The recipe of Dal Makhani Indian Food is a restaurant variant with a fine smoky aroma and creamy lentils. If you like real Punjabi food, you will love this Dal Makhani even more.
Dal Makhani is one of the most popular recipes for Punjabi lentils in Northern India, made from whole black lentils and beans (known in Hindi as Rajma). For this recipe I used a pressure cooker to cook lentils.
Why this recipe works
Before I list and explain the beauty of this recipe of indian food, I would like to tell you that this recipe of Dal Makhani is one of our most popular and beloved recipes on the blog. It is also my most popular recipe on social networking sites. So what makes this recipe so good and why it is one of Dal Makhani’s best recipes.
Whole spices Indian Food
Fragrant whole spices make this Dal Makhani more fragrant. One day I found a black cardamom and a carnation in her Makhani. I thought that maybe it was a black cardamom and a carnation that gave this beautiful taste and spice.
After that I tested the Makhani many times by adding whole spices and I realized that they really give the dish a good and light taste. The added amount of butter and cream is small and sufficient to make the dish juicy. You can still cook Dal Makhani with less butter and cream. Just remember to cook longer at low heat for real pleasure.
Slow cooking Indian Food
The more Makhani is cooked on a slow fire, the more delicious it is. In most Indian restaurants that specialize in authentic North Indian cuisine, the Dal Makhani is cooked on a low flame for nights or hours. Mostly this can be described as slow cooking of lentils. This slow cooking is very important for the consistency of the lentils.
The lentils are cooked in the Tandoor on a slow fire. Tandoor is a cylindrical kiln made of clay. Fire in tandoor comes from burning coals or firewood. The nightly cooking dal makhani gives the dish the smoke of charcoal or charcoal. You will not find tandoor in most Indian houses. But you will easily find the pressure cooker.
The fastest way to cook lentils indian food is in the pressure cooker. In this article I used a pressure cooker, but you can also cook lentils in a pressure cooker. I cooked lentils and beans in a pressure cooker for about 30 minutes. Later I cooked them for 25 minutes in a slow fire. You can cook on a slow fire longer than I can. Slow cooking makes the lentils viscous, creamy, and the end result is makhani that licks your fingers.
Preparation of Daal Makhni Indian Food
- Soak both Urad and Rajma for the night with enough water for 8-9 hours or overnight. Let them drain well later.
- Rinse both lenses a few times with water.
- Drain again and then put them into the 3 liter pressure cooker. Add water and mix well.
- Cook under pressure from 18 to 20 pipes on high fire until both Urad and Rajma are fully cooked and soft. If they are not boiled, add a glass of water again, for example ½ and boil 4-5 pipes more.
- Rajma should melt on the tongue and not resist the food. You can also simply stretch Urad with a spoon or fingers to check the degree of boiling. The same rule applies to Rajma. Leave the cooked beans aside.
- Take the sliced tomatoes in a blender or blender stick and stir them into a homogeneous paste. Set it aside.
- You can also add 1 jar of tomato puree instead of mixing the tomatoes. You do not need to blanch the tomatoes for the mashed potatoes.
The manufacturer gave the Makhani
- Heat the oil in the pan. You can use salted or unsalted oil.
- Add whole spices – cumin, cloves, green cardamom, black cardamom, 1 inch of cinnamon, 1 small or medium pat.
- Fry for a few seconds until the spices start to splash and smell.
- Add finely chopped onions.
- Stir-fry the onion often and fry over low or medium heat until it turns lightly golden brown.
- Add ginger and garlic paste. Stir again and fry for a few seconds until the fresh ginger and garlic taste has disappeared.
- Add the sliced green chilli pepper and fry for one minute.
- Then add the cooked tomato puree and stir well.
- Add red chili powder and 2-3 pinches of grated nutmeg or nutmeg powder.
- Stir very well and fry this mixture over low or medium heat until the fat comes out on the sides.
- Then add the cooked Urad Dal and Rajma beans together with the broth. Also add 1 glass of water or as needed.
Slow cooking
- Stir very well and extinguish dal mahani without lid at low heat.
- Continue stirring frequently so that the lentils do not stick to the bottom of the pan.
