IN SEARCH OF THE PERFECT DAAL MAKHANI

Certain dishes leave an indelible impression on you, so much so that you crave for the same experience, everytime you eat the dish. Some set on a pursuit to find a restaurant that can guarantee them that experience, while some, (like me) undertake the challenge of appeasing their taste buds by replicating the flavors on my own - in my very own kitchen.

I fell in love with 'Dal Makhani' (DM) ever since I had it at a restaurant last year. Now, DM has become comfort food for me. This week I finally got down to trying it on my own. I read many DM recipes on the Internet. I didn't follow any particular recipe to the dot, but picked up ideas from all over. Here is my version, which turned out to my liking, except that it was a tad too hot for me.

Pre-Prep:

• Soak whole urad dal and rajma (red kidney beans) overnight. I measured the urad dal and then threw in some rajma.
• Pressure cook the dals. I added salt while pressure cooking. I also dropped in a couple of bay leaves, a black cardamom, a cinnamon stick and a few cloves while pressure cooking, so that their flavors would be nicely absorbed by the dals.

For the puree:

• Grind tomatoes-ginger-garlic-green chillies to a fine paste.

Procedure:

• Heat oil for tadka. Add heeng, mustard seeds, jeera seeds when the oil is hot.
• Saute finely chopped onions when the seeds start crackling.
• Once the onions are done, add the puree and saute it till its cooked.
• Add pepper powder, anardana powder, some turmeric powder and red chilli poowder (optional)
• Add the dal and mash it slightly. Mix well.
• Add water, salt (if necessary) and allow the mixture to simmer.
• Add some milk and simmer for a bit.
• Garnish with chopped coriander and a dollop of butter. I also used some chopped spring onions for the garnishing.

Tip:

• Remove the whole masalas from the dal once it is cooked, else, their flavor can be over powering.
• Be careful with the spice. I used 4 ingredients (green chillies, pepper powder, red chilli powder and cloves) and a bit too much of the pepper powder.