too foreign to us and never really occurred to her to try and cook, I guess.
Her daughter, obviously, loves to take on more than she can chew sometimes (literally!) and takes pleasure in experimenting on never-before-cooked recipes especially when she has guests. I most often mess up on my most tried and tested recipes when I have guests (is it the pressure or is it the expected behaviour, I can never tell).
Anyway, dal makhani has been on the back of my head forever and I recently got a bag of whole black lentils (whole black urad dal) and I decided to try it on an evening we had a young North Indian couple. Brave, aren’t I? 😉
This is a milder version of the dish as I was serving it with spiced up vegetable pulao. I also avoided the cream that is usually an essential ingredient for this recipe.
Dal Makhani Recipe
(Serves 4)Ingredients:
1/2 cup whole ural dal (black lentils), soaked overnight
4 tbsp rajma (red kidney beans), soaked overnight with the dal
1 onion, chopped fine
1 tomato, chopped fine
2-3 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 tbsp ginger-garlic paste
1/2 tsp cumin seeds (jeera)
1 tsp garam masala
1/2 tsp red chilly powder
2 dried red chillies
2 tbsp milk
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp oil
SaltHow to make Dal Makhani:
1. Heat oil in a pressure cooker and saute onions till transparent. Add salt, chilly powder and the ginger-garlic pasted and fry for a minute.
2. Next, add the chopped tomatoes and cook for a few minutes so that the mixture combines well together. Add the lentils and beans, and enough water to just cover them. Pressure cook for 3-4 whistles. Remove from fire and set aside.
3. Once the pressure leaves the cooker, keep it on a low fire. Add the milk and bring to boil. Keep it on sim and let it boil while preparing to temper it.
4. Heat the butter and oil in a pan and throw in the cumin seeds. Once they start spluttering, add the chopped garlic and the red chillies each torn into 3 pieces. Fry until the garlic starts browning and smelling lovely.
5. Remove the dal from fire and add the tempered butter-oil directly to it. Follow immediately with garam masala and mix well. Adjust salt.
Serve with warm rotis, naan or an easy veg pulao.
It’s one of my fave north indian recipes and the easiest too. Am unfortunately a mallu who knows to cook more north indian food than south indian coz my north indian hubby is the one who introduced me to the working area of the kitchen. Thanks to you all food bloggers am learning to master the art of south indian recipes too. Hats off to u!!!
I know! Most of our southie moms do not experiment much about other cuisine. My mom made one Greenpeas Korma North Indian style and that’s about it! ;D
We younger generation are much more experimental and it’s great to taste other cuisines even though nobody can beat mom’s tasty south Indian cooking! :))
I love Dal Makhani too, looks great there. Glad you are not scared to add butter which makes it real Makhnai indeed. Good one. Hugs, have a great weekend.
hey Nags, nice and diff color of Dal Makhani.
Please check out your another blog…I have asked you for help.
Thanks.
I have been waiting to try this recipe for a long time. Looks rich and creamy nags.
Wow droolworthy….Never tasted this before. Bookmarked will try this sometime soon.
I love Dal Makhani.. I remember making this the rustic way when I was back in college.. I cooked it in an earthen pot overnight on coals on my terrace..
Kept stirring it and adding pats of butter occasionally.. It was pretty thick and potent by morning, but it tasted simply fantastic..
Thanks for posting your recipe. Cheers!
Dal Makhani looks unique..i love to experiment this since am sure this is my kinda taste..Looks awesome and spicy even though you have omitted the cream part..(yes you are truly brave..I cant attempt like this for sure)
Meeta – I checked out your recipe, will surely try it next time 🙂
I would say there is quite a food border between North and South India. Again, it depends on the family and their tolerance to ‘foreign’ food. My mom was more into baking and experimenting there so she didn’t experiment too much with North Indian dishes beyond rajma and paneer and stuff. This she definitely didn’t make. Not that we have anything against it, it just doesnt occur to us 🙂
She makes a mean channa batura though.
i always loved creamy dal! You have to try my ma di dal (recipe on blog) I am sure you will like it as it really is from my maa! Is it really such a food border south and north? i know the food is very different but being north indian i know my family eat a lot of south indian food!
The first two paragraphs are ditto for me too!
I hated dhal makhani when I first tasted it in some restaurant(south Indian),as they served it as one of the default side for Naan(I think)…
But when I tasted in a better north Indian one,I really loved the creamy taste! And once I tasted in my North Indian friend’s home too,I liked very much!
Still I dont make this often coz,as my family dont have much love towards it,and y I should try to put on more weight?!:D
even without cream,this colour has come out great for your dish!! Hope your guests had a great time 🙂