- As soon as it begins to thicken, add salt if necessary.
- Stir well and continue cooking over low heat. Continue stirring when the lentils are extinguished over a slow fire.
- Add more water at low heat if the sauce looks thick or dry. The longer you cook dal mahani, the better it tastes.
- I have kept it on a low flame for about 25 minutes. Keep stirring it at certain intervals.
- When the sauce is thick enough, add the cream. Do not give the mahani too thick and not too thin. It has an average consistency.
- Mix the cream very well. Then put the fire out.
- Add shredded methy kasuri (dried fenugreek leaves). Mix again.
- Cover dal mahani and put it aside when you change to the Dzungar method. Or you can serve the dal mahani immediately.
Dungar method
- Heat a small piece of charcoal on the fire until it is red. Turn the charcoal further with the tongs so that it burns evenly.
- Keep the hot coal in a small bowl.
- Pour ½ teaspoon of oil over hot charcoal.
- Place this bowl immediately over the Dal Mahana.
- Cover with the lid for one minute and let the coal dissolve in the Dalmah. Remove the bowl. Mix it again.
- Serve Punjabi Dal Mahani with sliced coriander leaves (coriander) and a few teaspoons of cream decorated with naan, mouth, paratha or cooked rice.
Notes
Cooking in a pot or pan: Put soaked black grams, beans and 3-4 glasses of water in a large pot. Cover with the lid and cook over medium heat until lentils and beans are soft. Add water if necessary. If the beans are cooked in a pot, this may take 45 minutes to 1 hour.
Soak: Soak the beans overnight or for 8-9 hours. Soaking reduces the content of phytic acid in them, which leads to stomach upset and flatulence. Soaking also helps the beans cook faster.
Rinse: Wash the soaked beans in water a few times before cooking. Then drain all the water and boil the beans in fresh water.
Boil: When soaking the beans and lentils, the cooking time is reduced considerably by 25%. You can then prepare the soaked beans in a pan, pressure cooker or pressure cooker.
Freshness: Beans and lentils must be fresh and not seasoned. Beans that are too old, or beans that are past their sell-by date, take longer to cook and may not be cooked well enough to melt the texture on the tongue. Non-beans also cause stomach upset.
Tomatoes: Tomatoes are an important ingredient in this recipe. You can also use canned tomatoes or packed tomato puree (1 cup). For fresh tomatoes, you can choose between sweet and ripe varieties. Do not add very sour or tart tomatoes.
Dungar method: The smoking method can be skipped if you do not have charcoal. If you have smoked chilies, use them instead of red bell pepper powder in the recipe to give the dish a slightly smoky taste.
Replacements
Lenses: Use shredded urad dal with husks or beluga lenses (black lenses), whole red lenses (masur dal) and whole moon lenses. All these lenses will have a different taste and cooking time.
Whole spices: Replace whole spices with ½ teaspoon of powder garam masala. Add powder to the garam masala at the stage of adding Kasuri-methy (dried methy leaves). Add ½ teaspoonfuls of curry powder if you do not have Garam Masala.
Fresh tomatoes: Use canned tomatoes or packaged tomato puree (1 cup) instead of fresh tomatoes. You may need to add a little more water, as packed tomato puree is usually thick.
Degreased cream: Use light cream or cream in half. If you use fat cream, add 2 tablespoons.
Dried fenugreek leaves: skip if you do not have them.
Charcoal: Use smoked pepper or mori pepper, this is jalapeno. They are smoked in a different way, which gives them a fresh charcoal taste.
Your meal is ready pack it in a Packaging Box
Nutritional values Approximate values
Calories: 308 kcal, carbohydrates: 35 g, proteins: 13 g, fats: 13 g, saturated fats: 8 g, cholesterol: 35 mg, sodium: 433 mg, potassium: 353 mg, fiber: 12 g, sugar: 4 g, vitamin A: 987 IU, vitamin B 1 (thiamine), vitamin A: vitamin D: 1 mg, vitamin E: 1 mg, vitamin K: 7 mg, calcium: 61 mg, vitamin B9 (folic acid): 60 mg, iron: 4 mg, magnesium: 31 mg, phosphorus: 77 mg, zinc: 1 mg.
