Dal Makhani (Mughlai Style) - Simple Recipe

Prerna Garg
Jan 30, 2016
3 min read

Dal makhani is my absolute favourite. I can eat it every single day. I am glad I can cook so many Indian/Mughlai dishes in my own kitchen. It's not like there are not many Indian restaurants in the bay area, but there are very few who have that perfect Dal Makhani on their menus.

I had been trying to cook dish that has whole black lentils and red beans cooked in rich, creamy gravy. After trying to get the recipe right, I finally made that perfect looking Dal Makhani. And, now it has become such a staple in your house. I make it all the time - whenever I feel like eating something nice.

Here is a step-by-step recipe of Dal Makhani. I have even mentioned the mistakes that I (and in general all of us make) had been making while cooking this dal after trying recipes from various food websites and using various Dal Makhani masalas that you get in the market.

Ingredients:

3/4 cup Black Gram (Urad Dal)
1/4 cup Kidney Beans (Rajma)
Water for soaking and then pressure-cooking
1 medium onion - chopped
1 green chilli - chopped
6-7 garlic buds - roughly chopped
1/2 inch piece of ginger - roughly chopped
2 large tomatoes - roughly chopped
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds (jeera)
2 cloves (laung)
3 green cardamoms (chotti elaichi)
1 black cardamom (badi elaichi)
2 black pepper - whole (kaali mirch)
1 inch cinnamon (dal chini)
1 medium bay leaf (tej pata)
1/2 tea spoon red chilli powder
2 pinches of nutmeg powder (jayfal)
I teaspoon oil
2 tablespoon butter
1/2 teaspoon dried fenugreek leaves (kasuri methi)
1 tablespoon cream
Salt as required

Method:

Soak the dal and the rajma:

Wash the urad dal and rajma thoroughly in water and then soak them overnight in enough water. The idea is to let them stay in water for at least 7-8 hours so that the dal and rajma absorb enough water. Drain them well later.

Pressure cook the dal and rajma:

Drain them well and then add these to a pressure cooker, add salt and water. Then pressure cook them for about 15-18 whistles so that the dal and rajma cook really well and become tender. If the dal doesn't seem cooked enough, add some more water and cook for another 2-3 whistles.

Prepare the tomato paste:

In a blender, add the tomatoes, chopped ginger, garlic buds, green chilli, cumin seeds, green cardamoms, black cardamom, cinnamon piece, cloves, bay leaf and pinch of nutmeg and grind to paste.

To get a pinch of nutmeg, dip the tip of nutmeg in water and grate it a little. Only a few pinches of nutmeg are sufficient for taste. The first time I used nutmeg, I ground the whole seed and added all the powder to my dish and it was such a disaster.

Sauté the paste:

In a deep pan/non-stick karahi, heat oil. Add the chopped onion till they become slightly golden brown in colour. Add the tomato-masala paste to the pan and let it sauté till the paste starts to leave oil on the side. Add red chilli powder.

Add the dal:

Once the tomato paste in the pan starts to leave oil, add the pressure-cooked dal to the pan. Keep the flame on simmer and let the dal cook in the sautéed tomato-masala. The consistency of the dal needs to be neither too thick and nor too thin so add water as required. I added about a cup of water.

Cook the dal:

On a low flame, cook the dal uncovered. Add the butter and mix as the butter starts to melt in the dal. Since we added some salt to the dal while pressure-cooking it, taste the salt to check if more salt is needed. Add kasuri methi.

A lot of recipes call for the Dal Makhani to be cooked over low flame for longer period of time. However, I usually do not cook it for more than half an hour on low flame otherwise it becomes overcooked and doesn't taste well. For me, half an hour of cooking on low flame is more than sufficient to get the desired taste.

Take the dal off the flame, garnish with cream (beat the cream with a fork to get the 'whipped-cream' feel) and coriander leaves.